Allen was an extremely low special education student who struggled with his social skills. He was harmless, but he did cause frequent problems for himself (and us) by regularly calling others students 'gay.' This is inappropriate and requires correction from any student. However, it was particularly ironic in Allen's case because he was being raised by two gay women! That fact that Allen honestly didn't understand this should begin to paint a picture of his cognitive level.
One day Allen kept falling asleep during a test. Nothing seemed to be able to really wake him up. We sent him to the bathroom. We went and got him a snack. We let him go outside for fresh air. However as soon as he was back in his seat and working on his exam, he'd start to nod off again (I know what you're thinking, the test must have been about Common Core Standards, but I assure it wasn't anything that boring). We began to ask Allen the standard questions.
Teacher: What time did you get to bed?
Allen: 8:30 I think.
Teacher: Allen, why then are you so tired?
Allen: I don't know.
Teacher: Allen if you got that much sleep you shouldn't be this tired. Did you sleep good?
Allen (a little upset): Yeah, but I did get woken up in the middle of the night. Both my mom and Angela had a nightmare in the next bedroom and woke up screaming at the exact same time!
We let Allen take the rest of his test later and allowed him to sleep on the nurses cot. Usually we call home in instances where kids are too tired to function in school, but we just let this one go.
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