Wednesday, October 23, 2013
DOE makes learning more difficult for injured kid
From CBS New York:
High school senior M’Kayah Walker of Woodside, Queens, said she was injured while playing soccer.
“I was playing soccer. Kids fell on top of me,” she said. “And I found out my knees were dislocated.”
That sports injury has Walker struggling to get around on crutches. But she never dreamed it would disrupt her academic future.
She said making it up the steps and in to William Cullen Bryant High School in Woodside is painful.
Her mother requested home instruction for Walker, allowing the teen to graduate with her peers. The answer was no — not once, but twice.
“Just give me the home schooling so I can get my diploma,” she said.
Instead, the school issued her an elevator pass. But getting to it was tough and then she says she had to wait.
“They have taken more than 15 minutes to open the elevator,” she said. “When I use it, I’m late, and the teachers yell at me.”
Next month, Walker gets surgery to repair her knee. Without home instruction, she believes she won’t be able to graduate until next summer.
8 comments:
I call this adding insult to injury.
My child was molested by a DOE employee four years ago. Things have gone drastically downhill since that incident and we had to have him placed in a facility upstate. I have been trying for two months to get him schoolwork. The DOE has done nothing but hung up on me, redirected my calls and basically ignored my pleas. To think my child was born in the USA
and I cannot even get someone to notice my pleas while others, undocumented, etc. are receiving an education. The DOE is nothing but an administrative nightmare with idiots running the asylum. This is a true Insult to Injury.
Are the taxpayers supposed to pay for her home instruction? Give me a break!
Anon No. 3:
As opposed to doing what? Give up a break!
I meant give us a break. Sorry for the typo.
She is trying to get schoolwork sent home but for everyday she is not attending school, she gets marked absent! This girl injured herself and she should be getting a proper education when she can not attend school! The doe caters to foreigners and illegals but yet they can't cater to American children who displaced her knee?! This girl should get some kind of classroom attending from home...it us the 21 century, the doe can set up an internet connection in her classrooms for her! The least they could do us give her the work from home and not mark the poor girl absent! The problem with this country is that lawbreakers get rewarded but decent people who are trying to do the right thing get screwed!
Queens High Schools has always been an alternate universe,very much subject to arbitrary displays of caprice and whim.This situation,while unfortunate is hardly surprising.Almost all of them should be nuked,and the whole thing started again from scratch, based on a successful model from elsewhere.
I'd say home instruction is not the issue - the fact that she can't get into her school is the issue! My son was in a bad car accident, and now uses a wheelchair. He went to NS of the Humanities - which was "fully accessible" per the DoE. EXCEPT that of two elevators, usually one was broken, the one that worked gave priority to pregnant students (?!)- when he got to class he couldn't get IN the class and had to sit in the hall.
On the other hand, home instruction is only for a couple of hours per day. The instruction does NOT prepare the student for Regents exams... Oh, and an adult must be in the house during instruction.
Post a Comment