All the glassware in the Alpine Suite at the Clinton Inn Hotel in Tenafly is unbreakable — the wine glasses, the water tumblers, even the glass in the cabinet doors.
The furniture has rounded corners with soft bumpers. A round table has replaced a square one. Flower vases and other décor have been glued down. The iron is stored behind a safety lock, and the windows are locked. The television is fixed securely to the wall, instead of sitting on a credenza, as in other guest rooms.
Everything in the suite has been designed to give peace of mind to guests who have children with autism.
Even the inside lock on the door of the suite is mounted high, out of reach of small grasping hands. Most important of all, the door has an alarm that sounds — beep, beep, beep — if a child attempts a hasty exit.
“Autistic kids tend to wander,” said Tony Morreale, the manager. “Parents need to know when they’re wandering.”
STAFF PHOTOS BY AMY NEWMAN
The Clinton Inn Hotel in Tenafly has a suite built for children with autism. Rooms have furniture with bumpers, locked windows and a security system that lets parents know when a child is wandering. Stacey Wohl of Long Island, N.Y., and her son Logan stayed there recently.
Clinton Inn manager Tony Morreale knows firsthand the challenges of parenting an autistic child.
Morreale believes he is the first hotelier to accommodate these children and their parents with their own rooms and a specially trained staff.
SAN MATEO — A small private school serving students with learning disabilities aims to rebuild its campus to accommodate more special-needs children.
Stanbridge Academy — which currently has 101 students in kindergarten to 12th grade — plans to tear down two small buildings to make room for additional classrooms, said Marilyn Lynch, the head of school.
“We love where we are,” she said. “However, we’re getting to the point that we need more space.”
The buildings to be demolished mostly house offices and are not being used to their maximum potential, she said.
The project would create about 12,500 square feet of classrooms, 6,000 square feet of multipurpose space and a 17-stall parking garage, according to a San Mateo staff summary report. The renovation would bring 59 additional students and eight new teachers to the campus at 515 E. Poplar Ave.
“A lot of students with special needs want to go to this school because of our teachers trained (in personalized, diverse instruction) and we have small class sizes,” Lynch said. “We could be here for more students who need this type of education.”
However, the project has raised some traffic concerns from Christine Morgan, who owns a townhouse in the 400 block of North Claremont Street across from one side of the school.
She is worried that the project could increase traffic on the street, she said in an e-mail to the city.
“I am happy for anything
Stanbridge wants to do if it will improve the neighborhood,” she wrote. “My main and very real concern is the impact of traffic, both from a risk perspective and from the impact that added traffic would have on the property values on that block of North Claremont.”
Stanbridge is willing to take advice from the city to address neighborhood issues, Lynch said. However, she doesn’t think a renovated school will generate much additional traffic.
“A lot of our students use the train and carpool,” she said, “and we don’t have extended care.”
The school features a circular driveway for student pickup and drop-off that helps with traffic flow, she added.
Lynch did not have a project cost but said the school would need to launch a capital fundraising campaign.
Ideally, the rebuilt campus would open in the next couple of years, she said.
Moving difficult for those with special-needs children
KATHERINE FREY/THE WASHINGTON POST Air Force Lt. Col. Elizabeth Schuchs-Gopaul is arguing for coverage for her son, Evan Gopaul, 2, who needs occupational therapy. The Marines and the Army are leading an initiative to address the extra challenges faced by special-needs military families.
WASHINGTON – When her husband, a Marine Corps colonel, was transferred last summer from the Pentagon to a base in Southern California, Karen Driscoll was forced to confront her autistic child’s new school district and the intricacies of federal special-education law.
Unified School District near San Diego offered Driscoll’s 11-year-old, Paul, the support of an aide for 10 hours a week – fewer than half the 21 hours that suburban Fairfax County, Va., had provided and said he deserved under federal law.
“They slashed his services in half and said, ‘We believe this is comparable,’” Driscoll said.
Until recently, Driscoll would have had to fight the school district alone. But under a new Marine Corps initiative, she had reinforcements: a case worker and a special-education attorney, provided by the military.
That initiative is part of a larger military effort, led by the Marines and the Army, to address the medical, educational and emotional challenges faced by special-needs families.
“The Marine Corps is really standing behind our military families and saying, ‘We will take care of you and help you through this process,’” Driscoll said. With the U.S. military in the room, she said, the Poway school district seemed more willing to negotiate. Without setting foot in a courtroom, Paul was assigned a full-time aide.
The Defense Department says about 220,000 active-duty and reserve service members have dependents with special needs, but only 90,000 are enrolled in the military’s main program to serve them. For the past two decades, the program has ensured that families are transferred only to bases that have doctors available to address their needs. That has prompted concern among service members that it will interfere with promotions and has caused the program to be underutilized.
Newton’s Jennifer (Thompson) Springer has worked for the past four years as a special education teacher at Delaware Elementary School in the Southeast Polk School District. During her time as a teacher, Springer said she’s seen her students suffer from teasing, bullying and other cruel actions by fellow students.
“One of the more unfortunate things I have seen in my experience as a special education teacher are instances where my students are made fun of and rejected by peers,” she said. “I feel that the issue for most kids is not that they are just cruel children, but that they are not educated and do not understand why children with special needs do the things they do.”
After witnessing the hardships of the children she works with, she knew something needed to be done so she decided to write a book in hopes of sending a message for children.
Springer, who had never written a book before, developed a character named Jade who is featured in her new children’s book “My Friend Jade.” Jade is a 9 year old girl with special needs that is often misunderstood.
“I wanted her to display some of the most common social pitfalls I see in students with special needs and give children a sense as to why a child with special needs does some of the things they do and also point out how most other kids really do these things as well,” Springer said. “I also wanted to show kids the qualities that people with special needs have that first drew me in: compassion, forgiveness and unconditional love.
Springer developed the character of Jade and wrote the storyline and asked her grandmother Nancy Annee to do illustrations for the book.
“It was wonderful to work with her,” said Annee, who lives in Newton. “It kind of brought us closer together.”
Working as a team, Springer and Annee brought the character of Jade alive on the pages of the 21-page children’s book. The book was published by the Web-based Xlibris and Springer has sold several copies of the book.
The Newton woman said she’s hoping her children’s book teaches important message to all children.
“I want kids to realize that the rewards that come with having a friend with special needs far outweigh any of the differences they first see,” she said.
Springer and her grandmother will be having two books signings in Newton. The first is scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m. Nov. 7 at Uncle Nancy’s Coffee House & Eatery, 114 N. Second Ave. W. in Newton.
The second will take place at the Newton Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16. Books will be available for purchase at both book signings.
“It was important for me to write this book because I feel like the most important aspect of my job is to be an advocate for my students,” Springer said. “They mean the world to me and I want others to be able to see their wonderful qualities the way I do. I feel like this book is a step in that direction.”
Jessica Lowe can be contacted at 792-3121 ext. 426 or via e-mail at jlowe@newtondailynews.com.
Photo: Security cameras captured the beating of a 15-year-old Special Education student by a police officer. cbs2 chicago)
DOLTON, Ill. (CBS2) A 15-year-old special education student was walking down a hallway at school when he says a police officer grabbed him and threw him to the ground. The teenager says he was beaten and nearly suffocated and much of it was caught on tape.
The teen told his story to CBS 2 Chicago reporter Dave Savini.
Security cameras captured the beating of Marshawn Pitts, who says the officer started shouting and swearing at him because his shirt wasn’t tucked in.
“I was tucking my shirt in,” Pitts said.
But it’s what happened next that had Marshawn Pitts worried for his life. Pitts says the officer came at him suddenly.
“It was just like boom,” Pitts said.
He says he was blindsided by the officer, thrown into lockers and struck repeatedly.
In the video, you can see that he gets slammed to the ground and his face smashed into the floor. His nose was broken. Pitts says he was bleeding.
“All this on the outside of my mouth was busted,” he said.
He calls this treatment violent and unnecessary, especially considering he was attending the Academy for Learning High School in Dolton for students like him with Special Education needs.
When he was younger, he suffered a brain injury and now has a learning disability. The school for special needs was supposed to help him and understand his situation.
“Yeah, but instead I got beaten on by police,” Pitts said.
The officer in question was a Dolton police officer, and the hold he used on Pitts can be a dangerous one.
“The officer was in his face because he didn’t have his shirt tucked in,” said Pitts’ attorney Ed Manzke. “That’s the officer put in that school to protect these kids, and instead of doing that, this officer is literally assaulting this kid.”
Zena Naiditch of Equip for Equality, a legal advocacy group that fights for the rights of people with disabilities, looked at the video and said the type of physical restraint used by the officer has killed students.
“It’s called a face-down take-down, and kids and adults often die because they can’t breathe,” Naiditch said.
A Government Accounting Office report released in May, just one day before the officer’s use of the hold on Pitts, found face-down take-downs led to at least 20 deaths nationwide.
Currently eight states prohibit the use of this hold. Illinois is not one of them.
“So we don’t actually know how common these incidents are, and that’s outrageous,” Naiditch said.
Pitts says he was terrified and begged the officer to stop.
“I couldn’t breathe,’” Pitts said. “I was like, ‘let me up.’”
Naiditch says it shouldn’t have happened.
“He’s getting a beating, and he’s getting a beating on an issue that has nothing to do with danger, it has to do with dress code,” Naiditch said.
No one from the Academy of Learning in Dolton would talk to the Chicago station about the alleged abuse.
Marshawn Pitts’s attorney Ed Manzke says he has transferred to another school and is planning to file a lawsuit. The State Board of Education says no one from the school reported the use of forceful restraint to them.
Beth Whitehouse writes about children and families.
Q. How do you teach your child the value of reaching out to classmates with special needs?
A. Perhaps your school can help. Some districts have programs to encourage interaction between regular ed and special ed students. The Albany Avenue Elementary School in Farmingdale, for instance, started an “Ambassador Team” this year. Teams of two regular ed students volunteer to be matched with each autistic child in kindergarten through fifth grade to play games together on the playground or in the gym.
One teacher has asked for student volunteers to stay inside for recess to play board games with a physically handicapped student who couldn’t play outside, says Mary McHale, a teacher at the school.
“It breaks down so many walls,” says Joe Valentine, school principal. It teaches the regular ed students that the special ed students don’t need to be pitied; that they are like the regular ed students but have tougher obstacles to overcome, he says.
If your school doesn’t have such programs, you could talk to an administrator about starting one. Older children have community service requirements for school groups such as the National Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society, and you could suggest your child meet such requirements by volunteering to work with sports programs for handicapped children.
You could talk to your child about qualities such as empathy, Valentine suggests, and the importance of developing character by lending support to people who don’t have it as easy as you do.
I did already make a special needs video with the song “Aren’t They All Our Children” sung by Josh Groban, Celine Dion, Nick Carter, Enrique Iglesias, and Yolanda Adams, but this one has pictures of the children from our school.
Parents of children with disabilities will encounter fewer obstacles obtaining needed services—and school districts might see themselves go into the red by millions of dollars—thanks to a recent Supreme Court decision that special-education students’ parents may seek government reimbursement for private school tuition even if they have never received special-education services in public school, the New York Timesreports.
The case before the court involved a struggling Oregon high school student, identified in court documents only as T.A., who was found ineligible for special-education services in the Forest Grove district after school officials evaluated him for learning disabilities. His parents removed him from public school in his junior year and enrolled him in a $5,200-a-month residential school. Only after T.A. enrolled in the private school did doctors say he suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other disabilities.
Chris and Marianne Leone Cooper accept the Federation for Children with Special Needs’ Martha H. Ziegler Founder’s Award, presented annually to supporters of educational advocacy and committed to improving the quality of life for all children, especially those with .
Host Sonya Dunn interveiws a father of a child with special needs. Giving a father’s perspective on raising a child with a disability. SpEd is a cable program that provides information and resources to parents who have children with disabilities.
