A letter from a 12 year old

Recently Sandra's been focusing on a couple children being forced to take standardized tests under the NCLB law and state regulations designed to enforce the law. The two children have complicated medical issues and were forced to take the tests, by the bureaucracy, in total disregard of medical opinion.

I have my own (legal) ideas about how to deal bureaucrats who'd intentionally harm a child to enforce poorly thought out regulation. I also have an opinion of NCLB and the proposed Obama/Gates/Bush Education Reform insanity...;best left for another time..

Getting back to where I belong..

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Meet  Anthony Herrea, the 12 year old at the center of one South Carolina family's objection to mandated standardized.  He wrote this, I suspect he had some help with the typing.  He wanted to tell people what's going on, and thank everyone for the support he and his family have been receiving from Sandra and others.  

First of all I thank you for all you have done for me. The PASS test was horrible. They forced me to do the test and my blood went to 344. I never ate anything either so it was not my fault. I'm so grateful you are helping me out. I really am happy that something is being done. I have been hit by kids, made fun of, and embarrassed. My diabetes bag was called a purse, and once a kid took off his shoe and threw it at my head. Before I was taking a medicine that made me sleepy, so what happened? My teacher jerked me up by my arm and I had to stand in a corner, she then gave a kid that hates me a squirt gun. If I fell asleep I would be shot with it. I cried myself to sleep standing up. All my school life has been a living nightmare that was made for me. My mom put me in SCVCS so I'd be safe. I wasn't even safe there. This test is wrong for everyone not even LIKE me! No one should take this test! Why do they so called "need you to take it"? What is this for? Nothing! Zero! Again, thank you so much! Thank you God for everyone who is supporting me. Thank you again.

Anthony Herrera

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In defense of the other kids-- that's what kids do, right or wrong it's instinctive for them to pick on another kid they perceive to be different..It's the job of parents, teachers, police officers or any other reasonably responsible adult who happens to be nearby to intervene.

 WTF did this teacher do? She handed another kid a squirt gun and told him to use it on a child that already has difficulty coping.  What kind of sense does that make?   Add that teacher to the list of bureaucrats I mentioned before.  A teacher is at least supposed to have enough common sense and good judgement not to single out a child for special treatment..  It sounds like this one singled out one to be disciplined and another to administer the punishment...


The system that forces children like Anthony to be tested is No Child Left Behind..  Nice title, sounds harmless, but it's not... Each state had to create mandatory tests and testing procedures for all students, then the states sent the law to the local level to be applied..  Each level of government added something to the law..  By the time it left Washington, no one cared that the law would become almost universally hated, by the time it got to Anthony, no one cared what it might do to a child's health..  Teachers no longer teach the subject, or to students interests and capabilities, they teach to the "TEST"  It's gotten to the point school calender years are defined by the "TEST".


That's bullshit, 


Tell you Representative in DC not to vote against reaffirming NCLB and bury it once and for all..  Tell them to put Obama's Educational Reform Proposals someplace where "the Sun don't Shine"



Constitutionally and Traditionally education is a local matter.  Tell your legislature to inform Washington they can shove their DC Bribe money and the crap that comes attached to it.. Next time your Governor, State Senator, or State House Representative tells you about how much money they got from DC for ___________ (fill in the blank). Ask what they sold DC in exchange for it.  As Rich Swier a Florida Blogger put it recently about the Florida Legislature " They sold our children's souls for 63 dollars apiece."


On a local level, odds are you can get the local School Board Member's email addresses in a matter of minutes. 

If you're a blogger, you know what to do; Anthony's Mom needs the help. 

For more information, you'll find it here and here. 


.

South Carolina Parents Challenge Standardized Testing

Update


If those of you who read this yesterday thought a South Carolina's School Dristrict's treatment of Sharon Johnson and Gretchen Herrera's sons was ridiculous might want to change your opinion to criminal, last night we received an update from Mrs Johnson..


 To update our case (Johnson family), our OCR complaint was accepted, an attorney was assigned, and now an investigation has begun. We also had to file a retaliation claim against the school district because they contacted my son's doctor in an attempt to have the doctor withdraw the medical opinion that my son was mentally unable to test.

To answer a question above, we could not keep my son home for the two weeks of testing for several reasons. His doctor advised us that to keep him out of his self-contained classroom for 2 weeks was not in his best interest. Also, the SC Dept of Education advised me that such absences would be unlawful and that if a student refused to test, there could be disciplinary action. And then if we did keep him home anyway, that would do nothing to help the next child who was forced to take the test against the wishes of his parents and doctor.Though my son's circumstances were unique, the problems with high-stakes testing and the "teaching to the test" philosophy affect all public school students.

The comment above Sharon Johnson's referring to was a reader comment on Sandra's Grumpy Educators.

Mrs Johnson's statement, if verifiable, means the School District made an attempt to either second guess the doctors medical opinion.. something way above the pay grade of most bureaucrats, or was trying to get the doctor to assist them in altering evidence in the case. .. 

At least in my opinion

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Does the governments obsession with standardized testing give them the right to endanger the heath of students with conditions that will adversely affect the students health.?


South Carolina says yes because Federal Law Mandates the Tests Regardless..


This is a scenario that will likely worsen if  Obama's Race to the Top agenda is enacted.. and the Federal Government gains even more control over education.

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Via 

Sandra in Brevard
Grumpyeducators
@GrumpyEducators




In a U.S. Supreme Court determination, Troxel v. Granville, the justices relied on the 14th Amendment: 

(a) The Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause has a substantive component that “provides heightened protection against government interference with certain fundamental rights and liberty interests,” Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 720, including parents’ fundamental right to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children, see, e.g., Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 651. Pp. 5—8.

South Carolina appears to have ignored this fact with regard to two cases where parents requested their children not participate in standardized testing.

Gretchen Herrera's son has a complicated medical condition, which is exacerbated by testing regimes. His medical team recommended he not be tested as it puts his health at risk. The request was denied, Mrs. Herrera allowed testing, and after the first day of testing, his health was negatively impacted. If a parent had neglected the health and well-being of their child, they'd find themselves in court with the government stepping in to protect the child. In this case, the government is endangering the child and ignoring the parent. Grumpy Educators reported her situation here. She has taken her request all the way to Washington D.C., and her battle continues this year.

Sharon Johnson's son has a complicated medical condition, and was treated in "an outpatient day treatment to stabilize children with severe emotional and/or behavioral problems. Among other criteria, admitted children must have demonstrated behavior serious enough to jeopardize the safety of others." Upon completion of treatment, he enrolled in public school and slated for standardized testing. In spite of a written medical recommendation that "he was mentally unable to be tested", South Carolina insists if a child can attend school, the child can be tested.

Ms. Johnson believes it is discriminatory to "require mentally unable students to take the exam when physically unable students are exempt, and she's filed a federal Office of Civil Rights complaint to that end." Her case is in process. Read more here.

District officials said this was not a question of fairness to disabled students, but rather following state and federal laws. The school district attorney put it this way: 

"It's about measuring the school and district performance," Emerson said. "That's the way the standards are applied."

In the 1925 U.S. Supreme Court decision Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the finding included:

The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right and the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.

Is the State endangering the health and well-being of these students by ignoring medical recommendations?