From: Kristina Meservey Grant, CPNP, APRN and Parent
Subject: Why I believe that S. 1248 should be repealed

Date: February 29, 2004

I wanted to document in brief and bullet form my anecdotal experiences of attempting to advocate for my now adult son who is 22 and under no circumstances would want to be publicly identified at this point in time. I also have two daughters, ages 25 and 19. My Son had issues which were diagnosed by evidentiary and research based standards as Inattention with a Diagnosis of Written Language Expression. (314.00 And 315.2) He was identified under IDEA since sixth grade and was supposed to have had computer access in class.

The School System said that they were doing this and it was only when we were in the middle of due process in his eighth grade year that we discovered that his IEP was not being followed.

We settled, based on what the school system promised in writing that they would do. They did the exact opposite and forced us into family therapy with a social worker working for the school system. Confidentiality was violated and as a result he was forced into a restrictive environment and failed in the due process areas to teach "the negligent and sabotaging bitch of a Mother" (me) a lesson. We were denied access to the consultant who was hired by the School System to monitor his program and he did not get modifications for his ninth grade year.

We had a PPT to protest this but nothing was put in place until his sophomore year. Sophomore Year he had a PPT that was followed but they wanted to remove him from special Ed, claiming that his issues were behavioral and not educational. These diagnoses were reinforced by both a Psychiatric evaluation and a psycho educational eval his junior year, and modifications were not done. His IEP was also not followed his senior year and even though Landmark College put in writing that Eric was in the top one per cent of genius but also discrepancy between verbal and performance IQs due to handwriting speed-(29 points) the school system refused to fund services. We consulted an attorney at the recommendation of Landmark who said that because my son was graduating from High School, nothing further could be done. He was not successful in college until he actually got his own computer which took time because of family financial issues. I communicated with the Board of Education and with the State Department of Education as well as filed an office of civil rights complaint.

There was a semester long audit of the School District by the Office of Special Education. Because the lead Attorney for the local school system was also the lead attorney in the school based clinic system where I was employed for eight years, every time I made a phone call or went to a meeting with written requests for program changes, I was harassed at work. This was within the bounds of the law, as I retained a prominent civil rights attorney who investigated vigorously but felt that the case was not winnable. If the school system had spent one iota of the time they spent harassing my child/children because of who I was, he would have been habilitated by eighth grade instead of only finding himself academically his fourth year of college.

What was appalling to me was to discover how rank and rampant the practices and policies such as what happened to me are all over the country. My son was never adequately serviced under IDEA 1997. S. 1248 rapes and pillages student and family rights even further. I urge everyone to go to the web, look up FERPA and find the website that says "Sample complaint letter" from the Student Advocacy Center for Michigan and read the article in their site entitled "Tactics used by the School System. "

Along the way, I became credentialed by Dr. Melvin Levine to do Neurodevelopmental evaluations. Management by Profile makes lots more sense than finger pointing and blaming. Secretary Paige's comments about labeling teachers from the NEA as terrorists strike a nerve with me-I would not want any of my children in a school system run by him. I believe that school administrators have to be held accountable before teachers. Until then, this type of garbage will continue. I recommend the books "A Mind at a Time" and "The Myth of Laziness" by Dr. Levine and "Learning outside the Lines" as well. I believe that much high risk behavior at all elementary and secondary levels could be prevented if all children were educated in terms of where they are at versus attempting to treat everyone equally at whatever cost. I am sending copies of this document to my legislators and professional and personal contacts as well. I am seeking a divorce after thirty years of marriage as my Husband who is a teacher told me that maybe if I wasn't such a B____ the IEP would have been followed. Obviously, this was not the only issue.

Respectfully,


Kristina Meservey Grant, CPNP, APRN