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Last week a student in my class was unusually badly behaved. I redirected him away from playing with scissors several times because I was afraid he might hurt someone with them. My attempts to reprimand him or discipline him were ineffective; he refused to respond when I confronted him about his behavior. I realized later after talking to my mentor that he had not taken his ADHD medication. My mentor contact the administration for support in handling the student, but they were not very helpful. The student behaved slightly better when the administrator was in the room, and returned to his original behavior when the administrator left. What steps do you take to handle a student who is on the edge of creating a very dangerous situation, but hasn't quite crossed the line?

The first thing to do would be take the scissors away from him so he did not hurt himself or someone else. Explain to him why you are doing it so he understands. At that age he will probably comply. Another thing is to look up ADHD and learn as much as possible about it and how to handle problems. Were his parents notified so they can be more careful about him getting his medication on time? ADHD children can channel their behavior if they are particularly interested in some subject. You might ask him to help you with the lesson if this is feasible.

While subbing in a first grade classroom, I had students playing with scissors too. It's pretty scary when you see little ones throwing scissors across the room. What I did was immediately change their cards to yellow because they have already learned to not play with scissors. If the children are on yellow by the end of the day, they get a note home and their parents have to sign the note. This was a good way of changing their behavior. I hope you were able to solve your behavior problems with this student!