One Bad Apple.
The rules are, they need to be firm and not allow William to have so much control. She is allowing him in several ways to be in charge of the classroom. It seems to be if William's mother sent William to live with his father, then his mother should not have the final say on whether or not William gets special education services. This decision should now fall into his father's lap and if his father is worried that if he stays home to make sure William goes to school, he might lose his job then maybe he might be willing to sign papers allowing William to receive social education services. The school as a whole must take a stand both to William and to his father and say if William is to attend our school, this is what has to happen!.
What did you think about the way that Elaine spoke to the other students when William was absent(bottom of page 175)? .
Having a pre-planned classroom discussion is not a problem as long as William is present, or someone representing William, like William's dad, or even his mom for that matter. They might be able to give some insight to why he does the things he does and how the class could help William fit in to the class more sufficiently. Make William feel like part of the class, everything Elaine does seems to be placing William on a different playing field than the other students. William needs to be treated like any other student, the rules that apply to them, must also apply to him. William's belongings are his and I agree no one should touch his things with out permission, but not because they are afraid of him hurting them for doing so, but because no one should be touching other people's belong's without permission. As for the correcting him if he is wrong, again, there are ways you can correct him and still make him feel good. By allowing William to think he got an answer right when he did not, is wrong no matter how you look at it.