Faces of Autism: 2013-06-23

Friday, June 28, 2013

Kan. Gov. to sign anti-bullying bill named for KC student | fox4kc.com

If only we could find legislators in Missouri that would be willing to take this stand. Bullying by school district personnel is far more damaging than bullying by peers.

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas Governor Sam Brownback will sign an anti-bull...ying bill into law Friday morning. The bill, named for Shawnee student Loren Wendelburg, strengthens the anti-bullying statue by protecting students from being bullied by school personnel.

Wendelburg’s parents said five years ago when their son, who is autistic, was a 5th grader at Rising Star Elementary School, he was verbally and physically abused by a teacher.

Wendelburg testified before the house education committee in February, saying, “I had nightmares because I worried about going back to school and the teacher harming me.” He also said he was afraid to say anything because he thought it was so unbelievable for a teacher to treat a student so poorly.

Wendelburg’s parents said the teacher continued teaching at the school without consequences, so they pulled him out and home schooled him.

Wendelburg, now 15 years old, will be on hand in Topeka with the governor as he signs the bill. His parents say they hope it will prevent any further students from being bullied by school personnel.

Kansas family seeks law against teachers who bully kids | Local News - KMBC Home

SHAWNEE, Kan. —A Johnson County family is pushing for a new Kansas law that would make it illegal for a teacher to bully a student.

Loren Wendelburg, 14, said that when he was 10 years old and a fifth-grade student at Rising Star Elementary School, he had a teacher who would single him out in the cruelest way.

"She grabbed me by the wrist, took me in the hall and yelled and screamed that I would never amount to anything," he said. He said he remembered other incidents at the school that year.

His mother, Lisa Wendelburg, said she found out about the problem that had been going on for months from another parent.

"We knew something was wrong because he complained about not wanting to go to school," she said.

She said until the incidents started, her son liked going to school. Loren's grades never suffered, but he still has strong feelings about the teacher.

"I would like if she would get fired," he said. "Because what she did was awful and wrong."

A child abuse investigation ruled that the claim was unsubstantiated, but the report said some of the teacher's actions "inflicted emotional injury."

Loren is now homeschooled and shows talent as an artist and puppeteer. His family is pushing for Kansas to change its school bullying law.

The family is supporting a bill in the House Education Committee that would make it illegal for a teacher to bully students.

School custodian spurs redesign of autism classroom in Lambertville | NJ.com#/0#/0#/0

School custodian spurs redesign of autism classroom in Lambertville | NJ.com#/0#/0#/0

Lambertville Public School’s autism students return for the summer session next week to find new lighting, the walls painted dark blue and other changes in their classroom.
Change is typically difficult for children on the autism spectrum, but these are designed to lessen distractions and boost learning.
The impetus for the changes came from custodian Jeff Munsey after he saw how upset one autistic girl became last December when a light in the classroom had gone out.
Munsey resolved to make the classroom a better learning space for the children. He set about learning all he could about autistic children, what makes them tick and what sends them off kilter. Then he began finding businesses and individuals to donate materials, time and money to get the work done.
On June 17, the school board gave Munsey permission to paint the room, replace fluorescent fixtures with LED lights, install a window air conditioner to move the compressor noise outside, and hang window shades.
The idea was to “sanitize the room of any distractions,” Munsey said today, June 27. “It took me six months to get the ducks lined up."
This morning, Munsey and a half dozen volunteers began spreading dark blue paint on the walls with supplies donated by Niece Lumber. By the time the children return next week, the lights, shades and air conditioner will be installed, donated or paid for by others, including Home Depot and the Lambertville-New Hope Kiwanis.
“His initiative was just incredible,” said Superintendent Michael Kozaks while wielding a paint brush.
Much of what Munsey learned came from conversations with Gary Weitzen, executive director of Parents of Autistic Children; Suzanne Buchanan, director of Autism New Jersey; and Jonathan Saben, director of the state Office of Autism.

Autistic children’s senses are heightened, Weitzen said in a telephone interview today. “They are assaulted by (common) sounds and smells and sights.” For children with autism trying to learn, Weitzen said, the hum of fluorescent lights is like a loud buzzing in the ear.

“This sets them up for success the rest of their lives."

Reducing sensory distractions allows the students to give their full attention to instruction, Weitzen said. LED lights don’t flicker and they don’t hum. Dark blue is calming. Moving the indoor air conditioner compressor outdoors removes the “loud jolt” the students experience when it kicks on or shuts down. Adding shades to the windows enables the teacher to reduce outside distractions such as a ground hog or someone mowing the lawn, Munsey said.
Arielle Staubs, who teaches the four third- and fourth-graders in the class, is convinced the changes will make a tremendous difference.
Last summer, the class was taught in a yellow room at the front of the building, she said. There was the general hubbub of being in the middle of things and delivery truck noise from the street.
When the class moved into its present room it was already a light blue. But even that had a dramatic impact, Staubs said.
“The overall calming effect was huge,” she said.
Other New Jersey schools may have designed new classrooms to meet the needs of autistic students, said Weitzen, who called POAC, “the largest provider of autistic education in the state.” But this is the first time a district has made physical changes to an existing classroom to make it better for the students, he said. “I would have heard about it."
Moreover, he said, to have the initiative come from the custodian and to have everybody involved, “It’s incredible. That’s a district I’d want my son to be in.”
Munsey knows no child with autism outside of those in Staubs’ class, he said, nor does he know any family with an autistic child, but he's adamant about giving them a fair chance to learn.
“This sets them up for success the rest of their lives,” he said.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Lee's Summit R-7 School District: A Race To Remember

Lee's Summit R-7 School District: A Race To Remember

LS Tribune Saturday, April 12, 2008
A Race to Remember
Matt Bird-Meyer
Tribune Editor

Voters had an option Tuesday of four board candidates for three seats. Maybe the outcome was indicative of lazy voting habits, where the candidates at the top of the ballot get the most votes. Check, check, check and move on. But maybe the outcome was indicative of growing displeasure with the entrenched members of the board. Whatever happened, newcomer Sherri Tucker came close. She was just 2 percent shy of overcoming incumbent Jon Plaas, who won 5,065 to 4,679.

Plaas had a slim 386-vote separation from Tucker. However the top vote getter, Jeff Tindle, had 2,246 more votes than Tucker, and Jack Wiley had 1,878 more votes than the newcomer. Tindle was listed first on the ballot, followed by Wiley, Plaas and then Tucker. The top two candidates were so far ahead of the bottom two that it appears voters were gravitating toward Tucker. I like to think the people who make time to visit the polls are going in there knowing how they will vote, or at least with some knowledge of the candidates. Personally, I would never vote for someone I know nothing about. Sherri Tucker never hid the fact that her only platform was special education. She is the mother of a special-needs son and is part of a group of 40 people who feel the R-7 district is not providing adequate services for their special-needs children.

Tucker didn't go about this alone. Members of the Lee's Summit Autism Support Group picked Tucker to run against the three incumbents. This was her first time running for office, and she's pledged it's not her last. Plaas and the others circled the wagons during the campaign, supporting one another and alienating Tucker as a single-issue candidate. Plaas said single-issue candidates belong on the other side of the podium from school board members.

And to an extent, he's right, Candidates should be savvy enough to know that and campaign accordingly. That doesn't mean the candidate should never hold a single issue close to their heart. To me, that's how the system works. If you think government isn't working, then run for office or at least get involved. And when voters respond like they did here, we should all take them seriously. I can't say whether there's a problem with special education services in the R-7 district, but there's a growing movement of families out there who are saying that. "I don't feel like we lost," Tucker told me during a telephone interview. "We got our message out there and to me that's a win."

I agree, and to run up right against sitting school board members in Lee's Summit is admirable. The incumbents here are typically strong candidates with almost instant support from community leaders. The topic of special education is an emotional and complex one. These students have different needs and different individualized education programs. Some students have to find some services outside of the district and some are able to stay in regular classrooms. The bottom line is they are students, and they deserve as much attention as anyone else.

Tom Watkins: Restraint needed on restraints | Battle Creek Enquirer | battlecreekenquirer.com

It hurts to be tied up and left alone.

Today, in a Michigan school and in schools across America, children are being placed in physical restraints and inhumane seclusion.

These so called “treatment options” are degrading, barbaric, inappropriate, unnecessary, counter-therapeutic, harmful, and in the extreme, result in serious injury and even death. They should stop.

What makes this insidious behavior difficult to detect is that it is often out of sight of public view and, perversely, often sanctioned by parents, guardians, and credentialed professionals as a proper therapeutic technique meant to control or modify behavior. It is nearly always abusive, traumatic, and unnecessary.

While some school districts do not use it at all, it is abused in others, and there is no central state reporting mechanism to know for sure.

In Michigan, in the second decade of the 21st century, there are no policies or laws to stop it.

There is a need to make the general public and policymakers aware that these practices are still being carried out in far too many neighborhood public schools. But more important than simple awareness is the need to demonstrate it does not need to take place. People working with persons who have intellectual and developmental disabilities need training in the proper techniques for preventing the issues from escalating to a perceived need for such interventions.

There are examples of students being secluded and restrained in schools staffed with highly degreed professionals, yet this type of “intervention” is deemed unnecessary in that same person’s group home which is staffed with trained, high school educated para-professionals.

The first step in problem-solving is problem identification, particularly in the case of seclusion and restraint. Before even identifying the problem, parents, policy and lawmakers need to be convinced that this is a problem!

These same sanctioned behaviors taking place in some schools today, when done by parents in their own homes, would also constitute abuse.

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