aspiehd

If it the juvenile justice system thinks that it is wrongfully incurring a cost that should be borne by another publicly funded agency – particularly when mandated by federal law – the juvenile justice system tends to become indignant about assuming other agencies’ costs unnecessarily and a rift between the courts and the agency that was trying to dump its problems onto the courts develops. Eventually, the courts start to look squinty-eyed at all the other cases that come through under similar circumstances and at least one public defender eventually becomes the in-house expert on identifying similar abuses of the court system as they come in.

“In other words, the school district abused process to foist him off on the DHS and is now abusing process to foist him off on the courts.” Absolutely!!! That’s what I got from reviewing the records.

I am aware of the blogspot site and the thezakhappeal.com site. Both sites have very abbreviated content with links to facebook as the real source of information. From my perspective, those links lead to blank pages, and this makes researching the issue difficult. Not impossible, as I have found a great deal of information without the facebook pages, but difficult.

To get the widest exposure possible, I suggest making research as easy as possible, and that means putting the principal source material where everyone can access it.

Someone using Carole’s nick mentioned a male teacher in the comments at:
http://daisymayfattypants.blogspot.com/2010/01/zakhquery-zakh-price-and-system.html

I guess that was a different teacher who entered the room after the meltdown started… maybe? The same person mentions 2 different classrooms or schools he was in since Habberton. Was that someone impersonating Carole… maybe? I don’t think it’s all that consequential, but without access to the principal material it leaves me a little confused.

“significant disparities between his strengths and weaknesses.”

In other words, he’s autistic.

“It was assessment at Habberton that identified many of his previously unserved needs and ultimately led to the determination that he was inappropriately placed there.”

In other words, the school district abused process to foist him off on the DHS and is now abusing process to foist him off on the courts.

“It’s my understanding from reading the press release from Zakh’s attorney that one of the allegations against the District is circumventing and attempting to circumvent further the IDEA.”

Yes, thus far, it sounds like Zakh has someone competent and familiar with the politics and history in the area representing him with respect to the education issues. I remain concerned about his representation on the battery charges, though. I think the cost of a competent defense attorney will be much higher than $5000 unless someone basically agrees to represent him on a pro bono basis, which seems unlikely.

Thank you for your feedback! You make a really good point about FB being difficult to access for many people. The family has started a web site at http://zakhs.blogspot.com. This is a more public forum than FB.

As for details of the case, here’s what I can tell you, having been in contact with the family and listening to Carole’s radio interview. Both the principal and the teacher who pressed charges are female. The outburst started when the teacher erased what was on the board before Zakh was finished writing it down (spelling words list). He has severely expressive and receptive language delays. His FSIQ is 68, but that probably isn’t accurate due to subtest scatter and the fact that the tests used were not necessarily appropriate given his age at the time administered and language impairments. It’s probably more accurate to say that he’s better at some forms of cognitive processing than others with significant disparities between his strengths and weaknesses.

As it turns out, Zakh did not have an IEP while at Habberton. The District unlawfully exited him from special ed about 3 years ago and convinced the family to go along with this “plan” in a desperate attempt to get him appropriate help. Habberton is funded by Ark Dept of Human Services and he was placed through their Behavioral Treatment program, which is funded by Medicaid. Medicaid does not cover the costs of treatment for autism spectrum disorders, so the District and DHS conveniently left that part out. They identified him as having mental and emotional health issues so that he would “fit” the program design on paper and shipped him off to a residential program that failed to serve all of his actual needs.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he was without mental or emotional health problems, but I’m not qualified to make that call, either. Really it doesn’t matter, because even if he had mental and emotional problems, that was hardly all that was going on with him and they weren’t his primary issues even if they were present. His assessment data reveals significant neurological issues with sensory integration, expressive and receptive language, motor planning, and cognition. His records are replete with references to autistic-like behaviors. He’s also received more than one diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder, ranging from PDD-NOS to actual autism. Habberton does not serve all of the needs that Zakh was identified as having before he went in.

It was assessment at Habberton that identified many of his previously unserved needs and ultimately led to the determination that he was inappropriately placed there. Habberton had some pretty competent assessments done and realized that he had needs other than what their program was meant to serve, so he ended up getting sent home. The District was apparently chagrined because it hadn’t wanted him back, so knowing that the DHS route wasn’t going to get him off their caseload, they turned to the juvenile justice system. It’s my understanding from reading the press release from Zakh’s attorney that one of the allegations against the District is circumventing and attempting to circumvent further the IDEA. Apparently, she knew what she was looking at, too.

Anne

I think the choice of facebook as a central repository of information is unfortunate and potentially self-defeating. Because facebook requires membership, it excludes a large portion of the audience–potentially the one person who will inject the story into the national media.

Because facebook’s aggressive advertising methods render other sites inaccessible to me, I use adblock to block their ads. This also blocks whatever material might be available to non-members on the facebook site itself. I basically see a blank page when I click any link to the site including comments.

I understand Carole probably chose facebook due to familiarity, cost and ease of use. This is a little like looking for one’s keys under the light instead of where one dropped them. Please consider moving the complete central repository of information someplace accessible to the public. The entire public. Without membership. Without registration. Preferably on a site that does not require flash or javascript.

I am a little unclear on some of the facts. For example, did Zakh have an IEP while institutionalized? In her interview, Carole mentions the school ignored the aide recommendation because it was not part of an IEP. This article here seems to indicate there was an IEP prior to arriving at the school. Did Zack have an IEP at Habberton?

In any case, it’s clear the school or the school district is trying to skirt the letter of the law to defeat the spirit of the law a la Shylock in Merchant of Venice. It’s also clear the felony charges are an abuse of process. This is nothing new in the State of Arkansas:
http://arkedu.state.ar.us/commemos/static/fy0102/1044.html

Here and elsewhere, I am disappointed to see the focus on behavior. A meltdown is not a behavior. Neither is a meltdown an emotional disturbance. It is a tic or involuntary reaction like pulling one’s hand out of the fire or flinching when electrocuted or having an epileptic seizure. In many respects the behavioral model is the cause of this situation because if a meltdown is behavior, it is bad behavior. If it is bad behavior, it is an issue of discipline. Under the Arkansas Code, a teacher basically has the right and authority to batter or imprison a child when necessary for discipline, and the child has no right to resist.

Behavior is the wrong model–not just because it is inconvenient from a legal perspective, but because the model is simply wrong.

Approaching a child in anger when the child is calm after a meltdown and has appropriately retreated to the private area set aside to recover from meltdowns serves no purpose of pedagogy or discipline, or any other legitimate purpose. It is no different from approaching an epileptic in anger after a seizure. Unless, of course, one holds the incorrect mental model of meltdown as a behavior instead of a tic.

Due to the protections and rights afforded to teachers in the Arkansas Code, Zakh will need very competent representation to prove to the courts that the teacher and principal had culpable intent beyond their protected mandate. This makes it doubly important to make everything as accessible to the public as possible because $5000 is just the start, and it will be hard to attract funds when everyone is focused on the tragedy in Haiti..

I am also a little unclear on the sex of the teacher or whether the teacher present that day was the same teacher involved in the temporary IEP, but those facts are less consequential.

While I am disappointed to see the focus on behavior here and elsewhere, I am disheartened to see reference to Dr. “We’ll Beat These Fags Into Real Men” Lovaas. While I have no general objection to behaviorist methods for appropriate training, I find Lovaas’s goals and methods sickening from the perspective of an autistic adult.

We have all seen film of a dog being electrocuted without reaction. The term is “learned helplessness”. Extinguishing meltdowns no more serves the autistic than extinguishing the reaction to electrocution serves the dog.

I’m pretty sure they have. The organization that operates the site may be taking Zakh’s case.

Anne