I choose for my child

Just because my child has a special need, as a tax payer I should not have to be grateful~with my hat in my hand, for whatever the school district should deem is appropriate for my child because I live on this side or that side of any imaginary line draw throughout the city or the county. I look forward to the day that schools and teachers should be accountable to parents rather than the government.

Not all schools can provide all things to all children~choice within the public system would recognize this fact. One of my sisters, who lives in St. Louis City, has a child diagnosed with ADHD. But because her son was doing poorly, learning nothing after years of being tossed around in a system that had no trained teachers who understood her son and could help him, she finally fictitiously took a residence in a county school~meaning she gave the school district (Kirkwood, if you really want to know) the mailing address of another of my sisters who really lived in Kirkwood. Unlike the happy story I refer to in the beginning of this paragraph, my two sisters already had a strained relationship. This series of misrepresentations to the Kirkwood school district put tremendous strain on an already strained family relationship, not to mention the dark veil under which my nephew was forced to live~lying to his new friends about where he lived and living in fear of being discovered.

When we all pay taxes, shouldn't we demand that the system serve US?! Not the other way around? We had better wake up and smell the coffee. Currently, children are being diagnosed at a rate of 1 in 144 for autism~on all parts of the spectrum (high-functioning to not). Ten years ago, it was 1 in 10,000!! We need to get extremely creative, extremely quickly. We need to be able to adapt quickly. When we let government dictate to us and run us, we lose so much. I want the schools and the teachers accoutable to me for my child.

I once received a letter from the school seeking my support for their mission to educate my child. I called the school and wrote letters to say they've got it COMPLETELY backwards. It is I who seek their help in educating my child~not the other way around. I am in charge. I make choices for my child, not them.

Listening to the spokespeople for the St. Louis Public School district, you would think otherwise. They are perfectly content to make all the choices~though one mother testified recently before the Missouri House and the Senate that her 11 year old son who CAN learn from her, has learned virtually NOTHING in the public school. She has begged and pleaded, made phone calls and took a day to go to the state capitol on 2.13.08 to tell them she wants choice in the system. Her high-functioning autistic child is already 11 and spent years without books. Anyone who knows even just a little about autistic kids knows that the very best time to reach them is in their early years~well before 11!