| Flaky excuses and outrageous statements
made by Educrats: |
Comments From The Outraged: |
| I got several rather startling statements on
tape: Asst. Principal:
"Yes, I realize we haven't done an evaluation, but I really think it was your OLD
school's responsibility to do that."
TOD: "We don't have to do an evaluation for specific learning
disability because your daughter already has a primary disability.
Deafness."
SLP: "Now that we all understand what the district's
philosophy is, we need to go ahead and write an IEP based on that philosophy."
TOD: "You guys don't have the only disabled child in this district.
We can only do so much, and that's why we have TC. I mean, I don't understand
why you don't think your daughter should sign. Can you explain that to me?"
Asst. Principal: "Sir, have you thought about hiring a tutor for your daughter?
Isn't your aunt retiring this year? I think she could be a tremendous help to your
daughter."
Asst. Principal: "You say your daughter is at a 7.6 grade level now.
Well, what if she regresses over the summer? Where will that leave us?
You two need to work really hard this summer to maintain her skills. LD kids
often suffer regression."
And finally...........from the TOD......"I wish we could afford to place every child
where they really need to be. But we can't." |
This one is almost too easy! |
| We just a received a note that our
child's IEP was up for review and as we had been to the last one there was no real need
for us to be there. |
Yea right...did you roll on the
floor laughing?!?!?!?!? |
| The author of Who Pays for Audiograms Used in Schools? reports
receiving an e-mail from a teacher with a yahoo.com address, who told her that what
she wrote doesn't apply in HER county, because in HER county, parents have the
responsibility to provide the audiograms. |
These people JUST DO NOT GET IT! And
what is the scarriest of all, is they are teaching OUR KIDS!! |
| Oh, I understand now!! HER county is
not part of the United States and therefore not subject to FEDERAL LAW!! That's the
only reasonable explanation. |
| If they are not subject to Federal Law, then
they are not eligible for any federal funds. They should cough up everything they've
been getting and refund it to the taxpayers, with interest! |
| The school contracted with a
stuttering specialist, but since nothing was working they stopped paying the bills. |
Can we stop paying our school taxes since
nothing they do seems to be working very well? |
Objective, under the goal of
personal independence: "Johnny will
independently cross the street safely, 50% of the time." |
And the other 50% of the time? |
| I am going to request our daughter get either
auditory/verbal therapy and / or aural rehabilitation. At our meeting last month,
the sped dir. said she had never heard of these so she didn't think the district should
have to pay for them. |
Oh, this is RICH! I can see it now,
"Well, your honor, the District feels we should not have to pay for this. Since
I have never heard of this stuff, it cannot possibly be appropriate. Yes, your
honor, 'appropriate' is defined as stuff I know about, and feel my budget can afford. |
| These aren't from Educrats, but I think they
deserve a place on this page anyway. The following are two Supreme Court rulings released
on the same day. "Employers who did not know
their supervisors were sexually harassing employees still can be held legally responsible
for such misconduct."
"School districts are not liable when teachers sexually
harass or abuse students unless some administrator knew about the misconduct." |
Does this mean that teachers are
not employees of the school districts in which they work? Or does it mean that teachers do
not supervise students? Or does it mean that the Supremes are again granting school
districts "most favored entity status," consistent with its ruling that
teachers, unlike other professionals, cannot be sued for malpractice, thus supporting and
perpetuating the notion that school districts are not subject to the laws established for
the rest of the nation? |
| I was told repeatedly that it was against the
regs for our daughter to have any other problems because of her hearing problem.
(Unless of course she was blind or motor impaired.) |
I think these educrats forgot to send God a
memo about their regulations. |
| "Let's not put that in the IEP because then
we're required to provide it. If we leave it out, then it's optional whether we provide
the service or not." |
Well, they are half right. |
| Testing this year was done with tests normed on
hearing-impaired children. Based on test results, our child may no longer qualify for
services since he no longer scores 2 deviations below "standard". |
Since when does qualification for services
depend on testing normed on those with the handicap? We are talking apples and oranges.
If they want to know his ability to benefit from regular education, then they have
to use testing normed on the general population! |
| Occupational therapy and physical therapy denied
(our child cannot use the left hand very well as a result of partial paralysis). Reason:
Our child does not need the left hand for educational purposes. Gross motor problems could
not be seen by the school PT, since our child did not have any problems on the swing and
on the see-saw, in addition our child was able to walk!!!, jump and run. Coordination
needed for going down the stairs or dribbling a ball while walking are not considered
needed for educational purposes. Doctor's certificates and PT eval disrespected. |
This is in the realm of the absurd. Did you
request an independent evaluation at the school's expense? I mean really, can you see them
trying to sell these flaky excuses to a hearing officer or a federal judge? I really am
convinced the sped administrator school (The Little Hitler School of Administration and
Management, dontcha know) offers intro, intermediate and advanced courses in "Flaky
Excuses." All this absurdity IS on tape and well documented, I trust. |
| They told me they don't have to provide an
interpreter all the time because my child has "other issues" besides deafness. |
Is he deaf only part of the time because of
his "other issues", or all the time? If he's deaf all the time, that's when he
should have an interpreter. How do they
figure out which hours of the day your child is experiencing deafness and which hours of
the day he is experiencing his "other issues"? What if you promise that he
has his "other issues" at home and will be deaf 100% of the time he is at
school? |
| When offering justification for wanting to
send my son to a "cluster" site instead of allowing him to stay in his homebased
school, she told me they wanted to put him with other deaf children to "enhance his
lipreading ability!" |
Didn't you know - speech reading is
contagious!! |
| "What the parents are asking for is an
impermissible maximization of services." |
Silly us, we thought it would be a novel idea for
the interpreter to
communicate in our son's language. |
| I had a principal "refuse" to authorize
his staff to attend another IEP meeting. |
I laughed out loud for that one!...not very
lawyerly of
me I suppose! And he said it on tape! |
| When a SPED Director was trying to convince the
parents of a 2nd grader that retention was needed, she commented that "he was so
immature that he(child) doesn't have all his teeth yet" |
The father replied, "is that why reading is
so 'tough' for him?" |
| When a parent inquired about whether the IDEA
Amendments were in effect, a SPED Director replied, "they haven't been grandfathered
in yet". |
Sometimes I wonder where Educrats get their
training. |
We are at this meeting and the sped director
says, "Geez, why are you picking on us, we aren't the only school district which
isn't
providing ESY. There are 400 other ones that aren't either."
|
Having anticipated this not-so-clever comment, I
said, "You know, I thought you might say that. And let me tell you why I am picking
on this particular district on ESY. There are really three reasons. First, my client
happens to live in this one. Second, you happen to be a well-known sped director and
whatever you do will certainly "get around." And third, I've calculated it out
and in my lifetime I could never get to all of the other 400 districts even if I work
night and day so I've decided just to focus on one and then the others will probably have
to follow suit because they won't be able to say that all the other districts routinely
deny ESY because this one won't be doing that anymore, will it?" You know he's never
used this reason again with me. |
| Your list of accommodations prevents the
teachers eliminating your son's ADHD. |
Now if they can do that, I'd like to market their
talent. |
| "We can't let him have a water bottle,
they're not allowed in case they bring vodka in them." |
Are we talking about the kids or the teachers
here? |
| "ALL Middle School kids have social
skills problems. They just learn by watching their peers." |
So THIS is what our kids are learning in school? |
| "During the Adaptive PE evaluation he
was worn out after 15-20 minutes. I will be seeing him twice a week for 50 minutes a
session." |
Sounds like this one needs a basic lesson in
math. Maybe working up to 50 minutes a session...but to start out with 50 minutes? |
| "We don't have anyone who can do
that." |
Then they better get somebody. This is no excuse! |
| "We don't have any place he can go. We
have a space problem here." |
Same applies, it's no excuse. If it's needed for
the child to receive FAPE, they have to find the space. |
| "Can the parents do that? Insist on
staff training for the disorders?" |
This one should be a "no brainer". We
shouldn't have to insist upon it though, it should be the school's responsibilty. |
| "He doesn't really have to learn
cursive. All he needs to do is learn how to sign his name." |
Then why do the kids in regular ed have to learn
it? |
| When a parent of a sped child asked for him
to be placed in a class with his typical peers, the IEP team coordinator stated, "But
then we would have to place him in a class that had all Down syndrome kids in it. Those
are HIS typical peers." |
This is certainly a creative interpretation of
the IDEA. |
| Although the school district and
director of special education had verified the child's disability and entitlement to
receive special education services under IDEA, it was the school district's position
(prior to hearing anyway) that they would not provide the child with an interpreter until
the child "stopped using her disability as a crutch to get attention from her teacher
and classmates". |
At the conclusion of the due
process hearing, the school district was ordered to provide the child with an
interpreter. |
| At a meeting called to evaluate a child : Parent: You need to get your Dr. on staff/retainer to do some
medical testing.
School: We don't have a Dr. on contract.
Parent: Well, I am requesting an IEE (at which point the
parent showed them supporting documents in the CFR and the Fed. Regs.)
School: Oh, we don't do that here. |
The parent was dumbfounded and asked them if
they still considered Florida to be part of the Union? |
He looks fine to us. Why are you so worried?
How can you expect us to teach him if you load him up with medication all the time?
I'd like to but we don't have the staff (or it is against school policy,
the school nurse is here only one morning a week, there isn't any
precedent for it...)
No one else has ever complained about this (or asked for that....)
We've seen a lot of children with this problem. Don't worry.
We're not doing any worse that other schools.
If you didn't baby him so much he wouldn't be having his asthma problems.
The child is complaining just to get out of work.
Allergies are just an excuse.
The child is manipulating you with his asthma. Just leave him to us.
If she gets special treatment, the other children will resent her.
There are no provisions to watch a child who must stay inside at recess.
The school policy does not allow for administering medication.
If the child is well enough to come to school, she should be well enough to do everything
everyone else does. If she isn't up to it she should stay home.
If we make exceptions for her, we would have to make exceptions for
everyone.
We think the child should be weaned off medication.
We have so many children to be responsible for, we can't pay special
attention to yours.
You can't expect the school to take responsibility for his medicine. This isn't a
hospital.
All you mothers are overprotective.
It is too confusing. Our teachers are doing too much already.
My nephew has asthma and never has to take medication in school. |
These are from: PARENT WORKSHEET
© 1991
HEALTHY KIDS: The Key to Basics
79 Elmore Street Newton, MA 02459-1137
(617) 965-9637
They put this worksheet together so that parents would know
what NOT to fall for and can prepare answers to many of the flaky excuses they may be
given. |
