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Pelham schools face new civil rights investigation

Eagle-Tribune - 8/20/2017

Aug. 20--PELHAM -- A second Pelham family has called for an investigation into how the town's public school district treats students with disabilities.

The Office for Civil Rights began probing new accusations earlier this summer, after Jennifer Correa reported that her 15-year-old daughter was discriminated against and harassed by faculty at the middle and high schools over the last two years. She did not want her daughter named in this article.

Another Pelham family alleged similar mistreatment of their 12-year-old autistic son in April.

The teen missed the last six weeks of her freshman year after severe emotional stress became overwhelming, according to Correa. She is unsure if her daughter is ready to return to school when the new academic year starts in a couple weeks.

The girl suffers from classical Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare genetic illness that causes skin hyperextensibility, abnormal wound healing, and joint hypermobility, according to experts.

She is also diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which requires an Individualized Education Plan, her mother said.

"My daughter was suffering, in and out of doctor's appointments, and in physical therapy," she explained. "And her teachers were treating her like she was truant. They didn't want to help her, they just wanted her to drop classes. She was an honor's student who had to miss school for medical reasons."

Lara Bloom, executive director of the Ehlers-Danlos Society, said the understudied disease often leads to anxiety and depression, especially in young people.

"It can take a long time to diagnose because there's not much research out there. And that's discouraging; to feel the aches and pains and not know what's happening to you," she said. "For example, a simple injury can take much longer to heal, and outsiders often don't understand that."

Correa in June asked the OCR to investigate whether or not teachers handled her daughter's two conditions fairly.

A sector of the U.S. Department of Education, the office is responsible for identifying discrimination and other unlawful happenings. They are additionally tasked with taking action to correct such problems.

They agreed to investigate three of Correa's claims.

The first is that Section 504 (an anti-discrimination statue) was neglected in Pelham, and the district did not provide proper accommodations. School policy states that mini-conferences should have been held when her daughter missed more than three homework assignments, Correa said.

She also claims that beginning in October 2016, the district failed to re-evaluate her daughter's needs, despite medical-related absences and notes from doctors explaining the reasons why she was missing school.

Her last claim is that the district retaliated against the teen because of her disability in December 2016 after multiple absences.

"Things escalated, and they were really bothering (my daughter)," Correa said. "She was pulled aside and told that her health issues would not warrant her being late to school and that she would have to serve several weeks of detention. They were denying the diagnosis, even though they had doctor's notes, and implying that she was a liar."

Correa said the district suggested that her daughter medically withdraw and repeat the school year instead of make up the work.

"The state is legally supposed to provide every student with a rigorous education," she said. "And they were certainly not doing that."

According to an education department spokesperson, there are currently two investigations open at the Pelham School District. One was opened April 3 by Susan and Kevin Macintyre, the other, by Correa on June 29.

The statuses of each case were not available because the investigations are ongoing, the spokesperson said. The families were not given any indication as to how long the process will take.

The Macintyres, parents of 12-year-old Nathan, are calling for the removal of Pelham Elementary School Principal Stacy Maghakian, a public apology for a specific incident, and mandatory training for the rest of the middle school staff on how to interact with special needs students.

The day after the Macintyres filed their complaint, another autistic student, eighth-grader Max Bedard, said he was mistreated at a middle school dance for reasons related to his disability.

During that situation, which garnered national attention, Max's mother, Michelle, said that her 14-year-old's sensory issues were not taken into consideration when he was turned away from the dance for wearing a cotton shirt and pants that didn't follow the dress code, the boy said.

The school district declined comment on the specific incidents, citing privacy laws.

Interim Superintendent Betsey Cox-Buteau said in a statement Friday that "the Pelham School District works diligently on behalf of every student to provide the best education program with the greatest chance of success for every student within the scope of our mission and the laws of the State of New Hampshire and the federal government."

"The bottom line is that there is a child behind any complaint and for that reason, I would hope that all persons involved in such an action would respect the privacy rights of the child involved and not make their actions a public debate," the statement read. "We must be sensitive to the child and the complaint process to play out as it should through the system in place."

Correa said she chose to file the formal complaint and speak out about her daughter's situation to prevent others from experiencing the same things.

"This could be anyone," she said.

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