Recently, a New Jersey Superior Court judge insulted parents by equating homeschooling of their children with child abuse.
Judge Thomas Zamphino said, "In today's threatening world, where we seek to protect children from abuse, not just physical but also educational abuse, how can we not monitor the educational welfare of all our children?"
Zamphino is right that we live in a threatening world, and children are especially vulnerable. What he failed to realize, however, is that the threat does not come from Christian families that don't like the secular curriculum of public schools, or parents of special-needs kids who don't want their children exposed to hostile school environments.
The real threat to our children comes from the schools themselves, which have proven themselves incompetent, negligent and not up to the task of taking care of a budget, let alone a child.
CHALLENGING, TRAUMATIZING CONDITIONS
On this subject, I can speak from personal experience. I have Asper-ger's syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism. I was diagnosed during my freshman year of high school. After getting in trouble for my erratic behavior at other schools, I was placed in what was then the only school in the Seattle School District to have a program for students with Asper-ger's.
One of the most common symptoms of Asperger's syndrome is extreme anxiety and sensory difficulties. Despite this, the school placed the Asperger's program in a room that was roughly 10-by-10 feet. Whenever I had meltdowns while in this room, I would be escorted out by security as if I were the one doing something wrong.
The program was run by a staff member who regularly yelled and cursed at students, including myself, and treated the students under his authority more as juvenile delinquents than the misunderstood savants that many with Asperger's are.
My tenure at the school ended under traumatizing conditions. I have had to deal with repressed anger, denial and trauma over the events that happened there for the last several years. Added on top of the challenges of a neurological disorder like Asperger's, it's been a tough couple of years, to say the least.
My former teacher was recently fined by the Washington courts for using public resources to promote a referendum banning charter schools. However, I do not know if he is still in charge of overseeing disabled students.
CREATING A NURTURING ENVIRONMENT
My experiences are not unique. Public schools are wrought with examples of abuse of disabled people.
Recently, four teens attending Bainbridge High School were arrested for malicious harassment of an autistic student. They allegedly insulted, sexually assaulted and exposed themselves to the student over a long period of time. It's no surprise that it continued for a long time in the school and didn't end until authorities from outside the school intervened.
In a recent videocast entitled "Fire the Schools," leading conservative political pundit Kevin McCollough said of the American public-school system, "They exist on our taxes. They exist by our goodwill, and they seek to serve us. When we are tolerating time and time again abuse of that relationship, we have allowed great damage to come upon our children. It's time for we as a society to say, 'NO!'"
McCollough couldn't be more right, and for the schools to gain back the trust of their constituents, they must first admit their mistakes. They should apologize for creating a hostile atmosphere of fear for those with special needs, like me.
To improve the mess they've made, the schools should live up to their promise of creating a nurturing educational environment for children.
That means many things, most notably greater oversight of who is working in the disabled programs, no more stonewalling of special-education funds by the heads of the schools and no more suspending and punishing autistic students instead of trying to help them succeed.
For public schools to be trusted, they must first give us reason to trust them. Their negligence, arrogance and downright abuse have shown, however, that they are not worthy of the trust of anyone.
I know if I ever have children, I will exhaust every other possible option before I even consider sending them to a public school.
Madison Valley resident Michael Powell can be reached at mptimes@ nwlink.com. He also has a weblog at deschamps.townhall.com.
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