Parental Imprinting in Autism/ Real Cabbage Patch Kids

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" Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

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August 9, 2001 Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp

Also: * Action Alert: No Discipline Amendments to IDEA

* COMMENTARY: Real Cabbage Patch Kids Are Coming:

Artificial Humanity

* Reader’s Posts

Parental Imprinting in Autism

Genentics

[by Leutwyler in Scientific American.]

http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?p23052536

Autism affects people in so many different ways and to such varying

degrees that it's hard to diagnose. It's harder still to discern its cause.

Scientists have known that environmental and genetic factors come into play,

but the complexity of both influences has made them virtually impenetrable.

Now, however, researchers at Duke University's Center for Human Genetics

have found a new way to look at how genes contribute to the disease. And

that insight, which they present today at a meeting of the American Society

for Human Genetics, might just simplify the task of unraveling autism's

origins.

The clue, explains senior researcher Margaret Pericak-Vance, is that a

phenomenon known as genomic imprinting may be at work in passing on autism.

In short, imprinting is a process by which a gene's expression in a child

depends on which parent donated it before development. Unlike Mendelian

genetics, in which dominant and recessive genes control the results,

imprinting is a kind of molecular battle of the sexes; by silencing the

other parent's copy of a gene, a mother or father advances their own genetic

interests. And although initially discovered in insects, genomic imprinting

has recently been found in some rare human disorders, such as Prader-Willi

and Angelman syndromes—both of which can produce symptoms like those in

autism.

" Many children with these syndromes have altered genes in the same

region of chromosome 15 that we are looking at in autism, " Pericak-Vance

said. So they were looking as well at a region on chromosome 7 implicated in

autism, which also contained imprinting genes. To test their idea that

imprinting was involved by way of these chromosomes, Pericak-Vance and

colleagues examined 82 families who had at least two members affected by

autism in some form. Their findings suggested a paternal effect on

chromosome 7 and a maternal effect on chromosome 15. " Once we better

understand the genetic factors involved in autism, genetic testing can

theoretically be offered to families at risk, " notes postdoctoral fellow

-Koch. " In addition, identification of such genes will pave

the way for development of therapies to improve the quality of life for

these children. " — Leutwyler.

* * *

Action Alert: No Discipline Amendments

No Denial Of Education - Not Now, Not Ever!

Immediate Action Needed

Eliminate Harmful Discipline And Other Amendments From S.1/H.R.1.

These Amendments Deny Children With Disabilities Their Right To A Full, Free

Appropriate Public Education. " No Discipline Amendments No Denial Of

Education - Not Now , Not Ever!! "

The time has come to focus our attention on defeating the discipline

and other harmful amendments to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

(ESEA) bill that will deny education to children and youth with

disabilities. Although many have started making calls, writing and faxing

letters to their representatives, there is concern that our calls and

letters are not having a strong enough impact. Therefore, we are asking you

to join with us as well as other organizations across the country to spread

the word. We can increase our impact and guarantee that our voices of

opposition are heard if all of us - parents, community members, educators,

advocates and students - contact our Senators and Representatives.

Please, help us by taking the following actions:

1. Ask your family members, friends, community members, educators and

advocates in your state to call their U.S. Senators and Representatives.

Since Congress is in recess, they should call the local offices of the

elected officials. They may also choose to call their offices in Washington,

D.C. [Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121] The important thing is to generate

as many calls as possible. The message should be: No Discipline Amendments

To Esea. No Denial Of Education - Not Now, Not Ever!

2. It is critical that those of us whose Senator or Representative is

on the conference committee generate as many calls as possible to his/her

office. The telephone numbers of the conferees can be found at the end of

this alert.

3. Tell the President what you think by calling Sandy Kress,

President Bush's education advisor. Ask him to urge President Bush to

remove from the ESEA bill the discipline and other harmful amendments that

deny education to students with disabilities. Mr. Kress's number at the

White House is (202) 456-5594.

4. Call the Washington DC offices of Senator Kennedy (202)224-4543

and Representative Boehner (202) 225-6205, the chair persons of the

conference committee, and leave the message: No Discipline Amendments To

Esea. No Denial Of Education. Not Now Not Ever!

Background.

As you know, two amendments concerning discipline of students with

disabilities have passed the Senate and House, and will soon be taken up by

the Conference Committee as it tries to resolve differences between the two

versions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act being reauthorized.

Both amendments eliminate existing rights of children with

disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and

will, if enacted, allow school personnel to remove more children with

disabilities from school AND deny them ALL education.

Even though we are receiving a lot of support from educators,

community persons, parents, students and advocacy groups who are urging the

Congress to eliminate Senator Session's [R.AL] Amendment no.604 to the IDEA

and Representative Norwood's [R. GA] H. Amdt. no.55 to the ESEA, we cannot

take anything for granted.

If either of these discipline amendments is enacted into law, children

and youth with disabilities will lose their right to receive a free

appropriate public education [FAPE]. The amendments make a mockery of the

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, whose most basic core

principle, zero reject - no cessation of services, has for more than 25

years guaranteed that no child with a disability shall be denied a free

appropriate public education.

Another provision of Senator Sessions' amendment (no. 604),

independent of the disciplinary exclusion, further undermines current law,

including the right to a free appropriate public education in the least

restrictive environment. It allows students to be transferred without

informed consent to a private, segregated school (if agreed to by the

parents and school). Such a transfer will relieve the local public school

district from any further responsibility, including financial responsibility

for the costs of appropriate special education and related services as may

be required for that student.

The private segregated school will receive from the public school

district only the limited per pupil funding allocated under IDEA, and can

charge families for all other costs associated with educating the child, who

will not be entitled to procedural safeguards under IDEA.

The members of the conference committee from the House and Senate have

already begun to meet to work out their differences on the larger ESEA.

Please contact your Senators and Congress persons and tell them to eliminate

the Sessions/Norwood discipline plus amendments because they are hurtful to

children with disabilities.

Tell your Senators and Representatives that it is time to stop

scapegoating children with disabilities. Tell them that as a parent of a

child with a disability, or as an educator, community member, student or

advocate, you are tired of fighting amendments that will deny children a

free appropriate public education. Ask them to improve teaching and

learning for all our children, including those for whom behavior may need to

be addressed as an educational matter. EDUCATE all our kids, don't exclude

them.

If you need additional information, you can visit any number of

websites, including IDEA Watch at www.adawatch.org; the Center for Law and

Education at www.cleweb.org; PACER at www.pacer.org; the Council for

Exceptional Children at www.cec.sped.org ; NPND at www.npnd.org; TASH at

www.tash.org

Additional points

If you are able to meet with your U.S. Senator or Representative, or

if you are able to engage in a longer discussion with a member of his or her

staff, you may wish to make the following points:

! The Sessions and Norwood amendments should be removed from the

ESEA bill. They eliminate the most basic principles underlying IDEA, namely

" zero reject " and " no cessation " of a free and appropriate education (FAPE),

and the right to FAPE in the least restrictive environment (LRE). The

Norwood Amendment (H. Amdt. no. 55) denies ALL educational services to

students with disabilities for certain types of behavior, even if the

behavior is related to their disability. The Sessions Amendment (S. Amdt.

no. 604) primarily has the effect of denying educational services to

students with disabilities if the behavior for which they are being

disciplined is not related to their disability. It also contains an

insidious provision unrelated to the discipline provision that authorizes

the transfer of students with the agreement [NOTE, not informed consent] of

parents to segregated private schools where they will not be entitled to

FAPE, LRE or procedural safeguards.

! The evidence does not support the need for these discipline

amendments; the GAO report on discipline under IDEA found that the

discipline provisions agreed to by the bipartisan Congress in 1997 are being

fairly and effectively implemented.

! Expelling children does not lead to safer schools or

communities. Rather, positive behavior systems have been shown to assist

school districts and students effectively address behavior as an educational

matter.

! School authorities already have the authority to remove

unilaterally children with disabilities who may be harmful to self or

others. It is short-sighted to deny any child education - and, it is

particularly irrational to deny appropriate public education to a child with

a disability whose chances are already greater of dropping out of school,

becoming involved in the juvenile justice system, and being unemployed.

The members of the conference committee from the House and Senate have

already begun to meet to work out their differences on the larger ESEA.

For list of Conferees to contact, go to:

http://www.adawatch.org/ideawatch.asp#contact