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Opinions:
Kendallville News Sun, Friday, October 6, 2000
To the editor:
When working as a special educator, I learned about Public Law 94-142,
which gives disabled children the right to be mainstreamed into classrooms with "normal" children. Simply stated, this law protects the ability for disabled children to receive an education without discrimination. By setting disabled children apart from their peers, we lower our expectations of them, and by virtue of that fact, deny them a quality education.
Disabled and "normal" children are harmed equally. "Normal" children
never experience the friendship of a child with a disability. By keeping these children separate we promote ignorance. This ignorance causes further future discrimination. This cycle must stop for the benefit of our children and the future of people with disabilities like Down syndrome.
Since becoming a pediatrician, I've watched school systems bully parents
with disabled children. Parents are forced to accept educational services that fall far short of preparing their child for life in our world. Parents with limited resources often give up the fight. When this occurs, we all lose. I'm happy to see that a brave parent has risen to fight this battle with Lakeland School Corp.
As a pediatrician and the father of four "normal" children, I hope our court
system sees the wisdom in inclusion and helps protect my "normal" children from ignorance and discrimination against children with disabilities by including children with disabilities in main stream classrooms. It's the law!
Christopher Tallo, pediatrician
Fort Wayne Member of Down Syndrome Association of Northeast Indiana
board of directors.
INCLUSION CAN WORK WITH DOWN SYNDROME KIDS
To the editor:
I just read with interest the articles about the "inclusion" debate over
including children with Down syndrome in regular classrooms. I'd like to offer our experiences.
Our daughter, who has down syndrome, is 8 years old. She is in a
"regular" second grade classroom and has been fully included since kindergarten. She has a helper for two hours a day and receives speech therapy several times a week and occupational therapy consultation. She is in the Southwest Allen County School Corp. It has done a wonderful job of proving that inclusion can work.
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Our daughter is considered borderline normal in some areas to very mild in
others. Her speech is very good; We haven't had to use sign language at all. She is very good with counting, is reading at a first-grade level and is currently working on simple addition problems. She also participates in science, music and gym with all the other "normal" kids.
Amy Sutton shouldn't give up her fight against Lakeland schools. Inclusion
can work. All you need is a school corporation that is willing to let them try.
Kathy Meeks
PARENTS MUST BATTLE FOR RIGHTS OF THEIR CHILDREN
To the editor:
My husband and I have a blended family, and five of our eight children
completed college and received some advanced degrees. We never had a problem with the school district until our "later in life" child came along. I learned a whole lot I didn't want to know about public school education and administration and the big business it really has become.
We live in a modestly affluent area in Southern California, and the quest for
"blue ribbon" schools is ever on. Our district likes to compartmentalize our kids with special needs and then blame them for taking funds from regular education kids who "really" deserve them.
I read with interest your excellent article about Amy Sutton from LaGrange,
who is anticipating a due process hearing with Lakeland School Corp. This so closely parallels my daughter's due process in 1991 that I find myself wondering how so little progress has been made in the Lakeland School Corp. regarding the civil rights of children with disabilities over the past 10 years!
The case the Suttons are making is valid, and I will be shocked if they do
not prevail. Regardless of how convenient a special classroom may be, Benjamin cannot find the appropriate role models for social growth, or the unlimited academic opportunities, in the segregated sites. It is a shame Lakeland School Corp. is spending the taxpayers' money to defend something so intrinsically wrong.
Your article is well researched and most correct. And David Schmidt is
absolutely on target. The decisions that are made now are going to dictate what Benjamin is when he walks out of that building--a young man with an unlimited future or a second-class citizen, "over there" where the school believes he belongs.
My daughter Sydney spent only 30 minutes each day in a special education
room, and school personnel were complete novices at inclusion at that time. An aide can be trained in ways that make himself/herself valuable to all the students in the regular education classroom. Our daughter sydney is now in the 10th grade and is still included in regular classes for three periods a day. She reads at an eighth- to 10th-grade level, with strong comprehension at a fourth-grade level. Not bad for a child the district said would only "word call" at best.
Children with mild to moderate disabilities and challenges do benefit in
every way from being educated in the least restrictive environment, especially in elementary school.
Since many school corporations can see only the "handicap" rather than
the whole child, it is unfortunate, but nonetheless a fact, that parents must battle for the rights of their children.
Joyce Taylor
Lake Forest, Calif.
INCLUSION IS MORALLY THE RIGHT THING
To the editor:
In 1997 our family was in a position similar to the Suttons in LaGrange. Our
son, Zachary, now 8, with Down syndrome, was denied a place in regular education kindergarten. Unlike Benjamin, Zachary had never been included in earlier years. We were naive enough to trust the school would be willing to include him after two years in the Early childhood Program.
On the contrary, during his last year in Early Childhood Program, his
teacher repeatedly set him up to make him fail. She admitted this to us, saying she was "trying to make us face reality." She said Zachary would "never be accepted by a 'regular' teacher or 'regular' kids."
With the help of a private evaluator and a law student, we started toward
due process. We first scheduled mediation, but the head of the special education had told us he would never reconsider. Then, as soon as we sat down, the head of special education said, "The district is not prepared to pursue this any farther." We had won.
We had a similar "discussion" when Zachary was ready to go to first
grade. I told them I still had the phone numbers of the people who helped me before, and they backed down without a fight. Since kindergarten Zachary has spent all his time in a regular education classroom. His only pullout is for speech. This year he started third grade and is doing well. He has friends, and he is accepted by the children and the staff of the school.
His 6-year-old brother Matthew, who is legally blind, is fully included in first
grade this year. We also had "discussions" with the district when he started kindergarten, but they gave up when they saw we would not give in. My youngest son, Alex, 4, is in a private preschool. He also has Down syndrome and many complex medical problems. I have the assurance of the new head of special education that he will be in kindergarten next year.
We believe that inclusion is not only a child's right, but the only morally right
thing to do if the family requests it. When parents request inclusion, how can a district deny as child the right to learn with his or her peers?
If the Individualized Education Plan team, which includes parents, teachers,
and school officials, all make the commitment to make it work, there is no way it can fail! I have three boys who are living proof!
Sincerely,
Susan Saladino
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MOVIE TELLS IMPACT OF DOWN SYNDROME
To the editor:
I have a 9-year-old girl with Down syndrome who is in special education in
New York City. She is getting an excellent education because the supervisor and her teacher focus on ability, not disability. In plain English, she is treated like a "typically developing" child. The program was not dictated too me; I reviewed the options and chose what I felt best met her needs, not mine.
In addition, she is enrolled in Kumon (a reading and math program
available all over the world), dancing lessons, and Sunday school.
I guess what I have done is create a program that has given her a well-
rounded education, exposure to all varieties of children and adults, educating all of them as well.
October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month and a perfect time
to learn about Down syndrome. There is an award-winning documentary titled "Educating Peter" that should be shown to the Lakeland school board, as well as to the parents of Benjamin's classmates. It tells of the impact of having a boy with Down Syndrome included in a classroom in a small town. Believe me, they will be moved.
Mary Ann White Tsourounakis
Richmond Hill, N.Y.
TIME TO GROW UP!
To the editor;
I'm attending a tech school in Minnesota where I sometimes see the
younger students laughing at disabled students, as if they have never seen anyone like that in their school before. Maybe they really haven't, and that's their whole problem -- that segregation has insulated them from the realities of life where they might otherwise have learned to relate to others across the simplest obstacles.
It seems that the biggest thing kids are taught in public school is how to set
up stupid class structures, and form some basis for classifying other kids and picking on them. Instead of trying to remove Benjamin, the Lakeland school district should grow up!
Duff Smith,
Richfield, Minn.
Kendallville News Sun, Sunday, October 15, 2000
TAX DOLLARS ARE FOR DISABLED CHILDREN, TOO!
To the editor:
As the aunt of Benjamin Sutton, I have had many conversations with people
concerning the full inclusion of disabled students in the regular classroom. Some of the comments I have heard are very disturbing to me, as I fear they reflect the ignorance of the general public. I would like to address some of the concerns I have heard voiced, and perhaps enlighten people in the process. The first such comment was: "No matter what you do he'll always have Down Syndrome." What a ludicrous observation! We are all well aware that inclusion is not a cure for Benjamin's genetic disorder. Full inclusion will, however, ensure that his capabilities are challenged, and his full potential reached. Hopefully it will also help educate his peers so that when they are the adults heading our school administrations, staff and elected board, lawsuits such as the one pending against Lakeland School Corp will no longer be necessary.
The second comment I would like to address was even more upsetting to
me personally because it put a financial value (or lack of one) on disabled children. The remark? "The only problem I have is with my tax dollars going to pay for a special teacher for just one child." First of all, the helper for the included child is not a teacher, nor does he/she receive a teacher's salary. The "special teacher" is in fact a trained aide: one who can do much more in the classroom than assist "just one child." Secondly, I have to wonder where the person who feels this way (and those like her) would prefer her tax dollars spent? Perhaps it would be better to spend those funds on group homes and assisted living arrangements for the last 40-plus years of these children's lives? I would much rather my tax dollars be spend on education and integrating these special children during their school age years, that they may become able as adults to lead productive lives—becoming assets rather than "burdens" to our communities.
I find it very offensive that the right to an education should become a
financial issue, as if the disabled aren't worth as much as our "regular" children.
Finally I would like everyone to take a moment to think about their own
children/grandchildren. If they are all healthy; physically and mentally "normal," then thank God. You might also want to pray that they never suffer an illness or injury that turns them into a child who isn't worth our tax dollars. Because every "normal" child is only one accident away from becoming a "disabled" one.
Susan Young, Wolcottville
REWARDS OF INCLUSION IMMEASURABLEY GREAT FOR DISABLED
CHILDREN
To the editor:
I am the parent of Carl, who just turned 19 this week and who also has
Down Syndrome. We share also with the Suttons the privilege of going through a due process hearing, ours with the Fort Wayne Community Schools over their recommendation of reducing Carl's speech therapy from twice weekly to once weekly. For this LaGrange family, there is a very great need to win this battle.
But I am writing to support them n this battle for the inclusion—the full
inclusion of children with disabilities in typical classrooms in their neighborhood schools. I write because our son is a near graduate of a fully inclusive school history—from his "regular kindergarten" in public schools…to Blackhawk Christian High School. He has NEVER been in self-contained special ed or resource rooms.
To tell you what this has meant to Carl and us, his family, would take
volumes, but inclusion has been and is his ticket to being able to live, play and work in the real world for his life. It has meant he has "normal" social skills, passable speech skills, exemplary work and ethical skills and will be very employable when he is through school. He traveled with "normal" kids to Cedar Point, to overnight and weekend retreats, has sipped coffee in local coffee shops with teen peers, has gone to banquets and school functions, all without his parents tagging along. In essence he is living a full and meaningful teen life. What more could we have asked for?
When Carl was barely 2 years old, we attended a convention where we
heard Lou Brown, an educator out of the University of Wisconsin. She told us, "In order for professionals to grow, parents must water them." That has been a guiding motto for our advocating and tailoring Carl's school life these past 18 years. It hasn't been easy, but the rewards have been immeasurably great.
In Christ,
Pat Nuffer
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