Abuse, neglect and humiliation: Not exactly words that are generally associated with education, school, students, you’d think. But that’s not been the experience of some 100 parents of autistic children in Florida, according to today’s Scripps News. They’ve been calling the state attorney general and two Port St. Lucie families—including Melissa Barton, whose son Alex Barton was voted out of his kindergarten class—have filed notice that they intend to sue the school district. Parents are raising concerns about autistic children being restrained or secluded and about a lack of sufficient training and of teachers of autistic children in general.

“They’re just not prepared for some of these kids,” said Musumeci, who says her then-12-year-old autistic son was restrained 89 times in 14 months and, on one occasion, put in a closet during music class. “I think people lose their patience, they lose their temper.”

Earlier this year, the New York Times asked if physical restraints are being used more and more in public schools. One reason my husband and I became so insistent on only certain school programs for Charlie was that our former school district said that its teachers could “handle” Charlie’s self-injurious behaviors themselves. But the way they were trained to handle these turned out to be the basket hold and other physical restraints which have had lasting, and frankly bad, effects on Charlie. The school district wanted Charlie to stay in-district primarily for economic reasons; the consultant who was brought in to address Charlie’s “challenging behaviors” was a friend of a top administrator, and our suggestions for other consultants who knew Charlie were brushed aside.

Besides training, there’s a need for constant supervision and oversight, and support for staff. When someone’s told to restrain a child, does that person pause to think about how the child feels?

Never in my life have I entertained thoughts of being a lawyer: A doctor, yes, at one time, and some other much-less-lucrative pursuits. The closest I got to law school was a summer job when I was in grad school; the law schools career development director hired me to read stacks of surveys from alumni/ae and write up a summary report. “Litigation” was the specialty most frequently checked: Double no thanks, I thought, as I entered data into the computer.

Time passes, one stops working odd and temp jobs, one gets married, has a baby, gets a full-time job, the child is diagnosed with autism…….. Many therapies, therapists, classrooms, doctors’ offices and more later, one finds oneself at IEP meeting after IEP meeting, and then sometimes (too often?) one finds oneself seeking legal counsel (as discussed in a recent post). Being “lawyered up” was hardly what Jim and I—being both educators by profession—-would have thought the best or the right way to get Charlie the education he needed. While we did not have to go to due process or even have our lawyer accompany us to school meetings (Jim had once planned to go to law school and he would definitely have been in the courtroom), things frequently reached a very uncomfortable stage (and more than a few times Jim wished he had become a lawyer).

We were able to get Charlie into a private autism school instead of the public placements that the district wanted Charlie in. But it’s never over till it’s over: The school closed six months later and we would probably have had to turn to a lawyer again, as none of the private autism schools that were best suited to Charlie’s needs had openings for an 8 year old autistic boy. Rather than enter another legal wrangle with the school district, we left.

Things have worked out with the schools for Charlie, though I know that’s not the case for every family in the district. I’m just signing off on Charlie’s IEP (we’ve been working on it since early May) and we are in a position of pretty much agreeing with the school district on almost everything. And yet, there’s still that nagging question in my head: Are we challenging Charlie enough? He is in a self-contained classroom, with a 1:1 ratio of instructors to students and an extremely structured school day, with activity schedules and devices like the Language Master (as explained in this book). He’s not mainstreamed in any subjects; past attempts (in a previous school district) were not successful and more frustrating, especially for Charlie.

Emily is seeking input about experiences with mainstreaming for a journalistic report. I’m very eager to read what she finds. Mainstreaming in the classroom is not a current goal for Charlie, who’s nowhere near his grade level in any academic subject. Did we do enough, I sometimes wonder, and it is possible that the particular level and mixture of what Charlie struggles with make mainstreaming not the main focus of his education right now and not anytime in the near future?

Jim and I have tried to make up for this by constantly taking Charlie out into the world. Charlie’s not ready to ride his bike off on his own, but the bike does provide him with a way to take himself where he’s going. While I was scared to distraction at the thought of Charlie riding on the streets, I’m very glad that Jim undertook this. Charlie might not be mainstreamed in school, but he can certainly pedal amid cars parked and moving. Charlie needs guidance, but he can handle being in regular traffic.

And certainly neither of us had any special expertise in either bike-riding or teaching it. Part of being the parent of a child who has, literally, “special needs,” is that you get good (well, kind of decent) at taking on projects yourself; at assuming a certain DIY attitude, maybe because you just can’t afford to pay another therapist—or you know your child needs you to learn best—-or because you’re motivated by some core belief and, quite to the experts’ amazement, you do what you have to do: A few months ago, Neurodiversity.com blogger Katheen Seidel quashed a subpoena delivered to her by vaccine litigation lawyer Clifford Shoemaker, who has now been sanctioned by a federal magistrate judge in New Hampshire for abusing the legal process. Mr. Shoemaker has been ordered to “attend ethics training and directed his court clerk to notify the Virginia State Bar so that it could consider disciplinary action on its own.”  Seidel is a librarian by training and the mother of a child with Asperger’s, and really good about researching and writing about autism and legal issues.

More lessons learned, in and out of the classroom, the IEP meeting room, and the courtroom.

5-year-old Alex Barton testified today in an internal school investigation, the CBS 12 news reports. It’s noted that Alex’s mother, Melissa Barton, “is not primarily seeking monetary damages. She wants autism awareness and training for district employees.”

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.

An editorial in today’s Palm Beach Post about 5-year-old Alex Barton being voted out of his kindergarten class quotes Michael Lannon, Superintendent of Port St. Lucie, along with more details from the police report:

After he was voted out of the class, according to the police report, Alex went to the school nurse’s office. The nurse and school secretary said that Alex “mentioned to them about being voted out of class 14 to 2.” However, Ms. Barton says, she found out only when her son told her. She then filed a complaint that triggered several investigations. Alex told the school police officer: “Mrs. Portillo said, ‘I hate you right now. I don’t like you today.””

Ms. Portillo told the officer that while Alex was out of the room earlier that day because of behavioral problems she had explained to her students that “sometimes people do things for attention from adults and other students” and that “some of the children in the class began to open up about some of the things that (Alex) does either to them or in general.” The teacher told the officer that “she felt that if (Alex) heard from his classmates how his behavior affected them, that it would make a bigger difference to him, rather than just hearing it from adults.” She admitted that she “polled the class” to see whether Alex should remain that day.

Mr. Lannon immediately removed the teacher from the classroom. Although he has received e-mails “from around the world” critical of Ms. Portillo, Mr. Lannon wants her to have a fairer hearing than she gave Alex. The district is investigating, which should take about two weeks, and will review the police report as well as information from any other investigation.

“We don’t have our head in the sand; we don’t work at the speed of a tortoise,” Mr. Lannon said, but “individuals have rights to hearings.” To him, any disruptive behavior by Alex is not the point. “The issue here for me is did our teacher behave as alleged? And if so, this is about adult behavior.” If Mr. Lannon concludes that discipline is appropriate, he will make a recommendation to the school board that could range from reprimanding Ms. Portillo to firing her.

And who else would be witnesses to what happened in a kindergarten class in Morningside Elementary School but…..the other students?

Just up on CBS are two interviews with Melissa Barton, Alex Barton’s mother, on the Early Show; the video from this morning’s show also features Dr. Jed Baker, a clinical psychologist and an expert on autism spectrum disorder behavior and education. Alex is in both videos (waving to the audience at one point, it seems). Odd One Out has been keeping a list of bloggers (94 so far) and I’ll be adding blog posts about Alex on this post throughout the day.

Just up on the Palm Beach Post are more details about what happened last Wednesday at Morningside Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Florida:

Wendy Portillo, a kindergarten teacher who has drawn national attention for asking her students to vote on whether an autistic boy should stay in class after he misbehaved, told police she asked students to tell the child what they disliked about his behavior, but only because she wanted him to hear how he affected other students, according to a police report.

Portillo, who was removed from contact with students this week, admitted that she “polled” her students on whether Alex Barton should be removed from class for the day. The class voted 14-2 for him to leave.

The report, released today by the Port St. Lucie Police Department, sheds more light on what happened last Wednesday at Morningside Elementary. School officials have declined comment, citing their own investigation, and Portillo, a teacher at the school for nine years, hasn’t publicly explained her actions.

Police and the state attorney’s office decided the case didn’t warrant child abuse charges. An investigation by the school district is expected to take about two weeks.

Parents, community members and advocates for the disabled have harshly criticized Portillo’s actions. The school district has received more than 1,000 emails about the incident, and national news organizations, such as CNN and CBS News, have picked up the story.

And here’s some thoughtful and thought-provoking posts about what the case of Alex Barton might teach us by some bloggers:

First to read is Ballastexistenz on exclusion and the “Survivor” mentality.

Mom-NOS writes about how the tribe has spoken.

Marla Baltes has some great insights about what the story of Alex Barton reminds us to do.

Emily at A life less ordinary? looks at two categories that commenters seem to be falling into.

Shawn writes perceptively about mob advocacy in the wake of the decision by one blogger to close the comments on two posts about Wendy Portillo. That blogger, Bev at AspergerSquare 8, posted recently about Bad Mark.

Club 166 discusses education, survivor, and hamburgers. Manual Not Included notes that Alex and his classmates have gotten “a lesson in exclusion that is in no way benign.”

Kassiane writes about what’s special about Alex. Barbara at MommyLife says the same and has a suggestion for a card campaign. Also check out her interview with Melissa Barton, Alex’s mother, and also a statement.

Many have noted the “Survivor” reality TV show “voting out” of Alex—-Discussing Autism asks if reality TV created the St. Lucie madness, and Left Brain/Right Brain suggests that “Pupil Idol” is nothing less than the spawn of American Idol.

And Autism Insights doesn’t think that children can be so “mean-spirited”—goes without saying that adults need to be models and certainly teachers of children (more on this also at Christschool looks closely at the police report.

This Little Light comments on Alex saying “‘I’m not special’” repeatedly after his removal from the classroom, and Squid writes about why inclusion is critical.

Advocates are called to protect, Ed emphasizes. Two posts on bullying are at Last Crazy Horn and also at Asperger Square 8 (which suggests some positive strategies).

Where’s the Sun? asks what were the supports for the teacher? (As Alex did not have a formal diagnosis yet, did he have any supports; did he have an IEP?)

Wendy Portillo, a teacher at Morningside Elementary in Port St. Lucie, Florida, let her kindergarten students say what they did not like about 5-year-old Alex Barton—–after which the students voted him out of the class. Alex is in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and has had “disciplinary issues” at school due to his disability, TC Palm.com reports. His mother, Melissa Barton, is considering legal action. Ballastexistenz comments on the “Survivor” mentality apparently at work in that Florida classroom and the exclusion of the disabled, and Asperger Square 8 posts about how you can contact the St. Lucie School Board (this is the email) and also Marcia Cully, the principal of Morningside Elementary.

Discussion/debate/dissent about Adam Race and the parish of St. Joseph’s continues—–and here’s another case involving an autistic child and a discrimination suit. Over a year ago, the parents of 14-year-old Casey Reilly, who has Asperger’s, filed a lawsuit against Pacific Palisades Boy Scout Troop 223. As reported in the May 22nd Palisadian Post:

The parents, Palisades residents Jane Dubovy and Mike Reilly, argue that Boy Scout Troop 223 violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when the Scout leaders excluded their son, Casey Reilly, from a week-long scouting trip, which prevented him from advancing in rank.

In October 2006, Federal District Court Judge S. James Otero dismissed the case, ruling that the Boy Scouts is a private club that does not have to comply with ADA, which became law in 1990. ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of a disability, but private clubs and organizations are exempt from the law.

Last Thursday, [Christopher] Knauff [Dubovy's and Reilly's attorney] argued that a 2001 case mandated that a private organization, the Professional Golfers’ Association, follow ADA and, therefore, that could apply to the Scouts.

‘They don’t meet the definition of a private club,’ Knauf said, arguing that Troop 223 is open to every boy of a certain age in the community, and this is the only restriction. Reilly met all the requirements, but when his disability became an issue, he was excluded, Knauf said.

In 1993, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that the Boy Scouts is a private club that is exempt from the Civil Rights Act, which also means it doesn’t have to follow ADA, attorney Carla Kerr countered.

The dispute goes back to 2005, when Mike Reilly was unable to attend a seven-day trip with Casey. Casey’s teenage brother offered to go, but the troop leader did not allow this. Casey had to go on the trip to be eligible to be an Eagle Scout. Afterward,

….one of the troop leaders e-mailed Reilly’s parents, citing their son’s disability as an obstacle in his participation, and saying their son would not advance, but could start again as a first-year Scout.

Attorney Kerr says that Casey has “outbursts where he spits, kicks and swears at the other children”; attorey Knauf noted that these behaviors “would not change because of his autism” and that Casey had the right to advance to Eagle Scouts with his friends. As in the case of Adam Race, it’s the things that he does that are challenging (some would say “disruptive” and even “dangerous”) that are emphasized, rather than what he can do as a part of the troop; rather than his strengths and abilities.

If Casey’s parents lose the case, they can still appeal to the Supreme Court—-so we might be hearing more about this case as another test for disability rights.