[blindkid] School cane O/M issues

[H. Field]

Dear Lauren,
I would avoid a long, drawn out, back and forth between you and the 
classroom teacher. I wouldn't speak on the phone. This is a boundaries 
issue and it needs you to visit the teacher in person and discuss it 
with her.  Most classroom teachers are used to trusting the "blindness 
professionals".  Neither classroom teachers, and to a greater extent, 
"blindness professionals" are used to parents being the experts on 
their own blind children. In my extensive experience, as a blind child 
and now a blind teacher, most blindness professionals are used to 
telling parents what they think should be done, and having parents 
trust them and do whatever they say.

 I would go to the school before class one morning [or in the 
afternoon if more convenient], as soon as possible, and have a quiet 
word with the teacher. I would simply say that, as your child's 
parent, you decide what is best for your child, even though there are 
professionals who assist you to bring about the choices you have made. 
You enrolled your child in this school to learn what they teach. 
However, you supervise the homework and if there is some content or 
activity with which you disagree, you will make the choice to opt your 
child out of it.

The school has a nurse who knows about health and nutrition, but it is 
you who decides what your child wears to keep warm, what she eats and 
what medication she will, or will not take. Even though the nurse may 
disagree, it is not her place to make decisions about Joli's health. 
Similarly, you will decide what is best for your blind child in terms 
of her safety, and how much you want her relying solely on her vision 
and how much you want her to use a cane as well as her vision. The 
mobility teacher may have her opinions, and you expect her to teach 
your child techniques, methods etc. but you, as Joli's parent, will 
decide which of those techniques, methods and tools your child will or 
will not use and when she will or will not use them. You, not the 
mobility teacher, are responsible for Joli's safety, development of 
confidence and competence and you, not the mobility teacher, will make 
those decisions. Therefore, you say politely to the classroom teacher, 
this is not an orientation and mobility question, it's a parenting 
question. You and Joli's father, as the parents, have decided that 
Joli needs to take her cane with her everywhere she goes and use it. 
So, we needn't worry about what the mobility teacher has to say.

If there is any argument, you call for an IEP meeting and get it 
written in as part of the IEP. The professionals' behaviour is 
outrageous, though not uncommon, and I wouldn't stand for it for one 
second. Joli needs to be allowed to learn that she doesn't have to 
sacrifice her safety, confidence and security so she can pretend that 
her vision is reliable enough to be her only orientation and mobility 
tool. Much of this behaviour on the part of the part of blindness 
professionals is an unconscious desire on their part to have children 
be as sighted as possible for as much time as possible and to use 
vision rather than to look "blind" and use a cane. It is, however, the 
worst message possible to be sending Joli.

I encourage you not to allow anyone to make any decisions for your 
child. You, as her parent - educated in what's best for your child 
with limited vision - are the only one who will be living with the 
consequences of these decisions in ten or twenty years. Not her 
teachers and instructors. Don't back down Lauren.

Best regards,

Heather Field

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "L W" <mama2sally at yahoo.com>
To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 4:38 PM
Subject: [blindkid] School cane O/M issues


Hi all. Thanks for the advice.Â
I wrote another note in Joli’s agenda book saying that Joli must 
take her cane with her to all of her classes and that all of her 
teachers need to be aware of this. Her main classroom teacher sent a 
note back saying that she would discuss it with her O/M teacher. This 
makes me mad because I don’t care if the O/M teacher thinks she 
should have it or not. I think she should have it. I don’t want the 
classroom teacher to defer to the O/M teacher on whether or not my 
child should have her cane with her. Am I overstepping my bounds to 
say “I am her mother, and if I say I say she must take her cane with 
her everywhere she goes, then she must take it regardless of how the 
O/M teacher feels about it.”?
Thanks,
Lauren Wibbe



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