School practices becoming more NT oriented?

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Just saw two articles that are disturbing:

"Northern Lebanon School District students in Pennsylvania must smile while walking the hallways at the institution or they will be punished."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/students-not-smiling-school-punished-135527250.html

One kindergarten student is made to welcome others by maintaining eye-contact, shaking hands, smiling, and sometimes - hugging.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Morning-routine-starts-day-on-right-foot--483579291.html

The first article is really weird, the second one is "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." I just can't help but think both will get atypicals ostracized against more in school. Plus, NT kids will pick up more readily on the kid being different and start to bully him. The kindergarten "tradition" would've given me an anxiety attack.

This is disturbing well beyond its autism unfriendliness. They are teaching the kids to lie, that there are negative consequences for not covering up any unhappiness in their lives.

Wow that is honestly sick, what are they thinking?! What good would that do? I think that instead they should start to teach children about autism and other diagnoses and mental illnesses in school for better understanding and as a way to prevent bullying which often stems from misunderstanding of people who are different. I feel offended just looking at those articles.

Has school ever been neuro diverse friendly?
Isnt it the exact definition of conformity?

One school or district may be a sign of things to come or

Not.
I’ve been in Secondary Education for 18 + years.

Finding a place to be real - is priceless.

Mine didn’t start until college.
The mask & the smile came off.
It came on not because of school, but the chameleon part of me.
I’m not OK
Your not OK
& That is OK.

Life is not always fair or fun
Said this Level 1

School's always been that way. But, it would be disturbing if school systems are going in a "shiny happy people" or "appear happy and NT or else" way.

It may be how schools are looking to counteract the rise in school shootings thinking "out of sight, out of mind" would improve things, but it'd only lead to more kids feeling isolated and being singled out.

Unsure, even though I am liberal, if it's liberals or extremist christians pushing for these kinds of new routines.

They encourage children to be more expressive meaning to be more themselves. Isn’t this going against that idea?

All these things are Meltdowbs waiting to happen

Mr. Mac

Are you referring to the
You Be You campaign in some schools.

Meltdowns are expressed in many ways not always physical. Some just quietly sit down. ( sometimes not in the safest place or time in the school day)

Still to old to know it all.

I am referring to You be You.

But as for the second just me being tongue-in-cheek about the situation

Although I use humor I don’t always recognize it.

Thanks.

WTF? Why on Earth does anyone think this is a good idea???

In some ways they accommodate too much, in some ways, not at all. The result is a seriously dumbed-down student body and more bullying. Forcing interaction sounds horrible. I think it would be better to help a child find an extracurricular activity based on interests and help children make friends that way.

If you don't smile, you will have to discuss your problems with a school counselor.

If you refuse to discuss your problems, you will receive detention.

And yet nothing is being done about the bullying at the Northern Lebanon School District, where you will be punished for not smiling.

"The beatings will continue until morale improves." -- attributed to an anonymous Japanese Submarine Force Commander during WWII.

It's a pointless way to deal with bullying, but I don't think these schools are enlightened enough to even see it as potentially being an NT v. ND issue. Based on the responses here, I thought the schools were specifically forcing autistic students to do this. You will have to make eye contact, smile, and say hi if you want to be employed. Civilization is basically the process of forcing people to pretend they like each other when they don't.

It was like this in special ed growing up. In pre school I attended a school for kids with developmental delays and disabilities. We all had to say "May I please have" while rubbing our chests during snack time and if we didn't, we didn't get the snack and the teacher would go around the table and then go back to you again and you had to say the line.

If you also didn't chew your food properly, the teacher would make you spit it out in the napkin and you didn't have that snack anymore for the rest of snack time.

But I don't remember any normal rules being enforced in regular ed. They were only enforced in special ed. In my special ed classroom when I was 6 and 7, we were not allowed to say poop or pee or potty, we had to say bathroom.

I remember reading that kids in special education are more behaved than "normal" kids because they enforce the rules on them and etiquette and manners. In my case it was the opposite behavior wise because we all mimicked each other and it reinforced it in me. But that was because the teacher didn't enforce it well in us to behave and assumed we didn't know any better. Then at the end of the year it became, "do you do this at home?" because I believe it was my mother that got her attention that her students were mimicking other students in that class because she told her I don't do that at home and I believe that is acceptable behavior at school. It was also an eye opening for my mother that I needed to be out of that class and it was affecting me and would hold me back and I needed to be in regular classes all the time where kids can model good behavior at their appropriate level.


But in my pre school class, we all acted a lot better because the teacher made us act appropriate regardless of our cognitive level. She would make rules and enforce them. A kid that couldn't act appropriate had an extra teacher with them and would work with that kid and they were not there long so they might have been a visitor in the classroom and were learning appropriate behavior through us so that was why they were there so we would model it.

This reminds me of my early elementary experiences. I used to be forced to keep my hands still. I also had to make eye contact. There was a rule that in the hallway you had your hands by your side and your lips zipped. Some days I couldn't do either of those things. I got punished. I moved schools in grade 4 though. My other school was much more autism friendly. My high school is also really good. There is a lot of support.