[blindlaw] Update on Florida School for the Deaf and Blind

Tue Feb 24 00:23:18 UTC 2009

Hi Patrick, I appreciate your understanding and support.  We have contacted
the Governors office and we were referred back to the Florida Department of
Education.  This sytem is full of nepotism, the current Chair of the Board
of Directors is the secretary for Florida State Representative Bill Proctor
.  Mr. Proctor resided on this board for 15 plus years.  They appointment
friends and family to keep things running smoothly and quietly.  They
recently replaced the president of the school with the vice president.

The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind has a written policy to not accept
children with extreme learning delays, it is published and known.  We have a
file over 2 inches thick that we have compiled with correspondence.  Each
person passes the buck.  The school has been challenged by other parents in
the past and when they in, the schoolw appeals and the case continues for
years while the child pays the price.  My understanding is that the school
wins 70 percent of the time, parents win 11 percent and then it goes to
appeal.  They have very deep tax payers pockets.

The question lies in what is extreme and what is the cause.  They use the
term "trainable mentally handicapped" as a catch all phrase.  My 6 year old
son taught himself to echo locate, to count to 100 by 2's he can easily
spell over 100 words and can memorize children's books verbatim front to
back.  His kindergarten teacher is amazed at his memorization ability.
However, he does lack in conceptual development and that is the thing I feel
FSDB can teach him best.  But, this developmental delay makes him seem
retarded on paper.

We recently brought up a psychologist with 50 years of experience in
evaluating children with varying visual impairment.  My son is lacking in
conceptual development and I felt FSDB would be best suited for teaching him
this.  After speaking with various professionals that have close dealings
with the school I have learned differently.  A University of Florida
Psychiatrist's son attended the school and said psychiatrist felt the school
os sub standard in caring for children.  The psycholigist that evaluated my
son feels the same, as does an attorney that works with deaf children and
has worked with the school in the past.  With that information we have
decided to stay local and put our money toward private education.

This is truely as sad waste of tax payers money and most people have no
clue.  I now consider the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, "Florida
Token School".  Their conscience is relieved in thinking that they are
serving their community.

If only Oprah could publish this story.  Feel free to pass the information,
we have documented the whole journey.

Philip

On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 4:03 PM, Patrick H. Stiehm <stiehm.law at juno.com>wrote:

>  Philip,
>
> What you have related is on its face appalling and inexcusable. As long
> as you have done everything that they have asked you to do, I think it's
> time to contact the  Governor's  office directly. This is not the type of
> story that any government official wants the press to get a hold of.
> (Remember the foster children that got lost in the state system under the
> Bush administration? I'm sure the current governor would not want a
> similar story that will raise the specter of  that incident.)
>
> In addition to the Governor's office  you should contact your state
> legislators. Government employees are susceptible to the pressure that
> can be brought on them by the chief executive of the state as well as
> members of the legislature. He should not hesitate to pursue such a
> course of action.
>
> Patrick H. Stiehm
> Stiehm Law Office
> Alexandria, VA 22309
> 703-360-1089 (Voice)
> 703-935-8266 (Fax)
>
> On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:31:25 -0600 Philip Breeze <pebreeze at gmail.com>
> writes:
> > Hello everyone, a few months back I posted an entry concerning my 6
> > year old
> > sons application to The Florida School for the Blind.  I have an
> >
> >
> >
> > something severely wrong with an organization whose primary mission
> > is to
> > educate blind children and they refuse to do so.
> >
> > My thoughts and prayers go out to all of you that continue to suffer
> > this
> > sort of discrimination in our society.
> >
> > Philip Breeze
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> >
> >
>
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