When did it become okay to call ACS on good parents for being concerned about their child's mental wellbeing?
Let me start off by telling you about myself. I'm a mother of three and my youngest was diagnosed with autism. I resigned from my job which i loved because he needed 24 hours of therapy a week; so my mama bear instinct kicked in. I had to do whatever was necessary to ensure that my child had the proper help to strive as an adult; I'm not gonna live forever. Any way fast forward my son went from a non-verbal child to an extremly talkative five year old. He's very aware of details and emotionally connected to other peoples feelings.
On the morning of June 7th, he was being verbally abused by his school counselor on the school bus. I was never informed until the morning of June 10th by someone that was on the bus. His counselor told him, "If you do not want to get off the bus; you could ROT ON THE BUS!" My first reaction was she should tell me that so I could punch her in the mouth. However I knew that wouldn't help my son ;so I reported her to the principal that did NOTHING! On the morning of June 10th, I was in his school for a different situation that occurred the morning of June 8th. This situation had to do with his teacher being bullied ,harassed and verbally assaulted by the schools IEP personnel (M.L.).
She (IEP personnel) began to attack her (kindergarten teacher) while she had all her students and was holding my son's hand. The IEP personnel called her all kinds of vulgar and derogative names. As a result my five year old came home and began calling his brother a "f***ing cunt" and began saying a bunch of other inappropriate words. I was in shock! Was I hearing things? Did my five year old just call his ten year old brother a "f***ing cunt"? As any mother would I questioned him. I asked him "Where did he hear those words? and Who made it okay for him to repeat them?" His reply was even more shocking.... He simply said "Ms.L ( IEP personnel)" I was beyond upset. Then he spilled the beans and told me what took place that morning and finished is statement with "Ms.V (Counselor) and Ms.L (IEP personnel) are mean bullies!" I reported everything to the superintendent's office because the principal was avoiding me despite her open door policy in school. I waited that Friday morning till 10:45am to see her and I got there at 8:30am, I was told she was in a meeting but she was actually avoiding me. So I waited and waited until she had no choice but to see me. I knew she had to come out her office at some point. During my what felt like a 5 minute meeting I explained to Ms.T (the principal) how my son felt and that the environment was not safe for children with autism. She was more focused on the the fact that he was absent and I explained to her that my son would not be in school until this matter was resolved. We scheduled a meeting for the 15th of June and she changed it without my knowledge and rescheduled it for the 22nd of June. I called and showed up but she refused to see me. She told one of her school aids to tell me that she was in a meeting in her office and that I shouldn't wait for her because she would be having another meeting following that one. As I was on my way out the door to my surprise who did I see standing around doing nothing? Ms.T in her bright red blazer, caked up makeup and all. She turned away as if that would make her invisible to me. I was beyond upset at this point so I called the superintendent's office again, made a new complaint and spoke to the advocate that was already handling this issue. Fast fowarding...
On Thursday, June 23rd an ill-mannered attendance personnel came to my apartment door handed me a paper and as she walked away; she said two things to me. First was " If you don't like the way Ms. Toledo is running the school you can put your kid somewhere else." Second was "You know Acs is coming for you." As she chuckled and walked out the building. Like the purple hair attendance personnel stated ACS was at my door the very next day. I knew that was the principals way of trying to shut me up for being the voice that my son needs. But seriously... This is far from over! I've written emails to just about everyone and I've called just about anyone that i could to make complaints and reports. How can she be running a school and be so irresponsible and unfair? She abuses her authority. I've spoken to some of her ex coworkers and other parents that removed their child(ren) from the Horizon program because she threatened them with acs too but not I. I have nothing to hide! However it clear to me that she does and I'm not backing down! Not only for my child but for all the other children with autism that are already there and the ones to come. They need a voice and i don't mind being that voice. Parents have a right to ensure that their children are safe especially in school and these children are not. P.S. 25 is not the place that i hoped it would be. However, the Horizon program is amazing, the kindergarten teacher (Mrs. Pagan) truly care for their students. I've seen first hand how much they do for their students. The program isn't to blame for the three individuals that strong-arm the workers and concerned parents. They simply need to be REPLACED with QUALIFIED caring individuals that know how to treat children with autism.
Just because someone has autism that doesn't make them less of a person and these three women seem to think differently.
On the morning of June 7th, he was being verbally abused by his school counselor on the school bus. I was never informed until the morning of June 10th by someone that was on the bus. His counselor told him, "If you do not want to get off the bus; you could ROT ON THE BUS!" My first reaction was she should tell me that so I could punch her in the mouth. However I knew that wouldn't help my son ;so I reported her to the principal that did NOTHING! On the morning of June 10th, I was in his school for a different situation that occurred the morning of June 8th. This situation had to do with his teacher being bullied ,harassed and verbally assaulted by the schools IEP personnel (M.L.).
She (IEP personnel) began to attack her (kindergarten teacher) while she had all her students and was holding my son's hand. The IEP personnel called her all kinds of vulgar and derogative names. As a result my five year old came home and began calling his brother a "f***ing cunt" and began saying a bunch of other inappropriate words. I was in shock! Was I hearing things? Did my five year old just call his ten year old brother a "f***ing cunt"? As any mother would I questioned him. I asked him "Where did he hear those words? and Who made it okay for him to repeat them?" His reply was even more shocking.... He simply said "Ms.L ( IEP personnel)" I was beyond upset. Then he spilled the beans and told me what took place that morning and finished is statement with "Ms.V (Counselor) and Ms.L (IEP personnel) are mean bullies!" I reported everything to the superintendent's office because the principal was avoiding me despite her open door policy in school. I waited that Friday morning till 10:45am to see her and I got there at 8:30am, I was told she was in a meeting but she was actually avoiding me. So I waited and waited until she had no choice but to see me. I knew she had to come out her office at some point. During my what felt like a 5 minute meeting I explained to Ms.T (the principal) how my son felt and that the environment was not safe for children with autism. She was more focused on the the fact that he was absent and I explained to her that my son would not be in school until this matter was resolved. We scheduled a meeting for the 15th of June and she changed it without my knowledge and rescheduled it for the 22nd of June. I called and showed up but she refused to see me. She told one of her school aids to tell me that she was in a meeting in her office and that I shouldn't wait for her because she would be having another meeting following that one. As I was on my way out the door to my surprise who did I see standing around doing nothing? Ms.T in her bright red blazer, caked up makeup and all. She turned away as if that would make her invisible to me. I was beyond upset at this point so I called the superintendent's office again, made a new complaint and spoke to the advocate that was already handling this issue. Fast fowarding...
On Thursday, June 23rd an ill-mannered attendance personnel came to my apartment door handed me a paper and as she walked away; she said two things to me. First was " If you don't like the way Ms. Toledo is running the school you can put your kid somewhere else." Second was "You know Acs is coming for you." As she chuckled and walked out the building. Like the purple hair attendance personnel stated ACS was at my door the very next day. I knew that was the principals way of trying to shut me up for being the voice that my son needs. But seriously... This is far from over! I've written emails to just about everyone and I've called just about anyone that i could to make complaints and reports. How can she be running a school and be so irresponsible and unfair? She abuses her authority. I've spoken to some of her ex coworkers and other parents that removed their child(ren) from the Horizon program because she threatened them with acs too but not I. I have nothing to hide! However it clear to me that she does and I'm not backing down! Not only for my child but for all the other children with autism that are already there and the ones to come. They need a voice and i don't mind being that voice. Parents have a right to ensure that their children are safe especially in school and these children are not. P.S. 25 is not the place that i hoped it would be. However, the Horizon program is amazing, the kindergarten teacher (Mrs. Pagan) truly care for their students. I've seen first hand how much they do for their students. The program isn't to blame for the three individuals that strong-arm the workers and concerned parents. They simply need to be REPLACED with QUALIFIED caring individuals that know how to treat children with autism.
Just because someone has autism that doesn't make them less of a person and these three women seem to think differently.
Thank you for this! Ms. Carnegie from the ASD Programs was trying to convince me today to send my kid to this school, and I'm glad I did my research and found your post. I will go with my first mind and keep my kid on the Lower Eastside in District 1
ReplyDeleteI am having similar problems. We need to meet and become a team and stop this from happening to other kids.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this and I'm glad you removed your child from this school my daughter faced bullying last year and Ms T did nothing about it besides pull up attendance records like she did with you.something has to be done about this disgraceful school my daughter is not attending this year thank God my wife and I are extremely happy.i posted a review on Google about this school action needs to be taken seriously..
ReplyDeleteWow, my daughter was bullied throughout the entire school year, we were also threatened with ACS, our daughter loved school but when we relocated to the bronx and enrolled her at P.S 25 she cried her eyes out every morning begging not to go, I learned she was being bullied by another student on a daily basis, I brought it to Ms Rileys attention and was promised the situation would be handled but only became worst, I then had a meeting with Ms Toledo and she pretended to be concerned, and reassured me she would handle the situation, I asked to have a meeting with the other students parents and Ms.Toledo told me meetings with other parents are not allowed, being that I began to keep my daughter home because she was being bullied, they sent school truancy with a threat to my front door, it was a horrible experience, I have made written complaints and nothing was ever done. On the bright side my daughter is enrolled in a different school starting Sept but P.S. 25 has emotionally ruined her outlook on school, she is afraid and worried.
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