School Bans Disabled Girl from Using Walker

[CrazyinVA]

Did you guys see this on the Today show this morning? Watch the video segment in the article. The audio of the school adminstrator, and hearing the tone in his voice, just burned me up. I really feel for this parent.

http://moms.today.msnbc.msn.com/_ne...7-school-bans-disabled-girl-from-using-walker

 

[hearts and roses]

I think that's terrible. The child should be given the opportunity to expand on her independence and personal growth instead of worrying about the school's liability should she happen to fall. Also, it's highly unlikely she would be tooling around the school halls unsupervised anyway! BS. I hope she takes it to court and wins.

 

[DammitJanet]

Dang. That voice is so derisive. What a cute little girl.

 

[CrazyinVA]

Youngest had a couple teachers that would adopt that tone in her IEP meetings. This brought back memories :-/ I can sort of see their side when it comes to wanting a medical opinion on the walker, but, I assume the girl has an aide..I can' t see what the big deal is in letting her use it while they wait for the doctor to weigh in. And, the attitude is just SO uncaring and belittling.. even when he knew he was being taped. Then I noticed, this is in Texas. Seems we hear an awful lot about Texas and this attitude of Special Education administrators there.

 

[slsh]

Don't even get me started.... just disgusting, and that administrator needs a remedial course in .... I don't even know what. What a complete horse's posterior (with apologies to horses).

Use or lose it *especially* applies to kids with CP.

If they're so concerned about her falling - GIVE HER A 1:1 AIDE!!!! Guarandarntee you pigs will fly first - much easier to put her in a wheelchair and forget about her.

Utterly ridiculous.

 

[susiestar]

I do think the administrator was totally inappropriate in the way he spoke to the mother. I do NOT see why the mom could not get a note from the dr saying the girl should be in her walker not a wheelchair. There ARE legal issues here and they probably DO need something from the doctor saying she is safe to use the walker with-o the leg braces or the with the leg braces if she is not in the wheelchair. If the ONLY thing they have from the doctor is that she is to be in a wheelchair, then there ARE rules that say they have to follow that.

I DO think they are wrong to let that admin be anywhere NEAR this family, but I also think that a note from teh dr would fix this fast. But this is EXACTLY why I flat out REFUSED to move to TX when husband had a good job offer there. They are NOTORIOUS for not working iwth families of sped kids or kids who are different in any way. We have a friend who moved from a small town in TX when they refused to put their sons on stims - EVERY child in the elem school was on them. The school actually sent people to the classrooms with medications every so many hours because the kds were all on the same medications rx'd by the same 2 docs in town. The town later made headlines for a short period of time because one parent tried to take her kdis off the medications and the school filed charges.

This seems very typical for TX to me. I also don't see why the mom doesn't just get a dr note, it seems like it would solve things. The school seems to be saying they want that note, and we had to provide that even for my kids to take crutches to school after a knee injury or badly sprained ankle.

The admin was terribly offensive though, and certainly needs to be moved and retrained. I do applaud the mom for standing up for her kid.

 

[Lothlorien]

His tone is certainly out of line, BUT, I could see how this little girl could fall and get hurt. She needs assistance. I can see them telling her a wheelchair would be necessary until they were able to provide her with assistance/aide. See, I see it from the angle that the school is afraid of getting sued if this little girl falls and has either more serious injuries or hits her head and ends up in a coma or dies. It doesn't seem like the school wants to provide the aide, so they are just going to wheelchair bound, which is wrong and clearly not in the best interest of the child.

 

[Kathy813]

See, I see it from the angle that the school is afraid of getting sued if this little girl falls and has either more serious injuries or hits her head and ends up in a coma or dies.

That was my first reaction, too. Nowadays, schools get sued if a child falls and skins a knee. I'm sure that they were afraid the little girl would fall and hurt herself and they would be held liable. She even fell at the end of the video with her mom standing next to her.

There was also a statement at the end that the mom was not forthcoming with information from the doctor. As always, there is more than one side to any story.

That said, the administrator certainly could have handled the conversation more professionally. He sounded like a difficult child.

~Kathy

 

[Hound dog]

I see the schools point. And yes, I thought I'd never hear myself say that. I feel for the mom and the child, omg of course I do. BUT I can't say I blame the school for wanting it in writing from the child's docs about her not using the leg braces with the walker as was apparently done prior. I'm sure their insurance would give them hades for not requiring such documentation to protect them from lawsuits. And I'm not so sure a court would back Mom up in this instance, regardless of any empathy for the mom and child.

Travis was supposed to have a 1:1 aide from the time he got his IEP. He had an aide for 2 yrs and she certainly wasn't 1:1, she was terrific but they had her helping at least 2 other students that I know of. Then they let her go and Travis never saw another aide again, neither has any other child. This might have changed recently when the state came in to evaluate the school due to so many complaints. But Alex needs a 1:1 too and I know he doesn't get it.

This brings back unpleasant memories for me too. There was never an IEP meeting where I didn't have to go nose to nose with someone. Never. Didn't matter how many detailed doctor reports and evaluations and test results I went in with, every single meeting was a fight. And every single year I had to call new meetings because they weren't following his IEP. I have had that attitude shoved in my face so many times over the years I'm surprised I don't have PTSD from it. I supposed it's no small wonder why they can't stand me (yes even now), I never followed their lead quietly.

So yeah, I totally get the Mom's point of view. That child needs to use it or lose it. With cp it's very easy to lose ground quickly, ground that probably won't be recovered again.

 

[flutterby]

Yet one more school administrator usurping a parent's authority at the expense of the child. The line, "You are not concerned about La Kay", has me extremely angry. I've been talked to this exact same way by admin's in my district who find it easier to blame the parent than admit the child has a disability.

You're not going to get me to believe for one minute that that man has this child's interest in mind, I don't care how many people talk about liability issues (by the way, they didn't address with the mother during this interview about doctor's notes, however in the youtube video linked in the article it states that there are multiple notes from doctor's to the school district). Parents sue for everything and schools have to be extra cautious? My daughter suffered a concussion at a before school gym activity and the school personnel finally called me after 1pm - highly annoyed that my daughter kept coming to the office complaining about her ears hurting, but she didn't have a fever. Gee, they didn't seem to be worried about being sued OR about my child being injured. My daughter had a massive panic attack in the middle of an IEP meeting (hyperventilating, sobbing, unable to move) and not only did all of the school staff ignore her, they wouldn't even stop talking so I could calm her. Then after it took 2 of us to get her out of the room, they continued the meeting - illegally - without me present for 45 minutes while I calmed my child. The SpEd Director actually left while I was out calming my child. But there is nothing wrong with my child except for me.

Too much been there done that to give this school district - especially knowing it's Texas, and hearing the man speak - any benefit of the doubt.

 

[susiestar]

Liability is only part of it. There are regulations that require ANY healthcare medication/device to have orders from a dr if they are to be used/whatever in schools. It is NOT the school's policy or their ins co, it is part of the law. They MUST have that document from the dr or they are not legally allowed to let her use it. We went through this with a friend who is the top legal aide atty in our region. The walker/wheelchair/braces/whatever are seen as being pretty much the same thing as medication and if there are not OTC directions for use then they cannot be used in schools. I don't fully buy the lawsuit thing, though ti can happen, because here we could not sue when Jess broke her teeth by hitting a concrete column that is less than 30 inches from the middle of a doorway - it is literally in the middle of the opening of the door, less than 30 inches into the building. We could not get school to pay for the tooth repairs (the front two teeth broke totally in half) and we had no legal grounds to sue them on according to the six atty's I spoke to.

If they HAVE notes/documentation from the dr? then the school is WAY WAY WAAAAAAAY out of line. The admin is way out of line and there is NEVER an excuse for an admin to tell a parent they don't care about their child. Texas is HORRIBLE about providing what kids who are not cookie cutter pcs need and they are rather proud of this, which in my opinion is abominable.

I DO hope the mom wins AND sues, because if they are this way about her walker, what are they like regarding her other issues? The thought of moving to TX with a special needs child truly frightened me. I LOVE Austin and in many ways would love to live there, but when we had a chance I didn't even consider it because I had already heard a LOT of things about how they treat kids who are different.

 

[slsh]

Susie - gotta tell you - not once has an rx ever been written for Boo to use his with-c in school. Nor was there an rx ever written for him to use the walker when he was using a walker in 1st and 2nd grade.

I still maintain this is for SD convenience - far more work for SD staff to have a kid use a walker than a kid use a with-c. They have to watch a kid in a walker. with-cs are just parked.