Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: Stone Mill ES ...

Montgomery County Public Schools spends hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly litigating against parents of children with disabilities. This year, the Board of Education decided to put out for bid special education legal services. As part of the contracting process, the outside law firms were required to submit letters of reference.

The law firm that received the most business from MCPS over the last several years submitted a proposal that included the following letter of reference from Kimberly A. Williams, the principal of Stone Mill Elementary School. Ms. Williams referenced a specific case, and claimed that the attorney made the ?parents feel at ease? and ?displayed empathy for their concerns.?

One local mother read Ms. William's letter, and believes that the principal's letter is referring to the case involving her child, (Child X) and the high-profile, five day trial over his education at Stone Mill Elementary School. She gave permission to write here about her family's experiences.

What Ms. Williams?didn't?write in her letter was that the trial over Child X's education was a waste of $30,000 dollars of taxpayer money. You see, these parents wanted their child to stay at his home school, Stone Mill Elementary School. The school wanted him OUT. The hearing over the placement of the child ran for five days, at a cost of around $6,000 a day to the taxpayers. According to the child?s mother, his private mental health professional warned that a sudden change to a school where the child had no friends and no support system would be extremely detrimental. But, as is usual in special education cases in Maryland, the parents lost, and the administrative law judge ordered the child?s placement to be changed to a more restrictive public school program.

Thirty thousand dollars later, and months of attempts by Stone Mill Elementary School to send this child away from his home school, they succeeded?but not in the way MCPS expected. Given an order to send their child to a restrictive public school placement that their professionals warned could cause regression, the parents elected to home school him. The thirty thousand dollar attempt to force a Child X into a more restrictive public school placement failed.

Meanwhile: is it appropriate for an MCPS employee to write a letter endorsing a specific vendor to provide legal services? Is it appropriate for a principal to claim knowledge about how the parents felt during the process?

Memo to Ms. Williams from the child?s mother:

?If you were referring to our case, you have no idea how we felt during this process, you have no right to speak on our behalf about how we were treated during this process, and shame on you for causing our family grief and heartache. The way our son was portrayed during the hearing does not reflect the gentle and loving child he is, despite his challenges. I hope no other parents ever have to sit through what we did and listen to their children's teachers denigrate their child.?

2012 June Stone Mill Elementary School Endorsement of Special Education Litigation

Source: http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2012/10/stone-mill-es-principal-extolls-6k-day.html

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