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Autism Community
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Blame Edition Part III
by lsautism, Nov 29, 2008 10:18AM
Out of the 1,821,383 eligible children receiving special education services in PA. (PA Dept. of Education, Special Education Statistical Summary, 2006-2007, page 147).
Oh, and in Exeter school district from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, only 6 Due Process Hearings were filed; 5 were heard, 1 was withdrawn.
Four of the 5 that were heard were resolved with "agreements." (PA Dept of Education, Special Education Statistical Summary 2006-2007 - no page number given, please scroll down or "find" Exeter to confirm information)
Out of 648 children identified as eligible for and in receipt of special education services in Exeter schools. (Exeter Special Education report filed with the PA Dept of Education.)
So yeah, you can really tell we've given up even TRYING to work with the "poor, financially strapped districts" like Exeter, because we parents are filing all these Due Process hearing requests.
We parents also have all this money to hire an attorney to represent us. (Oh, what was that about Winkleman vs Parma and parents winning the ability to represent themselves pro se becase we CAN'T afford to hire attorneys, yet school districts CAN afford to spend OUR TAX DOLLARS to keep attorneys ON RETAINER or HIRE ONE just IN CASE a parent decides to challenge the school? Hmmm, I must be mistaken.)
And we have so much time to prepare and file all those LEGAL documents, gather expert witnesses, and prepare oral and written testimony just as if we were going to a "real" court trial, because it's not like this is a "real" court case anyway. Despite the fact that hearing officers CAN issue summary judgments and demand
restitution, just like "real judges."
Because we don't need to take our children to therapies or specialists in addition to what the school might offer. We don't have to spend more time helping them with their homework than we might our non-disabled children, children who also get all the love, time, and attention from us that they need; time that is not taken from them because a brother or sister with a disability is in the middle of a daily after-school meltdown. We don't have any additional family obligations or work obligations pressing upon us. We don't have to spend time researching and interpreting laws and trying to make sense of them, or trying to locate advocates for help. Nope, we have all the time in the world.
I suppose our children aren't "real" either.
And it's not the fact that we parents have to practically beg and plead the district on hands and knees for EVERY LITTLE THING or that Due Process is a LAST RESORT when our kids are denied necesssary services.
Nope, school districts do everything in their power and within their means to give us parents all that they can.
Like safe transportation to and from school or ANY transportation at all (Yeah, because I didn't have to call the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to file a complaint on our district when they REFUSED to transport my child because she has epilepsy and might have a seizure on the bus, therefore I must take her EVERY DAY.)
Like staff who are trained in our kids disabilities so we parents can send our kids to school safely and they can teach our kids in ways our kids can understand (You know, because my daughter really was "just" daydreaming or falling down because she's "just" a clutz, not because of seizures. Oh, and that behavior - totally "not
autistic" - because her teacher and the Dir. of Special Education don't think she "looks" autistic, so she must instead be "emotionally disturbed." And no, they didn't just conveniently ignore the multiple medical and psychological reports confirming her multiple disabilties, after all, they're TRAINED.)
Like a permanent nurse on staff in the school every day for more medically fragile kids (who have just as many, if not more, legal rights to be there as their non-disabled peers), rather than a "hit or miss" situation if their "roaming nurse" happens to be in another building during a medical emergency. ("But you're more than welcome to stay with her on the days the nurse can't be here.")
And no I didn't need to file a 20 page civil rights complaint against my district when she was abused in school by school staff, because they wouldn't DARE violate federal law. Because it NEVER happened. Honestly, her grandmother must have imagined those two aides holding her down in a chair by her arms, with them standing behind her, pushing her chair against a desk so hard and so far she could hardly breath and couldn't do more but kick and struggle to call for help,
and I must have imagined the finger-print-like red marks on her arms right after it "didn't happen."
Gee, wonder why we needed federal and state laws to specifically outline a district's obligations to kids with special needs in the first place? Wonder why there are Protection and Advocacy's and other Disability Rights organizations popping up, if there's no need? It couldn't have been because children with disabilities were being denied services or otherwise discriminated against, even abused, because schools are/were only trying to do the "right thing."
Here's a plea to districts like these:
"Puh-lease get over yourselves and YOUR delusions of selflessness. Stop acting like you deserve a gold medal just because YOU 'allow' our kids to step foot in your 'hallowed halls.'
It it YOU who should be honored that we trust you enough to "do right" by our kids; that we trust and expect you to give them the education, skills, and tools they need to function as best they can in society in a SAFE environment by staff who care for and about them; that WE send OUR kids to YOUR schools because of the wealth of knowledge YOU and your STAFF can gain by working with them, rather than 'around' them.
Not to mention the benefits all children, not just those with disabilities, could glean in return by spending time with children who are different from them, learning about and with them.
Who knows, maybe you could all even be better people because of them. If you given them a chance, that is."
My daughter attended one of your wonderful public schools in Southwestern PA, and you know what? She was abused by the very same people who told ME the same thing: "We're doing all we can." And then THEY filed for due process. And I represented myself pro se and got the hearing officer to toss the whole thing because they didn't provide the hearing officer with "sufficient information" and refused to "provide sufficient information."
Well, they were right about one thing, at least. They WEREN'T appropriate and refused to even try to BE appropriate.
Why would I want to put my straight A daughter, who had been in a general education classroom FULL TIME with few behavior problems who CAN LEARN, into any of your schools or any you recommend, when you've asked me to give you permission to restrain my child "at staff discretion?"
Because not having restraints written into her behavior plan or IEP with my signature on file allowing you to abuse her was what got you in trouble with the Dept of Ed in the first place.
There's a reason why I'm now homeschooling. "
To my readers: Please join me in writing to Heather Tassmer, the author of the original article, to ask for a follow up investigation -one that gives a more complete "view" of the situation; one that asks that the "other side" be heard. She can be reached by email at ***@**** or by phone at 610-367-6041, ext.225.
_____________________________________________________
Oh, and in Exeter school district from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, only 6 Due Process Hearings were filed; 5 were heard, 1 was withdrawn.
Four of the 5 that were heard were resolved with "agreements." (PA Dept of Education, Special Education Statistical Summary 2006-2007 - no page number given, please scroll down or "find" Exeter to confirm information)
Out of 648 children identified as eligible for and in receipt of special education services in Exeter schools. (Exeter Special Education report filed with the PA Dept of Education.)
So yeah, you can really tell we've given up even TRYING to work with the "poor, financially strapped districts" like Exeter, because we parents are filing all these Due Process hearing requests.
We parents also have all this money to hire an attorney to represent us. (Oh, what was that about Winkleman vs Parma and parents winning the ability to represent themselves pro se becase we CAN'T afford to hire attorneys, yet school districts CAN afford to spend OUR TAX DOLLARS to keep attorneys ON RETAINER or HIRE ONE just IN CASE a parent decides to challenge the school? Hmmm, I must be mistaken.)
And we have so much time to prepare and file all those LEGAL documents, gather expert witnesses, and prepare oral and written testimony just as if we were going to a "real" court trial, because it's not like this is a "real" court case anyway. Despite the fact that hearing officers CAN issue summary judgments and demand
restitution, just like "real judges."
Because we don't need to take our children to therapies or specialists in addition to what the school might offer. We don't have to spend more time helping them with their homework than we might our non-disabled children, children who also get all the love, time, and attention from us that they need; time that is not taken from them because a brother or sister with a disability is in the middle of a daily after-school meltdown. We don't have any additional family obligations or work obligations pressing upon us. We don't have to spend time researching and interpreting laws and trying to make sense of them, or trying to locate advocates for help. Nope, we have all the time in the world.
I suppose our children aren't "real" either.
And it's not the fact that we parents have to practically beg and plead the district on hands and knees for EVERY LITTLE THING or that Due Process is a LAST RESORT when our kids are denied necesssary services.
Nope, school districts do everything in their power and within their means to give us parents all that they can.
Like safe transportation to and from school or ANY transportation at all (Yeah, because I didn't have to call the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to file a complaint on our district when they REFUSED to transport my child because she has epilepsy and might have a seizure on the bus, therefore I must take her EVERY DAY.)
Like staff who are trained in our kids disabilities so we parents can send our kids to school safely and they can teach our kids in ways our kids can understand (You know, because my daughter really was "just" daydreaming or falling down because she's "just" a clutz, not because of seizures. Oh, and that behavior - totally "not
autistic" - because her teacher and the Dir. of Special Education don't think she "looks" autistic, so she must instead be "emotionally disturbed." And no, they didn't just conveniently ignore the multiple medical and psychological reports confirming her multiple disabilties, after all, they're TRAINED.)
Like a permanent nurse on staff in the school every day for more medically fragile kids (who have just as many, if not more, legal rights to be there as their non-disabled peers), rather than a "hit or miss" situation if their "roaming nurse" happens to be in another building during a medical emergency. ("But you're more than welcome to stay with her on the days the nurse can't be here.")
And no I didn't need to file a 20 page civil rights complaint against my district when she was abused in school by school staff, because they wouldn't DARE violate federal law. Because it NEVER happened. Honestly, her grandmother must have imagined those two aides holding her down in a chair by her arms, with them standing behind her, pushing her chair against a desk so hard and so far she could hardly breath and couldn't do more but kick and struggle to call for help,
and I must have imagined the finger-print-like red marks on her arms right after it "didn't happen."
Gee, wonder why we needed federal and state laws to specifically outline a district's obligations to kids with special needs in the first place? Wonder why there are Protection and Advocacy's and other Disability Rights organizations popping up, if there's no need? It couldn't have been because children with disabilities were being denied services or otherwise discriminated against, even abused, because schools are/were only trying to do the "right thing."
Here's a plea to districts like these:
"Puh-lease get over yourselves and YOUR delusions of selflessness. Stop acting like you deserve a gold medal just because YOU 'allow' our kids to step foot in your 'hallowed halls.'
It it YOU who should be honored that we trust you enough to "do right" by our kids; that we trust and expect you to give them the education, skills, and tools they need to function as best they can in society in a SAFE environment by staff who care for and about them; that WE send OUR kids to YOUR schools because of the wealth of knowledge YOU and your STAFF can gain by working with them, rather than 'around' them.
Not to mention the benefits all children, not just those with disabilities, could glean in return by spending time with children who are different from them, learning about and with them.
Who knows, maybe you could all even be better people because of them. If you given them a chance, that is."
My daughter attended one of your wonderful public schools in Southwestern PA, and you know what? She was abused by the very same people who told ME the same thing: "We're doing all we can." And then THEY filed for due process. And I represented myself pro se and got the hearing officer to toss the whole thing because they didn't provide the hearing officer with "sufficient information" and refused to "provide sufficient information."
Well, they were right about one thing, at least. They WEREN'T appropriate and refused to even try to BE appropriate.
Why would I want to put my straight A daughter, who had been in a general education classroom FULL TIME with few behavior problems who CAN LEARN, into any of your schools or any you recommend, when you've asked me to give you permission to restrain my child "at staff discretion?"
Because not having restraints written into her behavior plan or IEP with my signature on file allowing you to abuse her was what got you in trouble with the Dept of Ed in the first place.
There's a reason why I'm now homeschooling. "
To my readers: Please join me in writing to Heather Tassmer, the author of the original article, to ask for a follow up investigation -one that gives a more complete "view" of the situation; one that asks that the "other side" be heard. She can be reached by email at ***@**** or by phone at 610-367-6041, ext.225.
_____________________________________________________
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