AG Bell's Right to Advocate Oralism Only?

jillio said:
I oculdn't agree with you more. And the system of defining success seems to be that if 5 of the ten suffered brain damage from near drowning, and 3 died from drowning, it is acceptable because two actually managed to save themselves!
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I get the kids that "drowned"
 
shel90 said:
I know how you feel. When I expressed my interests in attending the deaf school when I was in middle school, I was told that I was "too" smart for the school and kids. I was miserable in school too. Do u have an IEP (Individual Education Plan)? If u are past the age of 14, you have rights to refuse to sign it if u feel that it is not meeting your needs and request a transfer to MSSD?
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Nope. I don't have an IEP. I'm 16, and they're talking me about getting one for me. I can actually refuse?


jillio said:
I oculdn't agree with you more. And the system of defining success seems to be that if 5 of the ten suffered brain damage from near drowning, and 3 died from drowning, it is acceptable because two actually managed to save themselves!
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*shakes head*
 
No wonder many of these kids lose motivation for learning....it becomes NO FUN anymore!
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OMG YES! With just a limited number of tools, they have to work twice as hard to create output.
I also have poor fine motor skills (like cerebal palsy) B/c i could write manually, they thought "Oh she doesn't need anything else." Yet, writing manually really hampered me b/c instead of concentrating on the quality of the output, I was concentrating on how to form the letters. I learned how to type in high school. I really wish I'd been taught how to type earlier. Then that way I could have concentrated more on my stories and stuff.
And I hear you about how kids who are given just one or two tools, are so dependant on others.
Oh and Dreama, believe me..............I really think the gross majority of kids with "classic" disablities need to attend schools at least part time that cater to their disabilty. I really think that states need to make it easier for kids to do "split placement"..........I'm sorry, but almost all mainstream schools generally suck at providing the instruction that us "classicly disabled" kids need.
 
morbid-mongoose said:
Nope. I don't have an IEP. I'm 16, and they're talking me about getting one for me. I can actually refuse?




*shakes head*
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If I remember correctly, I think u can since u are above the age of 14 so I strongly suggest u check with your guidance counselor. The counselor's job is to listen to your needs and answer any questions u have relating to your education. If the counselor tries to push u to stay at your school or tells u that u dont know what is best for u, then I suggest contacting an advocate.
 
shel90 said:
If I remember correctly, I think u can since u are above the age of 14 so I strongly suggest u check with your guidance counselor. The counselor's job is to listen to your needs and answer any questions u have relating to your education. If the counselor tries to push u to stay at your school or tells u that u dont know what is best for u, then I suggest contacting an advocate.
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Excellent advise, shel. Morbid-mongoose.....go into your counselor's office first thing Monday morning and request an IEP. When the meeting is scheduled, I suggest you have an advocate with you. You might want to email MSSD and let them know of your situation. They might have an advocate available to send to you for the meeting. And if they have not informed you of your rights to an IEP, knowing that you have a hearing loss, they have acted illegally and are completely out of compliance with the ADA. Might not hurt to remind them of that, either.

And yes, you can refuse their proposed accomodations and request due process. Do not sign off on anything you disagree with.

And any counselor worth their salt would be advocating already. It is a feature of the job and written into the ethical guidelines outline by the National Assoc. of School Counselors.
 
jillio said:
Excellent advise, shel. Morbid-mongoose.....go into your counselor's office first thing Monday morning and request an IEP. When the meeting is scheduled, I suggest you have an advocate with you. You might want to email MSSD and let them know of your situation. They might have an advocate available to send to you for the meeting. And if they have not informed you of your rights to an IEP, knowing that you have a hearing loss, they have acted illegally and are completely out of compliance with the ADA. Might not hurt to remind them of that, either.
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Thanks for answering cuz I was searching the Internet for situations like these. Since I have never worked with older kids, I couldnt remember what were the laws involving the IEP and due process.

Yea, contact MSSD too, Morbid-mongoose.
 
shel90 said:
Thanks for answering cuz I was searching the Internet for situations like these. Since I have never worked with older kids, I couldnt remember what were the laws involving the IEP and due process.

Yea, contact MSSD too, Morbid-mongoose.
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Not a problem, shel. That's why I'm here! And morbid-mongoose, you can PM me anytime to ask additional questions if you aren't comfortable discussing them on the forum.
 
jillio said:
The trend is frightening, dreama. Integration was never intended to create more obstacles, or to make those with a disability APPEAR to have less of a disability. The intent was to allow for integration by the provision of accommodations allowing for equal access. Intent and purpose has been horribly distorted in practice, and created more obstacles than it has knocked down.
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What the world is coming to?????
 
You know..........you could use the fact that they haven't acted to serve your needs as THE reason that they should send you to MSSD! Obviously they haven't been proactive in getting you the services that you actually NEED! And its been THREE years!
 
morbid-mongoose said:
Thanks jil and shel. :)
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Glad you are satisfied or understand because I was just going to tell Jillio and Shel that you were actually asking if you could refuse an IEP....so just wondering if you had a reason for wanting to refuse one.

And being 16, I'm not so sure you can even refuse one, anyway because they are supposed to have one for you and since you are still under the care of your parents, you might have to dicker with them (your parents before they sign the doc) as to some items within the IEP you don't want to have in there or convince them to modify some aspects of it.
 
*sighs*
That's terrible forcing kids with limited sight to be 'normalized'. It must be making their limited eyesight worsen. And that's not good because they'd end up needing to learn Braille, which they should have learnt in the first place.

The trend of forcing kids with special needs to fit into their percieved idea of normal as well mainstreaming. I know they'd to this to cut the cost but in the end, the cost is, most often, too high for these kids.

It feels like eugenics is making a comeback or something like it. It's quite pervasive and you, at first, don't see it until you see the pattern emerging.
Because when you hear about designer babies being created according to parents' specification and you realise it's already being put in effect without the help of science.

Morbid-Mongoose, you should also talk to a counsellor who can attest to your unhappiness and that you'd be best off at place like MSSD. I hope you are allowed to refuse the IEP and keep on fighting for the right to go to MSSD. Do contact MSSD as they should be able to help you. Your parents are still in denial, eh? All the best of luck to you.
 
Miss-Delectable said:
*sighs*
That's terrible forcing kids with limited sight to be 'normalized'. It must be making their limited eyesight worsen. And that's not good because they'd end up needing to learn Braille, which they should have learnt in the first place.
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Sadly only 10 per cent of blind people know braille. I don't know what the stastics are for the UK but I should think they are about the same. It the moment I am working on ceramic braille. I incorperate Braille on to some of my pottery. I went to this coffee morning for blind and partially sighted people. I asked them how many of them new braille so they could read the message on my pot but nobody in that group could read braille at all.

For those that are interested the message said: "Blind and able. Release yourself with Rehab" and their was a blind person walking round the rim of the pot with their long cane.
 
Tousi said:
Glad you are satisfied or understand because I was just going to tell Jillio and Shel that you were actually asking if you could refuse an IEP....so just wondering if you had a reason for wanting to refuse one.

And being 16, I'm not so sure you can even refuse one, anyway because they are supposed to have one for you and since you are still under the care of your parents, you might have to dicker with them (your parents before they sign the doc) as to some items within the IEP you don't want to have in there or convince them to modify some aspects of it.
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Refusing to be covered under an IEP would not be in anyone's best interest, because it will require an IEP to have her transferred to MSSD from the public system. However, refusing to sign an IEP that she feels does not address her needs is wahr provides that option for bargaining. Once the IEP has been written and accommodations reccommended, she,as a 16 year old, definately has the right to refuse to sign, and to offer services that she feels would be more appropriate to meet her needs. That is why I reccommended that she have an advocate with her for the meeting, as it will be necessary for her to demonstrate why the services she requests are more able to meet her needs than the ones that the school system is reccommending. That is where the advocacy comes in.

The school system has yet to provide her with an IEP, despite documentation of a disability. That puts them out of compliance with both state and federal guidelines. They are already standing onshaky ground, which strengthens her position for bargaining. However, school officials can be patronizing and manipulative at best, and downright bullying at the worst. If her parents are not recognizing her needs, and are not doing what is necessary to protect her educational rights, then I suggest that she seek out that support from those who are willing to do so.
 
Miss-Delectable said:
*sighs*
That's terrible forcing kids with limited sight to be 'normalized'. It must be making their limited eyesight worsen. And that's not good because they'd end up needing to learn Braille, which they should have learnt in the first place.

The trend of forcing kids with special needs to fit into their percieved idea of normal as well mainstreaming. I know they'd to this to cut the cost but in the end, the cost is, most often, too high for these kids.

It feels like eugenics is making a comeback or something like it. It's quite pervasive and you, at first, don't see it until you see the pattern emerging.
Because when you hear about designer babies being created according to parents' specification and you realise it's already being put in effect without the help of science.

Morbid-Mongoose, you should also talk to a counsellor who can attest to your unhappiness and that you'd be best off at place like MSSD. I hope you are allowed to refuse the IEP and keep on fighting for the right to go to MSSD. Do contact MSSD as they should be able to help you. Your parents are still in denial, eh? All the best of luck to you.
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It is a sad state of society when we place financial concerns ahead of the educational needs of our children. What is it going to take for administrators to wake up and realize that the mainstreaming efforts have not only been a huge failure, but that they have done a great deal of harm to educational efforts for students with disabilities as well as their peers without disabilites? I know it is an oft repeated cliche, but our children are truly our future.
 
dreama said:
Sadly only 10 per cent of blind people know braille. I don't know what the stastics are for the UK but I should think they are about the same. It the moment I am working on ceramic braille. I incorperate Braille on to some of my pottery. I went to this coffee morning for blind and partially sighted people. I asked them how many of them new braille so they could read the message on my pot but nobody in that group could read braille at all.

For those that are interested the message said: "Blind and able. Release yourself with Rehab" and their was a blind person walking round the rim of the pot with their long cane.
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Such a pwerful message tothose that are blind, and they have not even been provided with an education that allows them the skills to receive the message. How disabling is that?
 
Miss-Delectable said:
Wow! What a powerful letter and powerful motivation.....

About time we stand up, all of us from all corner of the globe, and fight back & show those hearie who think they know the best for deaf people what we're made of!
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DITTO!!!!!

I was like wow after reading those letter.... I love the people who show their positive moviation about their disablity.
 
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