{"id":4273,"date":"2010-11-18T11:32:41","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T15:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=4273"},"modified":"2010-11-18T11:32:41","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T15:32:41","slug":"to-wrightslaw-thanks-for-taking-the-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/to-wrightslaw-thanks-for-taking-the-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"To Wrightslaw &#8211; &#8220;Thanks for Taking the Heat&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"To%20Wrightslaw%20-%20%22Thanks%20for%20Taking%20the%20Heat%22\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p>I know that you get a lot of heat, but I can testify that it is very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you are walking backwards. I really needed you to turn me around and show me the way. I&#8217;ve learned so much through your website and this experience &#8211; I just had to let you know.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The &#8220;heat&#8221; doesn&#8217;t bother us, it shows us we are on the right track!!<\/p>\n<p>Read this mother&#8217;s story.\u00a0 Learn how she struggles against school culture to get a safe and proper  placement for her non-verbal son with autism&#8230;<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Wrightslaw:<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for your website and e-mail newsletter. It is very encouraging and supportive. It helped me to get through the worst time of my life&#8230; <strong>2 years of dealing with a deceptive and physically abusive school district<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>My severely autistic son who is non-verbal was not only in an inappropriate placement with physically handicapped children, but he was also coming home with bruises, cuts, and scratches from being restrained daily.<\/p>\n<p>It was torture for me, a mother of four, to see my disabled 8 year old child so beaten.<\/p>\n<p>I went to CPS and the Police to no avail.\u00a0 They only investigate family abuse. I decided to hire a lawyer. However, I soon ran out of money for the lawyer, and she dropped me.<\/p>\n<p>In desperation, I searched for an advocate at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.copaa.org\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">COPAA<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 She helped my son get out of that inappropriate placement and into a non-public autism school.<\/p>\n<p>I should say here that three <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/test.iee.steedman.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">IEEs<\/span><\/a> played the important role.\u00a0 It is different when a mom tells the school that her son is in the wrong placement.\u00a0 I&#8217;m am &#8216;biased and not certified&#8217; to know anything.<\/p>\n<p>When three specialists, who do not know my son, evaluate him and say that he is in the wrong placement, it makes a difference.<\/p>\n<p>I learned so much through your website and this experience. I know that you get a lot of heat, but I can testify that it is very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you are walking backwards. I really needed you to turn me around and show me the way.<\/p>\n<p>We feel so blessed by you sharing your knowledge.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thanks for taking the time to write and share your story. We assume your son is in a safe school now.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, it&#8217;s different when a parent says a program and placement is not appropriate &#8211; no one pays much attention to how parents view these issues because parents are &#8220;emotionally involved&#8221; with their child. <strong>Of course, being emotionally involved doesn&#8217;t mean you are  incapable of knowing what&#8217;s good or bad for your child, or that you don&#8217;t know what your child needs.<\/strong> That is part of school culture. These beliefs are very hard to change.<\/p>\n<p>The heat doesn&#8217;t bother us, it shows us we are on the right track.<\/p>\n<p>You wrote, &#8220;it is very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you are walking backwards. I really needed you to turn me around and show me the way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Yes, it must be very hard to see that light. We&#8217;ve come a good distance since the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/idea\/index.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">IDEA<\/span><\/a> was passed in 1975. It&#8217;s hard to appreciate that progress unless you are old like us and you remember the bad old days when many kids with disabilities were systematically barred  from attending school &#8230; period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I know that you get a lot of heat, but I can testify that it is very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/to-wrightslaw-thanks-for-taking-the-heat\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1368,3,63,529,122],"tags":[341,711,78,280,67,1317],"class_list":["post-4273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abuse-restraints","category-advocacy","category-independent-evaluations","category-parent-rights-responsibilities","category-placement","tag-copaa","tag-emotions","tag-iee","tag-independent-educational-evalution","tag-parental-role","tag-placement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4273"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4311,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4273\/revisions\/4311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}