Alex Barton’s Mother Plans to Sue the Port St. Lucie School District
June 10, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Melissa Barton, the mother of Alex Barton, who was “voted out” of his kindergarten classroom, is planning to file a lawsuit against the Port St. Lucie school district on the grounds that “‘physical and mental abuse’” were inflicted on her son.
Good, she should take them to task. Based upon the news reports they need to take things more seriously at the school district. The teacher is reassigned and there is talk of the need for training in handling autistic children. They may very well need training but not in this case. This was wrong. A teacher should not allow that in any classroom, with any child, autism or not. If they need training to figure that out, then get a new school board and start over.
Good. I sincerely hope that she wins.
Thanks for keeping us up to date.
Of course one should never leap to conclusions but…..what on earth would be an appropriate reparations?
Best wishes
Placement for Alex with appropriate sorts, in a different school? Autism training for staff and some kind of educational presentation for students too?
This teacher is a bully. I am a parent in Oakland County, MI, whose children are enrolled in a school district touted as one of the nation’s most highly-regarded public school systems. Last year, my then 9-year-old son experienced similar bullying from his teachers. Several of his elementary school teachers, the school social worker and even the school principal decided to run a witch-hunt campaign against him while he was being evaluated for Special Education placement. They refused to acknowledge overwhelming medical evidence of his diagnoses of ADHD, sensory-motor dysfunction and traits of Asperger’s Syndrome as related to his behavioral characteristics, and they were indignant that I was questioning their accusations and inappropriate treatment of him, and their total denial of strong evidence of his being physically and emotionally bullied and singled-out by not only his peers but by them. They put him under a microscope, encouraging his classmates to report on him and write notes to document any perceived infractions, and even roped some of his classmates’ parents into their dirty game. Clearly, their true intent was to intimidate me through their actions towards my son, my husband, and me and they did everything they could to manipulate circumstances to rid themselves of us from their school. And the assistant superintendent from our district not only complied with this, but aided and abetted them! This is mob-rule bully mentality at its worst, completely immoral and unconscionable by any human standards. My son’s self-esteem and normally good grades plummeted to rock bottom, and it has taken a full year of support from of a number of outstanding and dedicated medical professionals, a tough student advocate, an attorney, and very supportive staff at his new school, this past year, to help him heal from the abuse of these horrible so-called educators from last year. They succeeded in their main objective, as I pulled him and his little brother out of this horrible school for his own sanity and mine. However, what they did not count on is that I am now an educated and active parent advocate in this community, who will forevermore keep my eyes and ears open to what is happening to children in our school district. Had I the money to sue them all, I would have. I still lament not following my urge to expose them to the media, and I am SO glad this mother has done just that for her son. I strongly believe this boy’s mother is doing the right thing not only for her son, but for all children subjected to this type of public education brutality. For now, the perpetrators who harmed my son have the luxury of maintaining their anonymity, as long as my son continues to receive an appropriate education going forward. However, had I to do it all over again, I would choose to make their bullying behavior public … and if they ever give me reason to consider such an action again, I will follow in this courageous mother’s footsteps.