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Date: 19 Apr 2002
Time: 17:15:08
Remote Name: 199.173.8.94
Remote User: transition
Hi everyone, Just wanted to share something really neat with you. You know I was recently called as a witness against Westfield regarding Bret, who wanted to attend graduation but not get his diploma. The parents did prevail, but do to the negotiation the parents paid the $10,000 lawyer fee. He will get to wear cap and gown, get the same blank piece of paper as everyone else, have the same handshake, walk across the stage, attend the after party, etc. His name will NOT be in the program. . . The special education committee thought the whole thing was ridiculous in the first place and was angry that his parents had to pay costs, etc. What could we do??? Well, --- Last night was our ninth annual Awareness Expo. We decided to start a new award, called "Making a Difference". We will give this out annually to a person who has done something in district to improve special education --- could be a student, aid, bus driver, teacher, etc. Guess who got the first one for "exercising his civil right to have equal participation in all aspects of his current school year"? Over 350 people showed up to support Bret, including the whole marching band, teachers, parents, aids from his elementary days, and the high school principal, (who had testified against him!!!) He got a standing ovation. Oh, yea, we put his name in our program several times. . . "The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking --- Albert Einstein Take care, Alice