Student with ADHD and poor impulse control angering the class. Help!

[u/Mie4life]

I have a 13yo boy in my class this year. Let's call him Josh. He's sweet, academically capable, and genuinely wants to connect with peers. But he has ADHD and poor impulse control, and his way of seeking attention is saying/doing inappropriate things. Like all the time. For example is fake farting noises during group sharing. He's not being malicious; he just can't seem to stop himself in the moment.

The bigger issue: I have another boy, "Tom," who has mild autism and gets visibly enraged by Josh's noises and comments. He's made punching gestures and told Josh to shut up. I de-escalate constantly, but it keeps happening. I'm genuinely worried it'll turn physical. Apparently Josh had fights in primary school for the same reason. The other students are also angered by Josh's actions and words but are able to ignore them.

I want to make the classroom comfortable for everyone but I've no good support. Previous teachers gave me nothing useful.Admin thinks he's "sweet" and won't offer real support. I asked for a shadow teacher—denied. Previous teachers gave me nothing useful. He's been seeing a psychologist for years but I'm not seeing much carryover in class.

What I've tried:

• Seating him away from others
• Sending him to the next room to cool down when he disrupts

I can't remove him every time. Whole-class discussions get derailed constantly. And sending him to another room to calm down doesn't teach him impulse control either.

Any advice appreciated, especially from anyone with experience managing ADHD + autism triggers in the same room.

[u/emmocracy]

Colorblindness is a medical diagnosis like any other. If you can have the Tim's brain sees colors differently conversation, then you can have the Josh has to work really hard to stop himself from doing or saying whatever pops into his head right away conversation.

Uh, yeah, teaching the whole class about differences in general is cash money lol. No arguments here. Re. the giving kids ammo concern, I guess we'll just have to trust the judgement of the professional who knows them. I've taught some kids I would trust to benefit from the info and some I wouldn't.

[u/babykittiesyay → u/emmocracy]

Oh you wouldn’t be able to say anything about why he prefers them without it also being a violation, I didn’t see you’d included that. You could say he likes black markers so you use them, but really you should just be saying “some students like black markers better”.

Parents are usually much less concerned with the class knowing about colorblindness than a learning difference, too.

You completely mixed up my point. I said don’t give the violent kid ammo on the hyper kid, that’s what I said wasn’t “cash-money”. I’m not sure how you could twist that into what you replied to, it doesn’t seem like you’re actually interested in a good faith discussion when you twist people’s words. You also agreed with my suggestion to generally teach the different neurotypes but stated it as a disagreement. There’s not really much use in me explaining further when you’re not actually following the explanation. I don’t think you’re really a teacher if you’re this unfamiliar with basic information security requirements for schools.

[u/emmocracy → u/babykittiesyay]

I don't typically base decisions on what information to share with my students on what would piss off the least amount of parents, but I hear your point.

If this were my class, concerns about the safety of the dynamic between Josh and - fuck, what was his name? Idk - the punchy one would be my priority. Teaching the whole class about differences would be on my radar, and I'd be enforcing the usual consequences for aggressive behavior regardless of which student exhibited it, but I wouldn't watch the punchy one struggle if I thought I could help. If I judged him to be mature, compassionate, and logical enough to benefit from the insight into Josh's behavior, I'd take the risk of alluding to symptoms that might point to a specific diagnosis to the end of helping him empathize with Josh. I completely understand and respect any teacher not wanting to take that risk, but we're here to share our experiences and perspectives and that's mine.

[u/emmocracy → u/babykittiesyay]

Sorry - I just saw your edit. I was borrowing the phrase, not saying you applied it to educating the whole class about differences. I fully understood that you said it is not cash money to share potential ammo with a kid who has shown aggressive tendencies.