This might be of interest to anyone in Massachusetts

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Or possibly RI or NH. This is an e-mail that went out from my local SPEDPAC. I've stripped off the contact information, but if anyone is interested in getting in touch with this reporter I will gladly PM the information on how to do it.

FWIW, the people who run the local SPEDPACs whom I've met in my town and some of the surrounding towns all seem nice enough, but they've also all drunk the Autism Speaks kool-aid. Figured I'd better mention that, since that seems like an issue to some here.

We've butted heads with our town several times now, but we've never had anything this extreme happen to us. They do pull s**t like mail out IEPs dated two weeks before the envelope is postmarked (so the 30 day clock starts ticking that much sooner) and they've utterly refused to move our son from a half-day to full-day preschool. But nothing this extreme. Didn't even know stuff like this happened, TBH.

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I am forwarding this in case you know someone who may have been affected. It is obviously an important subject to bring to light to ensure that it stops in all school districts that utilize these tactics to back parents down. Please contact the name at the bottom if you have someone to refer.


I have a colleague (a reporter) who is investigating school district use
>of "strong arm" tactics to dissuade parents from advocating for their
>students with disabilities. If you, or someone you know, has experienced
>any of the below situations would you kindly let me know? Confidentiality
>guaranteed. At this point she is just looking to get a rough idea of
>prevalence.
>
>1. Parent(s) accused of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome.
>
>2. School filing a 51A suspected abuse report against parent.
>
>3. Child removed from parent by DCF (formerly called DSS) - particularly
>after a parent has won a BSEA hearing.
>
>4. Child and/or parent harassed by district (or district agents) -
>particularly after a parent has won a BSEA hearing.
>
>Thanks for your help.
>

This is an old tactic used by school districts whenever a parent tries to assert their rights. This happened to my mother when I was in school in the 3rd grade because she was trying to assert her rights on even whether she had the right to call an IEP meeting.

The district was claiming sex abuse based on things I was writing in a journal (led on by the teacher). The district was doing this because my mother had requested an IEP meeting to change my placement (I was in a real bad placement) and the district had violated NYS law by not holding the meeting within 45 days (It would take over 1 year and the threat of court to finally hold the meeting). My mother went to the district and demanded the journal to which the administrators said they destroyed it and did not press the issue.

It backfired on the district when my mother got a private evaluation. The meeting was finally held and once it looked like things were going my mother's way, the district tried to bring up the abuse charges once again. The private doctors however, probably knowing this tactic, turned it back to the district stating that according to their records, if there is any possible abuse, it was from the gym teacher. You would not believe the cover-up mode the district went into at that point.