Sam Lindsey didn't have therapy that morning, so the day began more leisurely than usual. The 3-year-old was up with his mother, Joyce Lindsey. By 7 a.m. he'd bathed, had breakfast and watched videos. Interactive time was especially important since he'd been diagnosed with the learning disorder apraxia; on this day, they used a Finding Nemo children's book about the little blue fish's day at school.
It was late September 2006. Sam had been going to his Lee's Summit preschool program for a month. He hadn't yet been diagnosed with autism, though he would be one year later. Lindsey had hoped that the school would place him in a regular classroom. Instead, administrators assigned him to a small class with two other students, both diagnosed as autistic. He'd been regressing ever since. She wasn't happy but had agreed to the placement on a trial basis, figuring that school officials needed an opportunity to see how Sam would do in the setting. She was worried. At the start of the school year, Sam had been able to use five words: no, cookie, more, please and yes. Within two weeks, those words had begun to drop away, and now he spoke in shortened approximations. When Lindsey held up a cookie, hoping to coax him to ask for it, the best he could do was cough out a chu sound.
"I thought they would come around and see that this wasn't working," Lindsey recalls. "At that point I still thought the school was on my side, that they just needed to try a few things and find what was best."
At 12:30, she told him it was time for school. Sam's class ran from 1 to 4 p.m. Normally he was happy for any reason to take a car ride. Today he refused to move.
"Come on, what's the problem?" she asked, getting an arm under him and dragging him to the car. In response, he started a high-pitched squeal, "Eeeee! Eeeee!" He screamed all the way to school.
When they arrived, Sam was quieter but still sullen. Because parents are not allowed to walk their children to the classroom, they waited near a play area. When a class aide came for him, Sam clung to Lindsey and began yelling again, burrowing his head just below her chest.
Confused about his behavior, Lindsey pushed him toward the aide. The aide grabbed him and tried to calm him, but Sam raised his arms above his head and flung himself from side to side like a wet noodle, shimmying out of her grasp, his blue Finding Nemo backpack bouncing against him. He ran back toward Lindsey, but the aide got him again. This time she held on. Sam screamed, "Eeeee!" all the way to the classroom.
Lindsey kept him in the school until April 2007. In the fall, Sam's diagnosis was changed from apraxia to autism. He lost the use of more sounds until he was virtually mute.
Now, not much more than a year later, she claims that the Lee's Summit School District denied Sam the services it should have provided and ignored his severe regression.
She's not the first parent to seek legal action against Lee's Summit School District for its treatment of autistic students.
Missouri school officials consider the Lee's Summit district to be among the state's best for autism education.
At the fore of its program is Jerry Keimig, the district's 55-year-old director of special education. He's had the job for eight years. Before that, he spent six years employed at a Kansas psychiatric hospital and nine as director of special services for the Grandview School District.
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I have to say that I started to read this article and stopped as it rekindled too many (bad) memories.
Our son was diagnosed as autistic in the early 90's at four years old. We were grateful that there was a developmental preschool he could enroll in to help us. Little did we know what a nightmare was ahead of us. From day one it was a fight. A seriously dishonest and twisted administrator of the program who had a reputation as being a scumbag even among those in his profession was our first wakeup call. His suggestion? Institutionalize our son so that we could �get on with our lives and take our other two children on vacations, and be a real family. �
I will spare you the personal details of our stories. However, I would guess that anyone reading this could tell almost the exact stories. Problems with getting testing done in a timely manner, Transportation problems, Teachers that know how to "fix" your child, Advocates that (take your money) listen to your circumstances, roll their eyes and tell you how far out of compliance the district is and how outraged they are and nothing changes. The advocates and support groups, which build you up just to face the reality that no one is held accountable for their unacceptable performance. The promises of in services that will train everyone who comes in contact with your child about his needs that turns out to be two sheets of paper handed out at the back to school luncheon held the day before school starts.
Due process and DESE are a joke and is a case of the fox guarding the chicken coop. All the district has to do is shrug their shoulders, say aw shucks and make an appearance of providing services and all is forgiven.
It breaks my heart to think that apparently all administration of services still rest with the parents. It�s hard to believe after all this time and the exposure that Autism spectrum disorders have received this is the best we can do?
DOCUMENT DOCUMENT DOCUMENT don�t be too intimidated to video tape or audio record any conversation. (be prepared to enjoy the squirming and stuttering when you do this)
I have to agree with KG get a GOOD lawyer from day one, perhaps then you can then afford to provide private services for your child.
My prayers are with you.
I have to say that I started to read this article and stopped as it rekindled too many (bad) memories. Our son was diagnosed as autistic in the early 90's at four years old. We were grateful that there was a developmental preschool he could enroll in to help us. Little did we know what a nightmare was ahead of us. From day one it was a fight. A seriously dishonest and twisted administrator of the program who had a reputation as being a scumbag even among those in his profession was our first wakeup call. His suggestion? Institutionalize our son so that we could “get on with our lives and take our other two children on vacations, and be a real family. “ I will spare you the personal details of our stories. However, I would guess that anyone reading this could tell almost the exact stories. Problems with getting testing done in a timely manner, Transportation problems, Teachers that know how to "fix" your child, Advocates that (take your money) listen to your circumstances, roll their eyes and tell you how far out of compliance the district is and how outraged they are and nothing changes. The advocates and support groups, which build you up just to face the reality that no one is held accountable for their unacceptable performance. The promises of in services that will train everyone who comes in contact with your child about his needs that turns out to be two sheets of paper handed out at the back to school luncheon held the day before school starts. Due process and DESE are a joke and is a case of the fox guarding the chicken coop. All the district has to do is shrug their shoulders, say aw shucks and make an appearance of providing services and all is forgiven. It breaks my heart to think that apparently all administration of services still rest with the parents. It’s hard to believe after all this time and the exposure that Autism spectrum disorders have received this is the best we can do? DOCUMENT DOCUMENT DOCUMENT don’t be too intimidated to video tape or audio record any conversation. (be prepared to enjoy the squirming and stuttering when you do this) I have to agree with KG get a GOOD lawyer from day one, perhaps then you can then afford to provide private services for your child. My prayers are with you.
I would like to say that I appreciate The Pitch going out on a limb to post this article. It was not an easy decision to make for my family to go "more public" with my Due Process case. We settled by default. They still cheated my son at their Great Beginning Preschool program.
There is and will be always a concern for us to speak freely of what we think and how we see Lee's Summit Autism Program because we fear how Austin will be treated by his teachers and the administrators and how Joe and I will be treated by them as well. But I think not speaking the truth and fighting for our son is the worse punishment we could endure.
We didn't choose Due Process..the Special Ed Director, Jerry Keimig, chose it for us. He decided that when he denied my son the intensive services he required in his early childhood preschool program. The Silent Decision Maker we call him.
It required expensive out of pocket means on our family's part to argue with Lee's Summit about their lack of appropriate services for my son. We got all day Kindergarten out of it. Why argue about all day Kindergarten when the state is mandating you to provide all day Kindergarten anyway? Why deny a little boy that needs help to speak when your preschool gets reimbursed 100% for all services provided?
Lee's Summit is consumed with arrogance and power.
I will continue to speak for my son when he cannot. Lee's Summit R7 can count on that.
Debbie Shaumeyer
I would like to say that I appreciate The Pitch going out on a limb to post this article. It was not an easy decision to make for my family to go "more public" with my Due Process case. We settled by default. They still cheated my son at their Great Beginning Preschool program. There is and will be always a concern for us to speak freely of what we think and how we see Lee's Summit Autism Program because we fear how Austin will be treated by his teachers and the administrators and how Joe and I will be treated by them as well. But I think not speaking the truth and fighting for our son is the worse punishment we could endure. We didn't choose Due Process..the Special Ed Director, Jerry Keimig, chose it for us. He decided that when he denied my son the intensive services he required in his early childhood preschool program. The Silent Decision Maker we call him. It required expensive out of pocket means on our family's part to argue with Lee's Summit about their lack of appropriate services for my son. We got all day Kindergarten out of it. Why argue about all day Kindergarten when the state is mandating you to provide all day Kindergarten anyway? Why deny a little boy that needs help to speak when your preschool gets reimbursed 100% for all services provided? Lee's Summit is consumed with arrogance and power. I will continue to speak for my son when he cannot. Lee's Summit R7 can count on that. Debbie Shaumeyer
I have an autistic son too. The DESW Due Process procedures are a joke. We tried that route with a school and they simply spun the decision in a manner that allowed them to ignore it.
The other problem is the entire process is based on the IEP. In theory is a good concept. But while parents are present in the IEP meetings and can vocalize their concerns the school can still do whatever they want. Parents do not have to agree with the IEP or even signoff on it. Sure - they throw the word 'team' around A LOT, but in most schools if you disagree and advocate hard for your child the school just loads the 'team' with their own people. They have an entire school full of teachers to shout you down - no one can afford to hire enough advocates or lawyers to even the score at every IEP meeting. Then your dealing with DESE and they're nothing but a bunch of school administrators.
If you think the Region Center for Dept of Mental Health, better known as KCRC, will do anything to help your kidding yourself. KCRC is a joke and does nothing but bully, threaten and attempt to intimidate any parent that does not blindly do exactly as KCRC says - even though the majority if their programs are supposed to be 'family directed'. If you actually try to direct what services are needed and not do as they say - they threaten to take away all you fund for all services. The case managers and directors know nothing about autism and they control all the service providers and therapists that are supposed to be the experts through extortion. If a therapist does not back KCRC, right or wrong, they won�t approve them to provide services any more. At the same time they won�t allow anyone that provides private pay services to provide servers the KCRC.
Save yourself some time � get a lawyer from day 1.
I have an autistic son too. The DESW Due Process procedures are a joke. We tried that route with a school and they simply spun the decision in a manner that allowed them to ignore it. The other problem is the entire process is based on the IEP. In theory is a good concept. But while parents are present in the IEP meetings and can vocalize their concerns the school can still do whatever they want. Parents do not have to agree with the IEP or even signoff on it. Sure - they throw the word 'team' around A LOT, but in most schools if you disagree and advocate hard for your child the school just loads the 'team' with their own people. They have an entire school full of teachers to shout you down - no one can afford to hire enough advocates or lawyers to even the score at every IEP meeting. Then your dealing with DESE and they're nothing but a bunch of school administrators. If you think the Region Center for Dept of Mental Health, better known as KCRC, will do anything to help your kidding yourself. KCRC is a joke and does nothing but bully, threaten and attempt to intimidate any parent that does not blindly do exactly as KCRC says - even though the majority if their programs are supposed to be 'family directed'. If you actually try to direct what services are needed and not do as they say - they threaten to take away all you fund for all services. The case managers and directors know nothing about autism and they control all the service providers and therapists that are supposed to be the experts through extortion. If a therapist does not back KCRC, right or wrong, they won’t approve them to provide services any more. At the same time they won’t allow anyone that provides private pay services to provide servers the KCRC. Save yourself some time – get a lawyer from day 1.
Parents and educators who are looking to learn more about autism spectrum disorders can benefit by listening to free podcasts put out by midnight In Chicago at www.mic.mypodcast.com .
Parents and educators who are looking to learn more about autism spectrum disorders can benefit by listening to free podcasts put out by midnight In Chicago at www.mic.mypodcast.com .
Regarding the Lee's Summit School District Autism article, we did not "win" our due process case, we "settled" it. Also, we would like other families to realize that it is a law that schools provide "every child" with a free appropriate public education. Many parents of a child with autism would much rather send their child to a private school that offers our children specifically what they need educationally and emotionally, and the district does send some, but parents have had to go to court and fight to get this to happen.
Regarding the Lee's Summit School District Autism article, we did not "win" our due process case, we "settled" it. Also, we would like other families to realize that it is a law that schools provide "every child" with a free appropriate public education. Many parents of a child with autism would much rather send their child to a private school that offers our children specifically what they need educationally and emotionally, and the district does send some, but parents have had to go to court and fight to get this to happen.
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