When one determined warrior-mama speaks out for her special needs child, she fights for every special needs child in every school district that needs to be held accountable for their actions - actions that violate the American Disabilities Act - actions that harm a special needs childs right to a fair and inclusive education in a public school. Last night, Heather Ash Pereira s powerful message echoed far beyond the walls of a Gates Chili School District classroom; and even though the members of the school board for this school district have been under a gag order not to respond, Ill guarantee that their hearts cried out and their minds wrestled with the injustice that the work of a few have tried to impose on them. They have a golden opportunity to do the right thing for a 7 year old little girl and her service dog - but before they do that, they owe Dog for Devyn , her mom and their community an explanation and an apology for what theyve done - collectively, the Gates Chili School district is on a slippery slope because the way in which they got to this point is questionable - What is hard to grasp is that this school district came to the BEST least restrictive, cost effective reasonable accommodation for Devyns service dog and for reasons that they have deliberately chosen NOT to share with anyone and in a manner that stinks of underhanded behavior, they removed what was working because .... ? Theyre not saying anything. And their time is running out. Heathers voice - Devyns voice - grows stronger every day. Last night, Heather set out to win the hearts and minds of a seemingly unresponsive school board. Did she do that? Today, thats the wrong question to ask. Today, the question to ask is: How much longer will it take for justice to be served?
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 10:45:59 +0000