Dear Ella Bell,
How dare you?
How dare you suggest that segregation is the answer?
No, really, I want to know.
Sure, I’ve read the statement you released, and I think it’s garbage.
Because I watched the video.
The video of you at the school board meeting.
You remember that, right?
When you asked if it was against the law to establish an academy just for special needs kids…not to focus on their needs, but to help boost your state test scores.
The SPED kids are bringing them down.
How dare you not know that, yes, in fact, there is a law against it.
How does a seasoned school board member not know about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act?
Your colleagues threw you a rope when they reminded you about the federal law that states kids with special needs must be placed in the least restrictive environment.
And you hung yourself with it.
You said It doesn’t matter about that…I’m trying to see if you can move them out.
Them?
You want to move them out?
It’s almost not fair for LAMP and them not to have special ed folk to bring them down.
Special Ed folk like my son, Nathan, who has autism.
I guess you’d prefer him and all of his SPED classmates to be put on the back of the bus and hauled off to another school.
A separate school.
But equal.
Separate but equal.
Mam, I should not have to remind a woman in Montgomery Alabama that segregation is not the answer.
I can’t speak for all of the special needs parents, but I can speak for my son who doesn’t. Like a lot of kids with autism, he is struggling with his words.
Ella Bell, step down from your board position and go take a hard look at the Civil Rights Memorial Center down the street from you-in Montgomery.
Or the Rosa Parks Library.
And think about how you use your words.
Sincerely,
Heather Burnett
Word to Your Mother Blog
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Especially the ones with Special Needs.
