JJR 101 - Education

I am going to use the examples and experiences with public education and my daughter as the blatant example of how we fail our children.  Although I am writing about Juvenile Justice, it is very easy to see how we have failed her and children like her, through her experiences. 

First of all, Heidi was a generation at the beginning of the awakening of the autism movement.  While more was known about diagnosing the condition, little was known about treatment.  We entered public education with the assistance of United Way.  Our assessment services and personal classroom aid for Heidi was provided by BOCES (Board of Cooperative Education Services).  Through every grade level, with every teacher and every classroom, I educated the teacher and her aid on how to instruct Heidi.  There were times, in junior high, that I would be at the school every week and sometimes several times.  Teachers were not prepared for her, they did not want to take the time to teach her, they did not see the value in instructing her and they didn’t want to be bothered.  Now this was a child with obvious disabilities.  One that we should be prepared to and desire to give extra assistance, to help her reach her potential.  That was not what we experienced.

While you may view this as an isolated incident, let me share a story to the contrary.  As I spoke earlier, junior high was very difficult.  The year Heidi started junior high was the first year that they moved 6th grade out of elementary school and into junior high school.  Parents, they do this because of economics, not because it best environment for our children.  I received notes everyday on Heidi and her difficulty adjusting to this new environment.  I would receive phone calls from the school for me to come pick her up because Heidi was difficult to manage.  I would pick her up and she would be happy as a clam.  Now that is pretty normal for a kid.  They don’t feel well at school but all of a sudden they are healed when they get home!  However, it was a growing issue.  Finally, I had enough.  I decided to take my day off and go to school.  I followed Heidi through all of her classes, watched how the aid interacted with her, saw the environment that she was in and assessed the problems.  With autistic children, over-stimulation causes behavior outbursts.  If you know the source of over-stimulation, you can help the child adapt or remove them from the situation.  What I saw at my visit to school was truly alarming!  I called a meeting with the District Director of Special Education, the principal, the teachers, her special education coordinator and her aid.  Oh and there was me.  That is how it felt.  All of them……and me.  They asked how we were going to address the behavior outbursts, what recommendations could I make and they assured me that they wanted what was best for Heidi. 

I began by addressing the special education director.  I told him that I had attended class with Heidi.  I told him that in every class, every single student was at risk of failing.  I told him that I saw teachers that were unprepared to deal with the neediness of a 6th grader.  I saw teachers that did not know how to communicate effectively with a 6th grader.  I saw teachers that had no control of their class.  I saw students that were lost, frightened and failing because they had no leader to guide them.  The director responded that one third of all 6th graders and all 9th graders fail.  That is the statistics, they expect that.  They simply are not mature enough to deal with the social pressures of the new regiment.  AND THE DISTRICT ACCEPTS THAT AS OKAY!

They wanted to know if there was a proven and appropriate way to remove Heidi from a stimulating environment.  I stood up and demonstrated that if you get behind her, wrap your arms around her and pull her tight to your body while speaking softly in her ear, you can change her whole demeanor.  They told me they could not do that because that would be viewed as hugging and they don’t hug children!  Did you hear me?  They don’t hug children!  Why?  because we are born of fear and we are afraid that someone might do something wrong to our child.  So out of the one in 100,000 incidents of molestation…..we choose not to let anyone hug our kids.  I told the director that was our first problem.  Sixth grade children are at the age when one moment they need the comfort of a caregiver and the next moment they do not acknowledge your existence.  Comfort and Release, comfort….and release.  This is the process of building confidence in a child to stand on their own.  If you continually release them with no comfort, they act up, they get angry, they withdraw or they try to blend in.  They do not gain confidence, they just try to survive.  On their own abilities.  Through wrong behavior.

I also confronted the district on materials and equipment for classrooms, adequate assistance for the teachers and told them that Heidi’s educational program from the state mandated these things.  I gave them a time line to pull everything into order.  At the end of the year, her teachers thanked me.  They told me that because of my voice, they were able to acquire all the necessary equipment and staff for Heidi but also for the other children as well!  By the time the changes happened we were going on Christmas break.

If this was the experience for Heidi, who had an obvious disability, what do you think happened to the child with a learning disability, or problems at home, or was hungry every day when he came to school, or couldn’t afford all the school supplies?  What happened to them?

One third of all sixth graders, that started the school year with hope,…….failed that year.  And that was acceptable!

This entry was posted on 28. July 2008 at 18:13 and is filed under Prison Reform Advocates, Juvenile Reform Advocates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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