BLOWING WINDS AND RAGING FIRES

This blog was written pre- pandemic. I’m republishing it, now, with a “Hail Corona Virus” message for parents in school districts across this country. 

We are the only safety net our children have. Who tells me what’s safe for my kid? Who should tell you what’s safe for your’s ?

Fires were raging in the foothills and the Santa Ana winds were , according to news reports, blowing at 70 miles per hour, when my asthmatic kid told her physical education teacher she was not to be on the playing field.

He made her participate, anyway. The following day MeMom sent a letter.  Mr Arrogant, the teacher answered back that he required a physician’s  statement if he was to honor such a request.

Mr Arrogant truly felt he didn’t have to listen to the parent. Somewhere and somehow he came to believe his college degree and teaching credential made him both Lord and Master.

The principal of the school was equally as misguided as were the members of the local school board and, even, the schools district’s Risk Management Officer, when MeMom took the complaint against Mr Arrogant to these higher ups.

But the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, recognized the student’s right’s had been violated under the American with Disabilities Act and when I filed a complaint with that office, only then did things begin to roll at the local Pasadena School District.

When all was said and done, Mr Arrogant was no longer teaching at the school but it didn’t have to come to that. All he had to do was adhere to my daughter’s  504 Accommodation Plan which was written according to the guidelines of the Disability Act and the plan clearly stated she was not to  participate in physical education activities when weather conditions would exacerbate her asthma.

The immunologist at Children’s Hospital, who had seen her through many hospitalizations and trips to the emergency room, had provided the requested letter.

But this physicians credentials didn’t carry any more weight than those of MeMom who’d spent years learning my daughter’s asthma triggers and understanding how to ward off midnight and early morning drives to emergency rooms.

The principal of the school was of no help. The school board members listened to the complaint with sleepy eyes when MeMom presented the problem at a school board meeting. The Superintendent wasn’t any kind of problem solver, either, and the District’s Risk Management Officer fumbled and fiddled.

But after the complaint was filed with the US Department of Education, the local folk’s very slow investigation gained some long overdue momentum. 

It took 3 months to resolve this simple matter. A new PE teacher came to the school but the real resolution came at the end of the semester when I took my daughter out of Pasadena Unified School District and home schooled her.

If you wonder if the schools are really that bad, think why I, an elderly woman, would take on a commitment like home schooling.

Students with disabilities, as my daughter is classified, while protected by the American with Disabilities Act, unfortunately, are not being protected in Pasadena schools. 

Is homeschooling the answer?  Maybe the threat of the district losing average daily attendance funding could have some impact, but I wouldn’t have bet on that.

But schools in Pasadena are, now many years later, on the chopping block.  For a variety of reasons, enrollment in the district has lessened causing daily attendance funds to dwindle and schools to be closed.

Once again, the winds are blowing, fires are raging, and people with breathing problems, whether school age or otherwise, are at risk.

But the big problem, even when the air quality in Pasadena isn’t detrimental to student health, is a school district with an agenda that doesn’t include education for all children.

Please scroll to the comment section and respond to Yuny’s, Nate’s, Jane’s or Anna’s position on the issue. And, of course, posting your own comment gives readers a broader view other than what MeMom has to say.