topdogfan:
As a parent of a student with documented disabilities, and a parent of a student in a large, otherwise well respected public high school whose Special Ed department could care less about the learning disabled and federal and state law (until the ENTIRE SpEd department was overhauled this year) and as the parent of same student with disabilities that had his IEP ignored more often than not, and as a parent of same said student who actually had to enlist the aid of a professional advocate / attorney, and all but file federal discrimination charges as well as an ethics complaint with the state education agency, just let me say...
Thanks for your support.
Feel blessed that you have had a positive experience with the learning disabled near and dear to you. In our situation, the fact that the school district had six lawsuits pending may have had something to do with the sudden overhaul of the school/district SpEd department. It's a shame it had to come to that but there was some comfort in knowing we were not alone, warped as that may seem on the surface. Unfortunately, it does not reverse the liability my kid has incurred as a result. Those liabilities reach far outside the classroom. Once a kid is labeled, well, you know, he's labeled for a while. Fortunatley, said kid is working very hard to 'catch up' and if there is anything at this point that prevents him from getting some sort of baseball scholarship, it won't be his ability on the field (proven otherwise to too many professionals) and it won't be an SAT score or gpa. It will be an ignorant adult that can't see the value in those messy federal laws, silly accommodations and modifications, who doesn't "believe that he has any problem learning just like the others".
I honestly tried to get through this entire year without going off on this tangent. And as "public" as this forum is or is not, I had always vowed not to give anyone even the slightest hint of my son's situation. There are many on this board that know him or know of him. But as the topic took on a life of it's own to some extent and veered to the topic of disabilities, it would be grossly unfair of me not to mention there are kids out there that DO deserve a chance if they have the ability on the field and a hope of success in the classroom.
Sorry - an emotional topic with me and those emotions sometimes preclude the coherent expression of the written word. I guess the kid comes by it somewhat honestly....