A rough day and an unacceptedly mean teacher

Posted on May 1, 2012 by RuthieP

I had a rough day of tics yesterday, and I was yelping loudly and jerking my body pretty violently in a good majority of my classes. It was a long, long day and not a very fun one. I only have three more days left of official classes as a senior at my high school, and I have SOOOO much work — tests, projects, essays, exams and much more.

It is a very stressful time, so no wonder my tics are bad right now. To make matters worse, I had an incident with one of my teachers (Ms. P) that made me feel very self-conscious and frustrated.

Ms. P is very, very strict and gets mad when people try to leave to go to the bathroom during class. In my specialized learning plan, though, it specifies that if I need to leave the room when I am having a lot of tics that I can – no questions asked.

Sometimes my tics just get really bad in class and I need to walk around, get a drink of water and/or go somewhere to really let my tics out. The problem is that Ms. P is just so used to me yelping and jerking in class that I think she must have forgotten about this accommodation. Continue reading →

Leveling the playing field

Posted on January 3, 2012 by HarryK

Up until the seventh grade, I had been the perfect “A” student for my entire life. I always had the top test grades, best class participation and the teachers loved me. However, once I was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, I found that all of these qualities were slowly slipping away.

As the “accelerated level” and “honors” courses became available to me, there was a drastic change of pace and level of difficulty. The rigorous work, combined with me coping with my Tourette Syndrome in class, became a struggle. My grades dropped, I lacked attention in class and the teachers began to notice it.

I missed important things that the teachers were saying, which before I had no problem with. I felt that there was no way out, and that Tourette’s had taken over. I was ready to raise the white flag.

After getting the first “C” in my life on a report card, panic began to set in for my mom, who was about to become my biggest advocate. Being still young at the time and unsure of my situation, she went into school and met with my teachers to talk to them about what was going on.

Being mostly unaware at the time of the several accommodations that the state makes available to us in school, she mainly sought a middle ground and understanding with my teachers. Continue reading →

College student’s 504 plan helped get her through high school

Posted on December 16, 2011 by AlissaJ

This entry from AlissaJ originally was posted on the TSParentsOnline blog in response to the Finding The Right Balance With School Can Be Stressful entry. Please welcome her to Teens4TS, as she’ll be posting here from now on!

Hi, I’m Alissa and I’m a sophomore in college. I was diagnosed with TS late compared to others (eighth grade). When I first was diagnosed, I was very embarrassed and refused to go to school for a week. By the time I got to high school, school started becoming extremely difficult.

What helped me most was vocalizing. I arranged for a 504, which made me able to have extended time on exams and projects. This helped a lot. I also was able to have many class absences without being penalized so I could stay home on bad tic days. Most schools are able to accommodate you very well. I was also very friendly with the school nurse. She made it easy for me by letting me rest there when I was tired from my tics or if I just needed a break from class.

Lastly, in my high school freshman year English class I wrote a paper about TS and had a friend read it aloud to the class. The paper was then published in the school’s “journal” for anyone to read. This really helped me because I didn’t feel I needed to hide my tics anymore. I hope this helps!! If you need anymore help, you can e-mail me at alissadjuliana@gmail.com.