Sending supportive thoughts your way. My post will be quick but
I do have a couple of important thoughts to share. In our system
there is a Manifestation Hearing that takes place when a child
is up for suspension or expel. If that is part of your system I
think you should insist that it take place just to add to your
records. (The Principal, 2 teachers, 2 guidance staff and the
parent gather here for a meeting to ascertain if the action that
took place was purposeful or if it was a manifestation of the
students disability.)
Regarding attorneys...hiring private attorneys does not always
provide the expected benefit. When our son was 14 we hired an
attorney that I had worked with as a volunteer Guardian Ad Litem
some years before. He was caring as well as well qualified BUT
he did not do much in Juvie court with his practice. As a result
he did not have a "daily" working relationship with the attorneys
in the States Attorneys office who worked juvie.
I suggest that you do alot of deep research on attorneys to see
who has deep experience on the issues you are facing. Call the
school board, call the mental health professionals, call NAMI,
call everyone you can think of and ask for referrals.
I'll say a prayer for you and your family today. DDD
Yes the ARD we had yesterday was the manifest hearing. Luckily, I retained an advocate who was able to attend with us at the last minute. THANK GOD! He was such a huge help.
The school's opinion is that the episode was not a manifestation of his disability. They pointed to the fact that he has had many good days at school this year and said that he doesn't choose to hit everyone and can modulate his behavior at times, blah, blah, blah.
I pointed out that it isn't quite that simple. He is coping with several different problems which have affected him his entire life. The processing issues affect how he takes in information, how he uses information that he takes in; understandably, this affects how he LEARNS from past experiences including any behavior modification strategies that might be used. The kid he is right now is a culimination of years of challenges, missed or non-existant educational opportunities (when your kid has a 2 second window in which you might intervene between when he is "fine" and when he has a meltdown, you don't have much of an opportunity to get in there and teach him coping strategies for how to handle a situation and avoid a meltdown). It isn't as simple as "He's had some good days, THEREFORE he CHOOSES to act out in this manner." Like the advocate said "A schizophrenic who hears voices may still choose to stop at a red light, but it doesn't make him any less schizophrenic"
We essentially recessed because we were going straight from the ARD to the hospital to admit him so that they can try to get his medications stabilized. He was actually looking forward to it LOL. I think because we had taken away quite a few perks at home since the incident (pretty much all he can do is watch tv, no playing with friends, no computer, no xbox). We disagreed with the school that the incident was not a manifestation of his disability and indicated that we were not prepared to agree on his placement should he return to school when he gets out of the hospital.
The school doesn't want to send him to alternative school, but does want to keep him completely isolated in one room with the teacher and have him earn back privelidges like going to specials or eating lunch in the cafeteria. I dont know that I want him going back at all. Im too worried about what will happen if he lashes out at another member of staff again.
