From Renos World. This kid rocks.
The Curious Kids learn about Asperger Syndrome with Reno. Produced by Roise Emery
Reno – keep making noise – the squeaky wheel always gets noticed.
Thanks for all that you do.
Mommy, I Wish I Could Tell You What They Did To Me In School Today
By Richard S. Stripp, Sr.
Child In Florida School Being Restrained
Again this year we try to enact legislation that will help reduce the harmful and often abusive seclusion and restraint of our children with disabilities in our public schools.
Senator Anitere Flores is sponsoring SB 144. Seclusion and Restraint on Students with Disabilities in Public Shools.
In a nutshell the legislation will do the following:
Seclusion and Restraint on Students With Disabilities in Public Schools; Requiring that manual physical restraint be used only in an emergency when there is an imminent risk of serious injury or death to the student or others; providing restrictions on the use of manual physical restraint; prohibiting the use of manual physical restraint by school personnel who are not certified to use district-approved methods for applying restraint techniques; requiring that each school medically evaluate a student after the student is manually physically restrained; prohibiting school personnel from placing a student in seclusion; providing requirements for the use of time-out; requiring that a school district report its training and certification procedures to the Department of Education, etc.
In the 2010 – 2011 School year we had over 10,000 incidents of restraint reported in our public schools.
Thank you Sen Flores for sponsoring this legislation. We need to protect our children.
Remember School Is Not Supposed To Hurt.
Keep squeaking those wheels. Ask your legislator to support or co-sponsor this legislation.
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.
Yet another school bus driver is caught on camera abusing a student with disabilities. Please I am in no way painting all bus drivers as abusive. It is a hard and thankless job. However, we had numerous reports of school bus drivers abusing children physically or verbally. Additionally, we have had numerous reports of children, especially children with disabilities being left on the bus.
This should be an indication of a pattern. School bus drivers need to be better screened, trained and monitored. Our children, no matter what their ability or lack of ability, should be safe on the school bus.
Just as School is Not Supposed to Hurt – Riding the Short Bus is Not Supposed to Hurt.
The short bus, of course, is the bus for the children with special needs. They are not allowed, in most school districts, to ride the regular school bus. I actually remember the principal of an elementary school saying that she did not want “Those kids mixing with the normal students.”
This is an attitude that most find offensive. It is also an attitude that most parents probably believe does not exist. I can tell you that it does exist. Our children; those who ride the short bus; those who have disabilities; those with special needs; are routinely segregated.
Most parents believe that their special needs children are better protected on the short bus. They believe that their special needs children will be safer on the short bus.
Take a look at this video and you will see that they are not safer. You will see that children with disabilities who ride the short bus are vulnerable.
They are vulnerable because the employees who are entrusted with protecting our children do not do their job. They claim they are stressed or over worked. Join the club. Ask the mother or father of a child with special needs how hard it is to parent them. If anyone should be burned our, stressed or over worked, it is the parents.
School is Not Supposed to Hurt – Riding the Short Bus is Not Supposed to Hurt. But hurt is does.
Keep squeaking those wheels – you do not have to take it anymore.
Anyone who deals with the disabled knows that there is more to them than meets the eye. They amaze us everyday and continue to amaze us with their insights and actions.
This is a great video that reminds us to never give up and to keep advocating for those who have special needs or are different.
Carly – Keep Squeaking Those Wheels. Way to go!
Mike Coonan is the President of Left Behind in the USA. He fights a very tough battle to help children and adults with disabilities receive the services necessary for them to live a full and rewarding life.
Unfortunately he fights a battle that may never end and that he may never win. However, despite this, he continues to fight on.
Currently nearly 400,000 disabled Americans live marginalized lives because they do not receive services that would help them live on their own, work or get out into the community.
His organizations opening statement is:
Left Behind in the USA is a non-profit organizations representing families whose child/loved one with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation/intellectual disability and related Developmental Disability is on Medicaid Waiver waiting lists. We are dedicated to educating and empowering families on the Medicaid Waiver waiting list.
Keep fighting the fight and keep providing a voice for those who have no voice. You are not alone.
Keep squeaking your wheels – they will have to pay attention.
The headline reads – “New Times exposé forces McKay scholarship reform”. This has prompted legislators here in Florida to take a look at the McKay scholarship. There has been fraud and misuse; there is no doubt about that.
The real question now is how will they respond? Will they increase oversight on the how the scholarship money is being used? Will they put so many restrictions on it, that it becomes worthless or so hard to qualify for that no one will use it?
The McKay scholarship is primarily for students in public schools who have a disability. The scholarship allows the parent to remove the student from public school and place the child in a more appropriate private school environment.
Florida public schools have failed miserably when it comes to educating children with disabilities. The abuse and misuse of seclusion and restraint results in these children being physically and emotionally harmed. There were over 10,000 incidents of restraint in Florida in class rooms during the last school year.
Public schools in Florida have failed to provide proper and appropriate education for students with special needs. They routinely place them on a track to receive a “Special Diploma”. Translate into a “Worthless Diploma.”
The purpose of education is to educate. Florida schools typically warehouse students with disabilities until they can legally pass them out into society. These children, now adults, are unprepared and have no job or life skills.
The McKay scholarship was the one hope for many families. It was the one chance that their child could get an appropriate education.
Now that hope is in jeopardy. Scandal and budget shortages do not make a good match. The fixes that the legislature enacts to prevent fraud should not prevent parents from being able to readily and easily access the scholarship.
Any restrictions on the scholarship should not affect the intent. That being to allow children with disabilities to take their matrix money with them and attend a private school that will provide them with the education they need to be productive and successful adults.
Parents speak up and keep squeaking those wheels.
