Call for Artwork from Artists with Autism/ School Dist. Sued

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FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org

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

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June 30, 2001 Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp

Also: * School District Sued for Discrimination

* Special Ed. Videos for Parents

* LA Times: Parents Should Know Both the Benefits

and Risks of Vaccination

Call for Artwork from Artists with Autism

The M.I.N.D. Institute is planning the finishing touches to its

proposed facilities on the UC Medical Center in Sacramento,

California. They are seeking to commission artists with autism to create

this art.

This January, UC presented a proposal to the University of

California Regents to build a 136,000-square-foot complex to house the UC

M.I.N.D. Institute. The plan calls for the facility to be built on 3.5

vacant acres on the center.

Space would be allocated for outpatient clinics; basic and applied

research laboratories; faculty and administrative support offices; and a

resource center for health-care professionals, teachers and parents.

Although not part of this initial proposal, plans are also under way for a

school, which would be built adjacent to this facility and used to evaluate

new treatments for children and educate teachers, tutors and health

professionals.

Based on preliminary estimates, the development cost of the proposed

building is approximately $34 million.

According to M.I.N.D. Institute advancement officer Duggan, a

minimum of $9 million in private funding would be needed to build the

facility.

The new facility would support ongoing efforts to create an

international research center focused on study and treatment of

neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, attention deficit disorder,

fragile X syndrome and learning disabilities. It would also bring together

clinicians, bench scientists and educators under one roof to pursue this

common goal.

If you, or someone you know, is an artist with autism or another

neurodevelopmental disorder interested in creating artwork for the facility,

contact Chuck Gardner, chuck@....

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School District Sued for Discrimination

[by Rich Cholodofsky of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.]

http://www.triblive.com/news/news_story.html?rkey=85926+sid=3af5e47a28f96c97

ecfc59a07d589fdb+cat=news-westmoreland+related_name=+template=news1.html

<- - website address ends here.

Parents of two physically and mentally challenged elementary school

students filed a civil lawsuit Monday against the Belle Vernon Area School

District, claiming their children's teacher and former principal excluded

them from class activities because of their handicaps.

In documents filed in Westmoreland County Court, Steele of

opolis, Fayette County, and and Tina Nowakowski of North Belle

Vernon contend their children were third-graders at n Elementary School

when they were discriminated against, singled out and publicly humiliated by

their teacher, Beck, during the 1998-1999 school year.

Principal Miles Kelley was named as a defendant for not acting to halt

Beck's actions when the students' parents reported them. The school district

also was named as a defendant in the five-count lawsuit.

The lawsuit accused Beck, Kelley and the school district of violating

the Americans With Disabilities Act, Pennsylvania's education code and other

state and federal laws governing the treatment of disabled students.

According to the lawsuit, Steele's son, Marc Hamer, suffers from a

cognitive disability that interferes with learning and memory. The

Nowakowskis' son, , was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, attention

deficit hyperactive disorder, and development and learning delays.

Both children, now 10, were enrolled in special education classes but

also were assigned to regular education classes, including Beck's homeroom.

" Beck excluded these children on the basis of their disability.

Moreover, Beck repeatedly singled the children out and humiliated the

children on the basis of their disabilities in front of all the other

children in the regular education class, " the lawsuit states.

The discrimination began at the start of the 1998-1999 school year,

the lawsuit claimed.

In one instance, Beck is accused of excluding Nowakowski from

sitting with the rest of class in homeroom while they awaited parents and

buses to arrive at the end of the school day. Nowakowski was told to wait by

himself in the cafeteria with no supervision and on two occasions was found

wandering alone in the bus area.

Steele said Beck told her son to eat alone at a table in the

cafeteria, away from the rest of the class.

Two other examples cited in the lawsuit accuse Beck of making

inappropriate and disparaging remarks about before ordering him leave

the room, once during a Valentine's Day party and a second time when she

intentionally excluded both boys from a class luau.

The lawsuit also contends that on April 27, 1999, Beck told her class,

" I'm not baby-sitting those two, " when she ordered the boys to stand in the

hallway during the school day.

Finally, Beck is accused of not completing a report card for

for the first three semesters of the school year.

The Nowakowskis contend they told Kelley about the April 27 incident,

but he failed to take any corrective action.

" The effect of the defendant's discriminatory practices have been to

limit, classify and discriminate against children with disabilities in ways

which jeopardize and to deprive them of educational opportunities necessary

for them to progress and develop emotionally, educationally and to someday

become functional adults, " the lawsuit states.

The families are seeking an unspecified amount in damages for mental

anguish, lost educational opportunities, medical and counseling expenses,

and punitive damages.

Belle Vernon Superintendent Dr. Chandler declined to discuss

specific allegations of the lawsuit and could not say whether the boys were

still enrolled at n Elementary School.

Chandler, who took over as head of the district last summer, did say

teachers and administrators at Belle Vernon are instructed on how to deal

with disabled students.

" We looked at special needs training, and we did look at our

responsibilities. We continue to do a little of that every year, " Chandler

said.

Beck, still a third-grade teacher at n Elementary School, did not

return a telephone call seeking comment. Kelley, who retired in 1999, could

not be reached for comment.

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Special Ed. Videos for Parents

[in a letter from Grace M. Hanlon of Edvantage Media Inc. We have

neither reviewed nor seen these tapes.]

Several years ago I taught children with autism. These were the most

wonderful and challenging years of my career!

At the time, I became extremely upset when I realized that districts

were not giving the children the services they deserved.

I learned the best way to help the children get the services they

needed was to help the parents advocate for their children.

This then led into the creation of the videos I am very proud to share

with you:

http://www.mall4education.com/videos.html

The videos have been highly reviewed be prestigious organizations and

library journals. To learn more about our reviews and myself please visit:

http://www.parentsoup.com/experts/guests/hanlon.html

http://www.irishecho.com/business/article.cfm?id=3419

Edvantage Media Inc. http://www.edvantagemedia.com

* * *

LA Times: Parents Should Know Both the Benefits and Risks of Vaccination

[LA Times takes cautious approach to MMR controversy. By L.

Hurwitz.] http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20010130/t000008804.html

According to recent medical findings, many parents believe that

childhood vaccines are unsafe and seek exemptions from school mandates.

Because unvaccinated children put themselves and others at greater risk of

highly contagious diseases that can be prevented by vaccines, it is worth

exploring the possible origins of these beliefs and whether they are

scientifically justified.

If vaccines cause harm to some children, and if we cannot accurately

predict which kids will be hurt, then mass vaccination programs, by

necessity, protect the public's health at their expense. Should the risks

and benefits to the child and the public of receiving or not receiving each

vaccine be disclosed by a physician in a way that the parent understands the

inherent uncertainty of risk and voluntarily makes a decision to accept or

refuse the vaccinations?

In the U.S., vaccine safety has historically taken a back seat to

development and rapid deployment. Remarkably, even today, we lack procedures

for the systematic collection of valid long-term safety data. Documented

cases of abuse of power, unethical studies and vaccine-induced injury and

death may contribute to parents' conceptions.

Evidence of conflicts of interest involving U.S. Food and Drug

Administration advisory panel members, the withdrawal of the recently

approved vaccine for rotavirus (responsible for severe diarrhea), changes in

the hepatitis B vaccine schedule because of possible harm from a

mercury-containing preservative and reports from the Institute of Medicine

are also likely reasons for concern. The institute concluded that (a) the

measles-mumps-rubella and hepatitis B vaccines may cause anaphylaxis, a

life-threatening allergic reaction and ( the causes of many other adverse

outcomes could not be determined because of insufficient data.

Moreover, a recent study suggests that the most widely used current

vaccines for whooping cough may be linked with anaphylaxis, while

surveillance of the chickenpox vaccine revealed anaphylaxis, encephalopathy

(a disorder affecting the brain) and other reactions. Links of the

measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and other immunizations with autism have been

neither proved nor disproved because of inadequate data.

Similarly, little is known about the potential long-term consequences

of multiple and combination vaccines typically administered to American

children. Findings from both animal and human studies suggest that

vaccinations are one of many genetic and environmental factors that

contribute to the increase in allergic disease. Thus, because of how

vaccines are tested and marketed, without large, long-term pre-approved

safety studies before widespread public school use, lack of confidence in

vaccine safety may not be a misconception, but a scientifically justifiable

concern.

In fact, written informed consent may be warranted because there is

insufficient data to accurately estimate the risks; current investigatory

systems are not designed to assess the risks of rare events or adverse

outcomes with long latent periods; and post-marketing surveillance is

arguably research as defined by U.S. code. Because mandatory immunization

policies preclude voluntary informed consent, there is in many cases a lack

of trust and shared decision-making between parents and their child's

physician.

Any potential unintended consequences of current and future

vaccinations need to be acknowledged and adequately addressed through the

sharing of data, resources and expertise by government agencies, vaccine

manufacturers, researchers and policymakers.

Until we can predict which children are at risk from current and

future vaccines, voluntary, written informed consent rather than coercion

through mandates may help to restore parents' trust and maintain the

public's health.

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