Monday, May 01, 2006
Fighting With The School System
The new resource teacher that arrived from Montana came in with a rush and a roar, promising great things and expecting great things from my two Autistic boys.
The first thing she did was clash greatly with their old resource teacher, the speech therapist.
Those two went at it hammer and thongs and it wasn't long before it was affecting the boys schooling so I contacted West River and asked them to step in.
A meeting was had at the school and the after effects was that the speech therapist removed all the equipment that she had lent the resource teacher from the kids classroom and left a note that said "read books".
Well, wasn't that grown up and productive!
The best friend of the speech therapist happened to be one of the paras working with my boys. We had never had a stellar working relationship and I guess that the meeting kind of put the kybosh on the whole thing and she would go days without saying anything to me when dropping off or picking up my kids. Not good.
I asked if there was a chance of having her replaced because I had also had the boys on some herbs that were meant to be given 3 times a day, so after going thru all the rigmarole of signing the forms for the school so they were able to give a dose at lunchtime, come to find out that she wasn't giving it to John, she was tipping it out.
Needless to say, I wasn't too impressed.
Called another meeting at the school. By this time I was getting a little irate and less prepared to put up with too much more crap. The resource teacher was telling me that the speech therapist was making nasty little digs at her. I was getting tired of hearing about that, sort it out I told her. It had nothing to do with me.
Then after the second meeting was held, I got a visit.
From Social Services.
I had been reported for Abuse And Neglect.
I just about fell over.
The social services dept were being used as a harassment tool!
I let her in, did her interview, inspected the house and kids.
Inwardly I was absolutely fuming!
I informed her that I knew the name of the person who had done this heinous thing and asked if she liked being used as a form of harassment to bring me back into line.
She said that she could understand my anger, but, they were obligated to investigate when someone reported something.
Push come to shove, when it was all over, they found nothing against me and the care of my children but, they did recommend Protection and Advocacy Services for dealing with the school.
I visited with the head master who fudged and hemmed and hawwed but, stupidly, did admit it was the para who had made the call to Social Services. He didn't want to have her removed from the care of my two Autistic sons, but I pushed the issue and she was later moved to a different room.
We have since settled our differences and although, will never be friends, we are at least civil to one another.
I contacted the speech therapist and said enough was enough. Anything she has to say about my boys she will say straight to me. It was at this time I thought I was getting a warped view point provided by the resource teacher and her rush and roar had gone down to a slow fizzle.
It was then that I was provided with the most wonderful sentence in the world by a great friend.
It goes: If things do not improve then I will formalize a written complaint with the Dept Of Public Instruction.
Boy does that make people move.
The resource teacher had taken advantage of the fact that I had said that the boys could go out on field trips. I wrote it down for a week, bank, PO, Dairy Queen, her house.
Actually turned out to be her chore list.
That stopped real quick.
The head master was made aware that he had better start paying attention to what goes on in the special Ed Dept or there were going to be ramifications.
I may be a tough parent to work with but, I only want what is best for my children, and if I don't do it, my Autistic sons won't do it, who will.
The first thing she did was clash greatly with their old resource teacher, the speech therapist.
Those two went at it hammer and thongs and it wasn't long before it was affecting the boys schooling so I contacted West River and asked them to step in.
A meeting was had at the school and the after effects was that the speech therapist removed all the equipment that she had lent the resource teacher from the kids classroom and left a note that said "read books".
Well, wasn't that grown up and productive!
The best friend of the speech therapist happened to be one of the paras working with my boys. We had never had a stellar working relationship and I guess that the meeting kind of put the kybosh on the whole thing and she would go days without saying anything to me when dropping off or picking up my kids. Not good.
I asked if there was a chance of having her replaced because I had also had the boys on some herbs that were meant to be given 3 times a day, so after going thru all the rigmarole of signing the forms for the school so they were able to give a dose at lunchtime, come to find out that she wasn't giving it to John, she was tipping it out.
Needless to say, I wasn't too impressed.
Called another meeting at the school. By this time I was getting a little irate and less prepared to put up with too much more crap. The resource teacher was telling me that the speech therapist was making nasty little digs at her. I was getting tired of hearing about that, sort it out I told her. It had nothing to do with me.
Then after the second meeting was held, I got a visit.
From Social Services.
I had been reported for Abuse And Neglect.
I just about fell over.
The social services dept were being used as a harassment tool!
I let her in, did her interview, inspected the house and kids.
Inwardly I was absolutely fuming!
I informed her that I knew the name of the person who had done this heinous thing and asked if she liked being used as a form of harassment to bring me back into line.
She said that she could understand my anger, but, they were obligated to investigate when someone reported something.
Push come to shove, when it was all over, they found nothing against me and the care of my children but, they did recommend Protection and Advocacy Services for dealing with the school.
I visited with the head master who fudged and hemmed and hawwed but, stupidly, did admit it was the para who had made the call to Social Services. He didn't want to have her removed from the care of my two Autistic sons, but I pushed the issue and she was later moved to a different room.
We have since settled our differences and although, will never be friends, we are at least civil to one another.
I contacted the speech therapist and said enough was enough. Anything she has to say about my boys she will say straight to me. It was at this time I thought I was getting a warped view point provided by the resource teacher and her rush and roar had gone down to a slow fizzle.
It was then that I was provided with the most wonderful sentence in the world by a great friend.
It goes: If things do not improve then I will formalize a written complaint with the Dept Of Public Instruction.
Boy does that make people move.
The resource teacher had taken advantage of the fact that I had said that the boys could go out on field trips. I wrote it down for a week, bank, PO, Dairy Queen, her house.
Actually turned out to be her chore list.
That stopped real quick.
The head master was made aware that he had better start paying attention to what goes on in the special Ed Dept or there were going to be ramifications.
I may be a tough parent to work with but, I only want what is best for my children, and if I don't do it, my Autistic sons won't do it, who will.
# posted by donna mason @ 12:49 PM 
