We wanted to share this wonderful opinion piece from the San Francisco Chronicle with you– one woman’s experience of having been a student with undiagnosed ADHD from her current perspective as someone who has been diagnosed with ADHD and has a child who has been diagnosed with it, too. Please read this excerpt, then click the link below for the full article. And if you notice anything that rings familiar about a “troublemaker” in your life– we hope you will look into evaluation for ADHD.
I’ve never forgotten this moment from third grade: I’m standing by the doorway of a classroom from which I’ve been banished, defiantly making wild faces at a friend.
Suddenly, I catch the teacher’s eye, and see she’s staring right back at me. With loathing.
Granted, no one put handcuffs on my skinny biceps, as was done at a Covington, Ky., elementary school to two young children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court earlier this month.
“Ow, that hurts!” shouts one of the kids, an 8-year-old boy identified only as S.R., on a video, which went viral, taken by school personnel.
“You can do what we ask you to or you can suffer the consequences,” scolds the school security officer, towering over him. The boy remained handcuffed for 15 minutes, according to the plaintiffs.
So perhaps I was lucky. My memory doesn’t feature handcuffs or threats. Still, I’ve carried my third-grade teacher’s expression in my heart well into my sixth decade — and 12 years after being diagnosed myself with ADHD. Most kids have mixed feelings about the end of summer. But when you throw in ADHD, the mix can get dark.