'sDrama and Baseball IEp was today....

[Guest guest]

Many of you have been following the saga of 's drama teacher trying to remove him and the baseball coach who had said he would not be allowing to be an assistant this year again...First of all THANK YOU to everybody who helped me with the details, laws and advice and ESPECIALLY prayers!!!. I REALLY appreciate it all!

Here's the basic re-cap of the meeting today:

’s IEP today was weird…in a good way. Last night I had an email from a friend of mine to come by her house this morning and pick up a letter that 8 of the boys who played baseball last year were writing on ’s behalf.

Here’s what the letter said:

TO Whom it May Concern:

Although we could not retrieve all members of the 07-08 Varsity baseball team on such late notice, we believe they would agree and feel the same way of this situation. We are writing on behalf of McElwee. was a blessing for the Varsity 07-08 baseball team. He was always there for a friendly smile, hilarious joke, or an inspiring pat on the back. showed us that sports aren’t all about winning or losing; it’s about loving the game and coming together as a team. truly brought last years varsity baseball team together. Whether it was the juniors or seniors, or starters and subs, we all had something in common: . was in no way a distraction for our baseball team what so ever. If anything, he loosened our team up. After six months of being out of high school, we look back and realize brought out the best in us. Not only did the game become more fun, but daily life as well. would brighten up our day. Just to see him, and know how happy he was to be there, made us feel so lucky to be able to compete and be able to enjoy the game of baseball. He inspired us to try our best not only in baseball and school, but life in general. To take away McElwee’s joy of being with the varsity baseball team, not only will take away his happiness, but take away the inspiration to the players, the people in the stands and even the opposing team. You really have to think and realize how much this means to . We understand that there are positives and negatives; however, it seems crucial to allow to be a part of this baseball program. He was the happiest kid in the world, with a smile always on his face whenever he stepped onto the ballfield. We strongly believe that the benefit of allowing to be a part of the baseball program far outweigh the reasons for not having him there. If the main reason for not allowing to take part in the baseball program this year is because he may be a distraction, this statement obviously is not true. Last year, the baseball program had one of its most successful years in the last decade as we went to the second round of CIF playoffs. To , baseball is not just a game, it’s his happiness, his joy, and his getaway to his tough everyday life. Why would you want to take that away from him? It’s not that should be kept off the baseball field, it should be who ever is standing in his way.

Sincerely,

The 2007-2008 Trabuco Hills Varsity Baseball Team Members:

(then 8 boys signed it)

We entered the IEP with our entourage including our Educational Consultant (advocate), A parent whose daughter was the first student included in our district who has Down syndrome (had to do the fair hearing to pave the way for the rest of us), a parent whose son has also been discriminated against in drama, a private drama coach who also had in her programs in the past, me and my husband.

There in the room already, Drama teacher, Baseball Coach, school psychologist, the district special ed representative, and ’s aide..it was obvious they had already had a ‘pre-meeting’ meeting.

We were surprised that the coach was there. We thought the decision that would not help was made and we were ready to ask about other sports for to be involved with….

The meeting began with the baseball coach explaining that CAN assist with the team and explaining his stipulations that we had previously agreed upon before he changed his mind. We discussed giving a list of ‘duties’ to perform and I suggested as a motivator that he tell if he doesn’t them right for a month, and doesn’t argue, etc then he could ride with them on the bus to an away game and I would meet them there and sit with him in the stands. I also was able to make sure this was on his transcript as ‘Assistant-Baseball’.

The coach finished up and I said, “Thank you so much, we really appreciate this, here’s a letter that some of the guys who graduated last year wrote on ’s behalf.” He said, “Oh, I know about that, The team has been really pounding me,” And he made the hand gesture with one hand open and the other one punching it as though he was being ‘beat up’ by the ‘team’.

********side-note here: we were thrilled at the outcome of this part of the meeting…but when we got home we had a phone call from one of the boys who had written the letter’s Mom…turns out 2 of the boys are seniors this year and he coach brought one into his office and said, “Are you trying to get me fired? ’s mom wanted in the dugout and wanted him to ride the bus to all the away games and she was going to sue the school. She lied to you guys I never said he couldn’t be on the team, I just said he couldn’t be in the dugout during the games.”

-----two issues…1. there was an IEP and there is confidentiality and he shouldn't be talking about what was discussed 2. that was a lie that he told the kid, who then text’d my friend’s son and said, “’s mom lied to us…” We never asked for dug out during the game and the bus only came up during this meeting for the first time...and as a 'reward' not evey time.

We think we are just going to take the high road on this and not address it, but have not decided….any advice would be appreciated

We then moved to a larger conference room because of my entourage and two of the assistant principals arrived…the one in charge of special education and the one in charge of school sports.

Then Drama…the drama teacher also had changed his tune…and complained he had too many students and agreed that could be in his class the rest of the year…we talked about the play and he said that he wouldn’t be responsible for during after school rehearsals. Our Educational Consultant said, ‘Are you responsible for the other students when they are here rehearsing after school?” He said, “Yes.” She said, “Then you have to be responsible for too.” We discussed an aide for after school, I had the Title 34 federal regulations that provide for supplementary aids and services for non-academic and extracurricular activities and said, “If you believe needs an aide for rehearsals after school then the district has to provide one.” The District Representative said, “That’s not the way we interpret that here.” The Drama teacher said, “I can get one of my student aides to supervise .” And the objection went away.

There was some discussion between ’s independent drama coach and the drama teacher about techniques that work with and he showed a little trepidation regarding ’s stubbornness and I took the opportunity then to address the administrators.

I said, “It's only been 3 years since this school has had "severely handicapped" students on campus. How much in-servicing of the regular education staff has occurred since the class was established here 3 years ago?” Blank stares, then the district person said, “Well, the first year there was a one hour in-service during a teacher in-service day.” My response, “And no more?” I looked at the drama teacher and he shook his head ‘no’. I looked at the assistant principals and said, “The administration at this school has got to provide basic in-service training for your regular educators on including students with Special Needs in their classes. At least a 4 hour course on behavior and interpreting behavior… Just knowing that behavior equals communication and having some basis tools to address that would go a long way in empowering them. Right now what’s happening is the school psychologist comes to an IEP, a parent asks for an elective for their student, then he goes and talks to the teacher who is immediately scared because they don’t know anything about people with disabilities and they say ‘no’ out of fear. THEN the school psychologist has to come back to the parents and make stuff up about why the kid can’t be in that class. The regular educators have to also know that the IEP drives the placement, and they can’t say ‘no’ because they are afraid. Please, when a student with special educational needs is going into a regular ed class, please spend some time educating the teacher about the students needs…don’t just give them an IEP and be done with it.”

’s case carrier was nodding the entire time n agreement with me.

And that was it...we got everything we wanted and more!

Thanks again to all who helped, I'm hoping all will go well from now on!