Aug 3, 2018, LA Times: Florida school failed Parkland shooter, report says http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-parkland-shooting-report-20180803-story.html The Broward school district mishandled the case of student Nikolas Cruz when he asked for special help, long before he killed 17 staff and students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to a long-awaited report released Friday. For the first time, the report revealed that Cruz had asked to return to the district’s special education program, which would have provided him more support than he received as a general student, the report says. The report, by the Collaborative Educational Network of Tallahassee, found that the school district largely followed the policies and laws in place when educating Cruz, but failed on two occasions. … After rejecting special education, Cruz quickly failed. Three days after he was forced by the district to withdraw from the Parkland school, he purchased an AR-15. A year after his ejection, he returned and gunned down 14 students and three adults…. The report, however, suggests the district did not follow laws or policies in place when school employees tried to transfer Cruz, then a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, to a special education campus. Cruz, then 18, refused and removed himself from the special education program. Runcie has said that when Cruz made that decision, the district was unable to help him with special education services. But the consultant’s report reveals for the first time that Cruz later “requested reinstatement” of special education services, and the district mishandled his request. The revelation bolsters criticism from some special education experts, who said the district should have done more for Cruz, who had emotional and behavioral problems. … The consultant, however, found that the district largely handled Cruz properly, over 16 years of education. “With isolated exceptions, the district adhered to procedural and substantive requirements,” the report says. Without directly criticizing the school district, the consultant recommended the district reconsider how to handle cases like Cruz’s, where a “high-needs” special education student decides against participating in special education and then reverses the decision. …
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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