Forwarded with permission.
Every tax payer in GA, and esp. in Gwinnett County should be outraged at this abuse and wasted spending of our tax payer monies. $650,000 spent so far on attorney fees and supposed experts (see below). Gwinnett County tax payers should write and call the Gwinnett County School Board, and insist they settle this matter before additional tax payer monies are spent lining their attorneys pockets. Please distribute this information far and wide. Send to your local media. Gwinnett County school system should spend this money appropriately educating A.A. and other disabled children in the county. What a waste. I’m thoroughly disgusted.
Write to the Governor and your local representatives as well. Forward this information and show how money for our children is being wasted. Ask that they intervene. This at a time when school districts in GA are taking huge budget cuts, laying off teachers and workers, cutting our nursing staff in schools, increasing our class sizes, dismantling programs which have been demonstrated to be effective, etc. It’s just absurd.
In this case, it only took me a couple of hours to review records to determine this child was not in fact mentally retarded, but rather severely language impaired and learning disabled. GCSS had given up on this child, placed her in a mentally retarded class, put her on a functional curriculum learning life skills not academics, and was planning on teaching her to be a cafeteria worker. After testing her and confirming my determinations, the school staff actually apologized to us in a tape recorded meeting. They were regrettably sorry for what they had done to A.A. Then county level school staff got involved and the cover up began.
Imagine, how you would feel if you were a child and you knew you were not mentally retarded…………..
Please help us stop this abuse and make a difference in the lives of these children. Forward this information to your neighbors and other Gwinnett County tax payers and ask they help stop this abuse! DEMAND that your money be spent on the children, not wasted on attorneys……………….. Please flood the phone lines on Monday and next week!
J. Alvin Wilbanks, Superintendant
678-301-6010
http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcps-mainweb01.nsf/pages/SuperintendentOffice0~Administration
Gwinnett County Board of Education Members – Call every member!
http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcps-mainweb01.nsf/pages/BoardMembers0~BoardofEducation
If I recall correctly, J. Alvin Wilbanks once stated that special education was the Albatross strangling the neck of public education, or something to this effect. $650,000 would go a long way educating a lot of children. As I see it, his decisions like this wasting our tax payer money unnecessarily is the Albatross, not our disabled children.
Sadly and most concerned,
"There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people." ---- Thomas Jefferson
CONFIDENTIAL AND PRIVILEGED
Information contained in this communication is confidential and privileged. It is not meant to represent legal or medical advice, but rather advice given based on my knowledge as a trained Parent Advocate by the GA Advocacy Office, Council of Parent Advocates & Attorneys, CHADD, LDA, the GA DOE Parent Mentor program as an invited guest and the special education attorneys that I often work with on educational matters. Please do not forward without my permission.
From: GA-ChildrensNetwork@yahoogroups.com [mailto:GA-ChildrensNetwork@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 2:28 PM
To: GA-ChildrensNetwork@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [GA-ChildrensNetwork] Weatherly, BJ Freeman-am pasting this outrageous spending since -Yahoo doesn't store attachment
In the matter of A.A. v. Gwinnett County School District, the attached is a summary of what the district has paid so far. This is the case where the district did not evaluate the child but instead placed her (she is African American) in a program for 12 years for those with mental retardation even though her IQ was tested at age 17 to be a 93. She had severe speech language impairment, and the district discontinued those services in first grade without testing.
What a waste of tax payer money.
The public should know of the travesty to A.A. and the outrageous waste of tax payer money.
Chris
CHRIS E. VANCE, P.C.
Suite 100
2415 Oak Grove Valley Road
Atlanta, Georgia
Tel: (404) 320-6672
Fax: (404) 320-3412
Mobile: (404) 313-3800
