I removed both of my children from this school because I no longer felt they were safe or that my concerns as a parent were being taken seriously.
My daughter has an IEP and had multiple troubling experiences at this school.
My daughter told me that her teacher, Mrs. Adair, screamed in her face. Mrs. Adair was also the teacher involved in denying my daughter access to the restroom, which resulted in my daughter urinating on herself. Afterward, her accident was announced in front of other students. My daughter was already struggling with bullying, and experiences like these caused her even more embarrassment and distress.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Adair was not the only person I had concerns about.
There was also a separate incident involving the PRINCIPAL. Another parent told me that she personally witnessed the principal screaming in my daughter's face while my daughter was crying. This parent was so concerned by what she witnessed that she actually followed me home from the school specifically to tell me what she had seen happen to my daughter. I did not personally witness this particular incident, so I want to be clear that this is what the parent who witnessed it directly reported to me.
What ultimately made me completely lose trust in this school was what happened to my autistic son, who also has an IEP.
I PERSONALLY witnessed what happened to him through the window. I watched an aide drag my son by his ankle and roughly put him into a chair. He began crying. I know what I saw because I stood there and watched it happen.
The aide involved was working in Room 18 with Mrs. Porse. To my knowledge, this aide is still working at the school with other special-needs children. As a parent, that is extremely concerning to me considering what I personally witnessed happen to my son. I believe parents of other special-needs children deserve to know about my experience so they can be aware and make their own decisions regarding their children's care and safety.
What was also disturbing was how my concerns were handled afterward. I was told that the aide claimed she had dragged or pulled my son by his "pants." My son was NOT wearing pants. When the video was reviewed and it was confirmed that he wasn't wearing pants, the explanation then changed to essentially, "maybe she meant pants by his..." rather than acknowledging the serious inconsistency in the explanation I had been given.
I was also given an explanation that my son had been flopping around and grabbing things. That is not what I witnessed. I watched the incident myself.
As the parent of a special-needs child who cannot always fully communicate what happens to him, I have to be able to trust the adults responsible for his care. After personally witnessing what happened to my son, hearing what my daughter experienced, and seeing my concerns dismissed while explanations changed, that trust was gone.
These were not isolated concerns for our family. Both of my children had experiences at this school that left me feeling that their safety, dignity, and special-education needs were not being adequately protected. I ultimately removed them and enrolled them elsewhere.
I'm sharing my family's experience because other parents -- especially parents of children with IEPs or children who have difficulty communicating -- deserve to know what we experienced. Parents should pay attention, document concerns, ask questions, and advocate for their children when something doesn't seem right. read more
