The school system is being sued again.
Disability Rights North Carolina filed a federal lawsuit this morning against Wake to get access to a self-contained autistic class at Carroll Middle School in Raleigh. The group has received allegations of abuse and neglect of those students but says Wake is blocking them from investigating.
Disability Rights, which is empowered by the Governor's Office to provide protection and advocacy services for disabled people, lays out some pretty serious allegations in its lawsuit.
The group says it has received allegations of students being improperly restrained with handcuffs, leading to bruising.
The group also says they've been told that Carroll has a room where students are encouraged to wrestle with one another and with staff to release their aggression.
The group says Wake has denied its right to get the names of the parents and students in the class, to interview staff and to visit during school hours.
According to the complaint, Wake has denied the group access to the names by citing privacy reasons. They've also told the group they can only visit the classroom after school hours. They've also told staff not to talk due to privacy issues.
UPDATE
Click here for the online story. Click here to read the lawsuit.
Comments
Who are the parents involved?
Tue, 09/16/2008 - 21:19 — Anonymous (not verified)This could be the work of a woman who is a known con artist in Raleigh, who often uses her mildly disabled child as a pawn. She is always trying to sue individuals and organizations, to extract money. I hope the attorneys involved take a good hard look at the parents involved and whether or not they have previous lawsuits pending or settled. This woman is the daughter of a prominent person in town and often gets by on his name and reputation.
I would not be surprised
Tue, 09/16/2008 - 19:32 — Voice_of_Reason_My daughter told me some interesting observations she made in ES. I do think that WCPSS does try their best given the resources. But IMHO I think it's wrong to mainstream these children, especially in severe cases. I think that it would be easier to provide special schools that have the resources and the ability to pool talent.
Agreed
Wed, 09/17/2008 - 16:37 — Bob_SconceA good friend's brother has Downs Syndrome and was mainstreamed in the Durham schools. Really bad idea -- he really just did not have the capacity to do the things that were expected of other kids in the school. So, instead of spending time teaching him life skills that he would be able to use later, he spent time trying to do long division and prime factorization.
I think we need to hear all
Tue, 09/16/2008 - 13:35 — Lisa_BI think we need to hear all sides on this one. I have a friend who teaches Special Education (not in Wake County). She's not a very large woman, and while her students do grow physically most remain emotionally very underdeveloped. She's been bloodied and bruised more times than I can count, and has mentioned to me that she doesn't have the authority (and often the strength) to restrain some of the boys when they randomly decide to throw a temper tantrum and attack her.
I don't know what the right answer is here, but all Special Education teachers I have ever known chose that field because they genuinely want to help the children, so there are always 2 sides to every story.
hence, the in-depth
Tue, 09/16/2008 - 13:41 — bigwinniehence, the in-depth look. :) This is an area where it is a pretty varied and indiviual situation.
I believe a special ed teacher at LES last year had a physical incident with a student as well.
like NC's mental health
Tue, 09/16/2008 - 13:21 — bigwinnielike NC's mental health debacle, perhaps an in-depth look into Special Education throughout (the behemoth known as) WCPSS is warranted.
Never mind---different
Tue, 09/16/2008 - 13:15 — NCBoyMommyI thought there was another incident at this school a while back.
Never mind---different school.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/2357216/