ACLU of Michigan lawsuit seeks to help ‘overwhelmed’ special education programs in Flint, Michigan
newsdepo.com
At just five years old, Jaylon Wakes of Flint was suspended 50 times in a single school year in 2015, the year that the Flint water crisis hit the headlines. When he was in school, his mother, Nakiya, told Daily Kos, at one point three adults restrained him rACLU of Michigan lawsuit seeks to help ‘overwhelmed’ special education programs in Flint, Michigan
At just five years old, Jaylon Wakes of Flint was suspended 50 times in a single school year in 2015, the year that the Flint water crisis hit the headlines. When he was in school, his mother, Nakiya, told Daily Kos, at one point three adults restrained him rather than follow appropriate behavioral interventions to help Jaylon de-escalate when having issues with his ADHD, a condition that worsened after he was exposed to lead in the family’s water. After finding out about three adults piling on her 5-year-old and another incident where a teacher “put her hands on my son” and left marks on the child, Nakiya said that today she homeschools 10-year-old Jaylon. “I just don’t feel safe with him in the Flint schools,” she said. The Wakes family is far from alone in fearing what will happen to their special needs children attending Flint schools in the wake of years of lead poisoning. The situation is so dire that in October 2018 the ACLU of Michigan and the Education Law Center filed suit to stop what they say are ongoing violations of federal law by the state of Michigan and local education authorities. Relief can’t come too soon. An August report in Education Week says that the Flint school system is “overwhelmed” by the number of special needs students in the wake of the water crisis. According to the report, “The percentage of special education students has increased by 56 percent, rising from 13.1 percent in 2012-13, the school year before the water crisis began, to 20.5 percent last school year.” In an August report by a local news station about Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed school budget, Flint Community Schools superintendent Derrick Lopez said that his district had double the state average of students who have individual education plans to deal with learning and behavioral disabilities. The school system’s public relations firm did not respond to Daily Kos’ requests for an interview with Lopez. But while Flint parents are justifiably upset and the ACLU’s lawsuit names the Flint Community Schools district (along with the Genesee Intermediate School District and the Michigan Department of Education), ACLU of Michigan education attorney Kristin Totten told Daily Kos that the point of the lawsuit is to help educators in the Flint schools, not punish them. Read more