School District Acts Shamefully in Danville, Pennsylvania

This will be the second posting this week where the school district involved the police to inappropriately address issues involving children with special needs. It appears that their New Year's Resolution was to call the police more frequently and for matters that should be addressed inside the school building. 

In New York a child with a hearing disability brough his assistance dog to school and the police were called to remove the child and his mother and his dog. The police declined to act.

The second case is even worse. A twelve year old girl who urinated in school in response to a harsh principal was charged with disorderly conduct. The charge was later dropped.  The justification was that the school was at the "end of its wits," and the child needed to be taught a lesson.

Hmm... what was the lesson ?  Is it that that involuntary urinating is a criminal act [the school claims the girl used urination as a weapon.] I am surprised that they did not remove her for 45 days to an alternative setting as she may have created a puddle that someone could have slipped on,  presenting a "danger to herself and others." I actually defended a case where a high schooler created a puddle from a chemistry lab shower and that was their argument for removal.

Perhaps the lesson was that the school will teach the student to hold her bladder when faced with abusive adults in a supervisory position; sounds like the makings of an IEP goal to me ! They could write that into her transition plan so that she will be handle any job situation no matter how abusive.

The whole idea of referring to bodily functions as a "weapon" is a whole other angle on this story. Simply calling something a weapon could be enough to bamboozle a Judge into issuing a Honig injunction good enough to remove her from school. Lets hope not !

Maybe on a more serious and sensible note the school could have done any and all of the following:

• Convened an IEP team meeting to visit or revisit her behavioral planning;

• Suggest to the parent to visit the doctor to see if there is a medical side to this story;

• Recommend that the principal get a hold of himself and not speak to students in such a way that causes them to urinate in public; perhaps anger management is needed for him;

• Write a reasonable and measured policy for when the police should be called into action so things are not on a totally ad hoc decision-making basis;

• Issue a public apology for being supremely inappropriate and humiliating, and in how it addressed and caused a school-based issue.

Comments

[Daunna Minnich]

This case is more than sad. It's shameful. I have to agree with the school that they were "wit's end" — it's apparent to anyone they were totally witless.

A competent school would have already called an IEP meeting and revisited the behavior plan. But clearly this school lacks the expertise for such a job and I wouldn't trust them. Since the school has admitted they don't know what to do, which in effect means they've acknowledged they are incapable of providing FAPE. Furthermore, this child is not psychologically safe in this abusive environment, and she needs immediate placement elsewhere.

[Ann Marie]

Many schools seem to be acting quite irrationally when it comes to disabled students on the autism spectrum. In Duxbury Massachusetts, an affluent town just south of Boston, the Middle School was put in lock down (to the distress of many students) because of the tantrum of a student with Aspergers Syndrome. It apparently wasn't the first time the police were called to deal with the child. Meanwhile, the school is fighting the parents on their request for an out of district placement. An article about the situation, an editorial and a letter to the editor from the mother of the student can be found in the Duxbury Clipper newspaper (www.duxburyclipper.com).

[Internzoo]

Really shamefull!Thanks for writing such posts and making people aware of the sick management of such schools and poor administration.

Internzoo
http://www.internzoo.com