Melanie Pickens Abuse Case Update - Fulton Hopewell Middle School
See information below from attorney Chris Vance. Please attend and share this information on other lists and FB pages.
Background information on Melanie Pickens abuse of special needs students at Fulton’s Hopewell Middle School (Warning - it is so horrific gag trigger) – ALL parents esp. in Fulton County Schools should read this information – see what your tax $$’s are paying for:
http://iepadvocate4you.blogspot.com/2013/08/fulton-co-schools-incurs-1-million-in.html
http://iepadvocate4you.blogspot.com/2013/08/fulton-county-schools-offered-hush.html
Fulton County Schools Investigation Report
http://iepadvocate4you.blogspot.com/2011/08/fulton-county-report-of-investigation.html
GA Professional Standards Commission Investigation
http://iepadvocate4you.blogspot.com/2011/08/gpsc-investigation-report-of-melanie.html
Melanie Pickens Proposed Termination (although she resigned)
http://iepadvocate4you.blogspot.com/2011/08/fulton-county-proposed-termination.html
http://iepadvocate4you.blogspot.com/2012/02/favorable-decision-in-aw-vs-fulton.html
http://iepadvocate4you.blogspot.com/2011/08/abuse-cover-up-on-spec-needs-students.html
http://iepadvocate4you.blogspot.com/2011/08/treatment-of-disabled-students.html
Advocacy & Consulting Services - IEPadvocate4you
Carol Sadler, Special Education Consultant/Advocate
GA Advocacy Office PLSP I Graduate
770-442-8357
1105 Rock Pointe Look
Woodstock, GA 30188
CarolSadler@bellsouth.net
www.IEPadvocate4You.com
http://iepadvocate4you.blogspot.com
IEPadvocate4you also now on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
http://www.linkedin.com/in/carolsadleriepadvocate4you
"There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people." ---- Thomas Jefferson
“Refrain from Restraining, Secluding and Corporal Punishment & Aversives are Abusive and Dehumanizing” ---- Carol Sadler, Advocate
GNET=GetNoEducation/Therapy=PsychoNOed=Jail without Jury or Trial=Imprisonment without Legal Representation
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 Chris Vance, Attorney for Special Needs Students abused in Melanie Picken’s classroom at Hopewell Middle School.
On January 27, 2014 at 9 a.m. a motions calendar will be held, and during that time, Melanie Pickens’ motion to dismiss will be heard. Pickens’ attorney is arguing that Pickens is immune from criminal prosecution for abusing disabled children for 3 years (she actually has been reported to have done so for 5 years), arguing Pickens is immune from prosecution.
The argument is that Pickens putting children restrained to chairs in rooms by themselves in the dark was done in “good faith.”
The facts of what Pickens did is so much worse to me than what Fulton County is claiming, and for her attorney to assert immunity is an outrage to society. In civil cases, an attorney who makes assertions in bad faith can be held liable, but it seems that criminal defense attorneys can make any bad faith argument and not be held accountable, wasting tax payer money and insulting the poor children so horrifically abused.
In any event, it is important for the Honorable Henry M. Newkirk and the media to see that WE WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH ABUSE OF OUR DISABLED CHILDREN. We MUST stand together and unite.
The motions calendar begins at 9 a.m., and everyone really needs to be there by 8:30. I pray the courtroom will fill quickly and the hall overflow – we MUST stand up to public school abuse.
The location is as follows:
Superior Court of Fulton County
Judge Henry Newkirk’s Courtroom (just ask going in the door where it is)
136 Pryor Street SW
Atlanta, GA 30303
Please attend and have everyone you know who cares attend.
ABC and CBS Atlanta will be present if Judge Newkirk allows their presence. We need to all stand together on this one – these children were so abused, and my estimates indicate that at least 35-50 educators knew about the abuse, beginning from 2002 to 2007. If you read the over 20,000 documents regarding the abuse, you would not sleep well at night, to say the least, and these children will never recover.
Please share this email with anyone and everyone who cares about disabled children.
Please try your best to be present.
Chris
CHRIS E. VANCE, P.C.
Suite 100
2415 Oak Grove Valley Road, N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30345
(404) 320-6672 - Tel
(404) 320-3412 - Fax
(404) 313-3800 - Cell
posted by Carol Sadler @ 7:46 AM
