WEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. (WSVN) — A local school is giving students with special needs the opportunity to go to college.
Florida International University started it’s Project Panther Life for intellectually disabled students. “It’s important for people to realize that an intellectual disability does not limit you from so many other things that you can do in your life” said a Liliana Demoya, a mother who helped start the program.
From our friend and fellow advocate Aaron Nangle of WaiverProvider.com.
APD Director Mike Hansen Gave Updates on APD budget at House committee meeting.
From Georgia:Families Against Restraint And Seclusion
ALPHARETTA, GA (CBS ATLANTA) – Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard confirmed Thursday that a criminal investigation has been launched into the abuse that allegedly took place five years ago at Hopewell Middle School in Milton.
The announcement comes as CBS Atlanta News continues to ask Tough Questions about the abuse allegedly covered up by the Fulton County School System.
In a statement, Howard said, “Let me first begin by applauding CBS Atlanta’s continued reporting of this matter. There is nothing more important to my office than the protection of children and holding accountable those responsible for bringing harm to our most innocent victims.”
Howard continued to say that Fulton County Schools and Roswell Police Departments are jointly investigating allegations of abuse by former special education teacher Melanie Pickens dating back to 2006.
Lisa Williams, the mother of a special needs child reportedly abused, got emotional when told of the criminal investigation.
“That’s what I wanted,” said Williams to reporter Jeff Chirico when he broke the news to her.
Williams said she believes Pickens and others within the district who knew but didn’t stop the abuse should be prosecuted.
Alex Williams, now 18, was reportedly shoved, cursed at and isolated by Pickens at Hopewell Middle School in Milton during the 2006-2007 school year.
Lisa Williams, who said she learned of the abuse from another student’s mother in 2010, testified that the district never told her about the abuse. Williams also said the district blocked out her son’s name in a copy of the 2007 investigative report she requested. The district also withheld other records, she said.
“I was totally unprepared for the corruption. I feel they covered it up in an intentional attempt to prevent me from finding any of this out,” said Williams during a due process hearing in administrative court Wednesday.
The Williams family is requesting that the Fulton County School System pay for Alex’s future education costs estimated at $2.5 million. “I will not send him back there,” said Williams referring to Fulton County schools.
An investigation was commissioned by the Fulton County Board of Education in 2007 to explore possible abuse of a student, Jake Marshall. The 29-page investigative report concluded that former special education teacher Melanie Pickens apparently mistreated six students.
The Fulton County School System has come under fire for failing to tell parents that their children were named as abuse victims in the report which called Pickens’ actions “possibly criminal.”
On Tuesday, Fulton County School Board President Linda Schultz testified she did not know more than one student was abused by a special education teacher because she didn’t read the investigative report.
Schultz testified that she did not know other children were abused until she saw news coverage about it in 2011.
Williams’ attorney, Chris Vance, said the school system should have notified police of the abuse. However, district officials did not notify police until 2009 when it forwarded information to its own police department. Fulton County school police Captain Felipe Usury testified Tuesday he was instructed by his superior to close the case without forwarding the information to the district attorney’s office to determine if laws were broken.
Educators testified Monday about student abuse they allegedly witnessed at the hands of Pickens.
Several former and current employees of the Fulton County School System told similar stories of abuse and neglect including hitting, kicking and shoving special needs students.
According to testimony Monday, Williams was shoved often by Pickens during the 2006-2007 school year. Williams, who was 14 at the time, does not communicate verbally and has trouble walking.
Teaching assistant Denise Baugh testified Pickens burped, passed gas and shook her buttocks and breasts in students’ faces.
Several educators said they reported abuse to then principal Frances M. Boyd who ignored it.
In a bombshell admission, a coordinator for special education services for the Fulton County School System admitted that administration knew Pickens was abusing students for years. Pettes said she had recommended administration not renew Pickens’ contract after her first year as a Fulton County employee in 2002. Pettes said Pickens had trouble handling the students.
The Fulton County School System investigated the abuse of student Jake Marshall in 2007 after a teacher contacted the Division of Family and Children Services about an incident involving another student, Jake Marshall. Marshall, now 19, is nonverbal and has trouble walking.
While being restrained on May 21, 2007, Jake defecated and smeared feces on his body and the chair in an attempt to clean himself, Marshall’s mother Judy said.
The incident led the Fulton County Board of Education to launch the investigation.
Pickens resigned from Fulton County Schools on July 25, 2007, five days after the school system completed the investigative report that confirmed allegations of abuse.
The report indicated the abuse occurred between 2004 and 2007. More than 10 teachers and school staffers gave statements to investigators indicating they witnessed Pickens “hitting Jake on the back of the head.” Statements also revealed Pickens kicked, cursed, pushed and regularly restrained Jake in a seclusion room for long periods of time.
“The investigation determined that the May 21, 2007 incident was the most recent occurrence in an extensive pattern of inappropriate and possibly criminal conduct Pickens subjected upon her special education students,” the report read.
“I never anticipated that school would damage him,” Lisa Williams, Alex’s mother, said.
Doctors diagnosed Alex with post-traumatic stress disorder after leaving Pickens class.
“He refuses to say the word ‘happy’ and that was one of his first words,” said Williams.
Attorney Vance said school officials should have reported the abuse to police long before 2009.
“It is a crime not to report abuse of disabled students,” Vance said.
Police have not charged anyone with a crime.
Vance said she believes the abuse and cover-up is symptomatic of a culture of abuse.
“It was tolerated, accepted and condoned. It is a complete lack of concern for children with special needs,” Vance said.
Marshall said she settled with Fulton County Schools but could not talk about the agreement. The Fulton County School System would also not release the terms of the settlement, despite several requests by CBS Atlanta News.
From our friend at WaiverProvider.com
Florida Unites is launching an aggressive campaign to get people who are interested in disability issues to vote. Please fill out this survey regarding your status as a voter. It is a one question, multiple choice survey.
If you are not yet registered to vote, please register.
Voters Application Form-
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/voter-registration/voter-reg.shtml
People with disabilities can and do VOTE. Their votes COUNT. Their caregivers, family members, and advocates vote too. Florida elections are often close. Your vote can turn the tide.
Your vote tells elected officials what you think about how they
are running the government. It tells your elected officials that
you approve or disapprove of their actions. It tells your elected officials that you are paying attention. Vote for people who care about and fund the programs that keep you healthy and safe.
Not everyone who should have a voice at the polls has been able to have their voice heard. The disability community can be a powerful voice for change. Vote.
Voters Application Form-
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/voter-registration/voter-reg.shtml
*** Be advised that there are new laws for anyone who collects voter registration applications. Not following these laws may result in fines. ***
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/voter-registration/third-party.shtml
Keep squeaking those wheels – get out and vote. You can make a difference.
From Aaron Nangle of WaiverProvider.com
October 19, 2011
Director Mike Hansen presented an update on the agency’s cost-containment efforts today to the House of Representatives Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee.
The Legislature approved $810 million for APD’s Medicaid waiver for the 2011-12 state fiscal year that began on July 1. APD customers received $930 million worth of services last year.
The agency has been working to bring its waiver expenditures within the Legislative appropriation this fiscal year. The agency is also looking for opportunities to increase waiver flexibility and equity for customers, while continuing to protect their health and safety.
Earlier this month, APD shared five cost containment
initiatives with various legislative committees that would reduce APD’s waiver obligations. The director was asked to bring back a proposed timeline for implementing the changes.
The timeframes may be contingent on developing new rules or federal approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
At today’s meeting, Hansen announced plans to standardize payment rates for intensive behavior residential habilitation beginning January 1, 2012. Also on that same date, the agency will begin collecting fees from APD customers who have income to offset some of their costs of living in a group home.
APD plans to reduce the rates it pays for therapy assessments and all nursing services to the standard rate paid by the Medicaid State Plan beginning April 1, 2012. Currently, the APD Medicaid waiver pays higher rates for most of these services.
Also on the same date, APD will reduce the difference it pays between solo providers and agencies for waiver services to no more than 20 percent. Currently, those rates may differ up to 43 percent.
There was no timeline announced today for implementing cost sharing for parents who have children on the Medicaid waiver. APD is working with the Agency for Health Care Administration on this issue.
The change to the waiver requires federal approval.
After pursuing these cost-containment initiatives to APD’s Medicaid waiver, the agency expects to realize more than $14 million in reduced expenditures on an annual basis.
——————————————————————–
Keep raising your voices and squeaking your wheels. We can not let those who are them most vulnerable suffer from these cuts.
If it keeps costing our schools (and taxpayers) millions, maybe the abuse of seclusion and restraint will end in our public schools.
This from Bedford VA, provided by Georgia:Families Against Restraint And Seclusion
Bedford County’s school board and several current and former school employees are facing a $20 million lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, a 14-year-old autistic boy was attacked on his school bus by people who were supposed to protect him.
The alleged incidents happened more than two years ago. Attorneys for the boy’s family have produced video tape that they say shows some of the attacks.
Video captured from a school bus surveillance camera appears to show an adult woman kicking and hitting a young boy. Attorneys say the women is Mary Alice Evans, a former Bedford County teacher’s aide.
The child is an autistic boy.
—————————————-
We need to keep squeaking our wheels. Wake up our children are being abused in school. School is not supposed to hurt.
This is from a posting on Members in Georgia:Families Against Restraint And Seclusion.
ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) –
A 4-year-old girl in the Atlanta Public School system says her teacher spanked her bare bottom with a shoe during class. Now the teacher is out of the classroom.
CBS Atlanta spoke to that girl’s grandmother, Virginia Leslie, who admits that her granddaughter Shamiya is hyper, but said that a teacher spanking the little girl with a shoe was not the answer.
“I thought spankings (weren’t) done at school,” said Leslie. “This is 2011.”
Leslie said she is irate over what Shamiya said happened while she attended Pre-K at East Lake Elementary.
“My teacher pulled my panties down and my skirt down and whooped me with a big shoe,” said Shamiya.
Shamiya told her grandma the spanking happened a week-and-a-half ago. The teacher apparently pulled her out of music class.
“What gives a teacher who is not related whatsoever the right to whoop a child?” said Leslie. ” Not just to whoop them, but to pull their underpants down?”
Leslie said she notified the school the next day, but she said she isn’t happy with the way the system has handled the case.
Shamiya hasn’t been back to school in a week. Monday, Leslie filed a police report.
“I just don’t want to put her back up there,” said Leslie. “The same teacher is there and the same thing could happen and then I feel like I would be at fault for allowing it to happen again.”
Leslie said the school district told her Shamiya could transfer to another school, but said she didn’t like that option either.
“Why? What did she do wrong?” said Leslie. “The wrong was done to her. She didn’t do anything wrong. She’s a kid. She’s a child.”
A spokesperson with the Atlanta Public Schools told CBS Atlanta that they are investigating the report.
After questioning from CBS Atlanta, the system temporarily reassigned the teacher outside of the school and away from children, pending the outcome of the investigation.
School should be a safe place for all children! Keep squeaking those wheels maybe one day our children with disabilities will be safe from abuse in our public schools.
Disabled Left Behind in Florida
Guest blog by Mike Coonan, President Left Behind in the USA
In Florida, 21,000 people (mostly children) with a developmental disability, such as mental retardation, autism, cerebral palsy and related conditions are living at home and are waiting for the Medicaid Waiver services. They have been on the waiting list for the last eight years. Across America, more than 370,000 people (mostly children) with the same conditions are also lingering on similar waiting lists. We are told by our state elected officials that there is no end in sight for ending the Medicaid Waiver waiting lists.
At the same time, many families receiving Medicaid waiver services tell us that they are willing to share these precious resources. Those of us on the waiting list are thankful for their thoughtful consideration of our plight. Their gracious words of support have encouraged us to work towards a more equitable situation.
To that end, Left Behind in the USA is proposing that the Developmental Disability Community review policy and organizational barriers preventing Medicaid Waiver services and supports from being shared with families in need. Left Behind in the USA is now on a quest to learn more about the following:
Our expectation is that the Sharing the Blessings program will benefit thousands of families who are presently not receiving any help. In addition, we firmly believe our program will shine a little light of hope in a bleak world for the families lingering on waiting lists.
Keep squeaking your wheels – One day they will listen to us.
