On Monday, June 6, at 5:30- 8:30, The CAC Community Advisory Council, and Pasadena Unified School District Special Ed Department, held a event at University Club of Pasadena, 125 N. Oakland Ave., Pasadena.
My family and a small group of friends stood outside of this event next to my truck with signs on it reflecting posiitiive, proactive statements, but statements nonentheless. A community member sotood with us as well, and introduced us to members of the board, and members of the community we live in.
Our friends helped us with emotional and physical support, helping to draw the signs, and helping pass out the following statement. We are grateful beyond words.
The police were called on us; a single car arrived, took a look, and left. We were a small group, peacefully assembled, and had not broken any laws.
It is truly pathetic that the police were called, perhaps the organizers had forgotten that WE WERE GUESTS, WE ARE PARENTS, and we belonged there. We had simply chosen to stand outside in the cold. That was the whole point- like my son, and thousands of other children with austism spectrum disorder, we were
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
Between October, 2010, and January, 2011, a group of parents from Sierra Madre Elementary School (Pasadena Unified School District) met on the school campus, a public park in Sierra Madre, with the PUSD superintendent, with the school principal, and with a PUSD board member, filed misleading and false reports with SMPD against a 7 year old child with autism, all with the agenda of removing the child from his classroom. This agenda remained unchecked.
We were given no information of these parent led discussions about our child and his challenges, including his behavioral challenges. We were denied a voice in this dialogue. For approximately 6 months PUSD had denied these meetings had even taken place. However, on Friday, June 2, we received notification that the district did indeed have knowledge of these meetings.
Rather than directly addressing and curtailing this group of aggressive parents we assert that members of PUSD began using offensive, derogatory, and inflammatory language against my child-in order to excuse years of inappropriate physical restraints and holds, punishment, inconsistent behavioral interventions, & failed program implementation.
Beginning two months ago my family began contacting the Community Advisory Committee, as well as PUSD regarding specific questions concerning an autism audit, and asked for information on requesting a Least Restrictive Environment audit. We received no response.
Our objective is, and has always been, to examine the environments within, and around the schools to determine a needs assessment, as well as a plan of action and implementation to ensure that what happened to our child does not happen to another child ever again.
Tonight the CAC will honor the hard work of educators in the field of special education. It is not our desire to draw away attention from the people being recognized tonight. We appreciate, and respect what you do for our children.
We wish, however to bring attention to a hidden disability, that being autistim spectrum and how it continues to be grossly misjudged in our society, communities, and, yes, our schools. The community response to these children can be harsh, and unforgiving- often not separating the child from the behaviors that result from communication and sensory challenges.
We stand with the CAC in its mission statement, and specifically with its vision that “by 2015 all Special Education students will be serviced properly by PUSD in their home schools.” We also support that the CAC is designed to give parents a voice in special education implementation.
However, we are concerned that PUSD special education program implementation is systemically flawed, and what has happened to our child- and the PUSD response to our concerns- will occur again if we do not bring this discussion to the table in a public forum. We want to remind PUSD, and the Sierra Madre Elementary School community, that we, too, are members of a community, and that we, too have a voice, and that we, too, can gather support, and that we, too, can activate a positive call to action.
We are formally delivering this message to PUSD.
We request
1. That PUSD send a clear and concise message to Sierra Madre Elementary School- as well as other schools in PUSD- that bullying, whether it is by children, or parent vigilante groups, will NOT be tolerated, and will be handled as the hateful, ignorant acts that they are;
2. That the Pasadena Unified School District formally apologize to my family for its failure to keep us informed about the events that unfolded in October, 2010, and for the information it failed to release to us regarding the events of community bullying that targeted our child;
3. That PUSD stop trying to segregate our child from his home community and refrain from using derogatory, negative, and inflammatory labels against children with autism and other “hidden” disabilities, including my child;
4. That PUSD firmly establish a support network, and community supports, including disability awareness, before placing a child with disabilities into a general ed classroom.
5. That PUSD acknowledge that the findings in its independent audits are systemic deficits, and that these same deficits impacted our child’s inclusion in his community: transition planning, consistent data collection and documentation, social skills development, lack of staff training in autistic spectrum disorders, and deficits in behavior planning and implementation;
6. That PUSD implement an anti-bullying program to specifically address discrimination against people with autistic spectrum disorders;
7. That PUSD revisit its parent volunteer program, and that all parent volunteers be required to attend parent workshops before interacting with children on campuses; and
8 . That PUSD immediately implement a crisis counseling intervention program at Sierra Madre Elementary School to address what happened in October, 2010, and to start the community healing process.
BULLYING IS UNACCEPTABLE
INCLUSION MEANS EVERYONE
Thank you.
Tony and Mary Jo Brandenburg
June 6, 2011. Sierra Madre, California
I again wish to that the people who stood with us, and the Barerra Family, because by acknowledging us they placed themselves in a position that must have been awkward. I also thank Board Member Miramontes for contacting us, and Board Member Phelps for at least listening to us and accepting our literature. We knew that our presence was the flu, and whether we have their ear, or not, at least they treated us like human beings. Two reporters spoke to us, as well as a few parents and TWO PUSD employees. Thank you for acknowledging us.
To our friends who sttod with us, you may have felt it, I don't know. So you know, We recognized more than 60 faces that went through those MEMBERS ONLY doors at the social club. Let me know if you even got a nod. I did not, and I have known them for months, some for years. They made their statement, and yes, I got it.
TO THE REST OF THE PUSD STAFF, BOARD MEMBERS, AND CAC. OUR PRESENCE WAS NOT AN AFFRONT, IN FACT, IF YOU TRULY BELIEVED IN THE MESSAGE YOU ALLEGE TO DEFEND, YOU WOULD KNOW THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE STOOD, IF ONLY FOR A MOMENT, WITH THE FAMILY OF A CHILD BULLIED OUT OF SCHOOL. THE MESSAGES ON MY TRUCK CAME STRAIGHT ONUT OF YOUR GUIDELINES, VISION STATEMENTS, AND CORE BELIEFS. STAND AND BE COUNTED, OR ACCEPT YOUR HYPOCRISY.
I never thought I would still be facing social Isolation in 2011. To be treated with THE SAME social isolation as my child made me that more understanding of how cruel bullying is, and its subtle manifestations in the form of SOCIAL EXCLUSIONARY PRACTICE is well engrained in this school district's CULTURE. It is a divisive, political war, and not only do I better understand it now, it is clearly NOT just a Sierra Madre problem. It's district wide. It's a culture of fear, the fear of exclusion, the fear of what somene else will think...... maybe...... the fear of losing one's job?
Join the outsiders, then. We want your friendship.
