|
American Public TV-Western Connecticut Public TV Network
Western Connecticut Wrestling Teams
|
|
May 05 2007 8:50 AM
School staff in trouble
Newtown woman one of 12 Mahopac educators suspended
By Robin DeMerell
THE NEWS-TIMES
CARMEL, N.Y. -- An entire 12-member staff at a special needs school program -- including a teacher from Newtown -- was placed on administrative leave after four of them were arrested Thursday on charges of child endangerment.
Police said Tammy Card, 41, of the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, was charged with 11 counts of child endangerment that allegedly took place in the Mahopac school district.
She was also charged with third-degree assault.
Card did not return a message left by The News-Times on Friday, but her attorney claims the charges are "utter nonsense" and "the product of a witch hunt."
Card, a married mother of two daughters, one of whom is a special needs child, has worked in the Mahopac district since 1999, Keith Harriton, the Armonk, N.Y., lawyer representing her, said Thursday afternoon.
Card holds bachelor's and master's degrees in special education and is working on a doctoral degree in educational leadership at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.
The three others charged are Joseph Levy, 30, of Mahopac, a teacher's aide charged with 10 counts of child endangerment; Lorrie Reynolds, 46, of Mahopac, a teacher's aide charged with seven counts of child endangerment; and Joyce Spiegel, 45 of Putnam Valley, a speech therapist charged with five counts of child endangerment.
Robert Reidy, superintendent of the Mahopac Center School District in Carmel, said 12 children ages 5 through 7 who have varying degrees of autism are enrolled in The Bridge, a full-day program at the Mahopac Falls School.
Reidy said the investigation began when "adults" came to the principal of the public school about some alleged incidents about which they were concerned about.
"I removed four individuals from the program that same day," Reidy said. "Then we realized it may be more involved here."
The school turned the case over to the Carmel police, who began investigating in early April.
Reidy said since the investigation began, the entire staff of the program has been replaced with a new staff, including a teacher, a speech therapist and 10 teaching assistants or aides.
All of those who left were placed on administrative leave and under New York law "they must get paid," Reidy said.
Card currently makes $98,000 a year.
Reidy said the highly specialized program was well established when he arrived in the school system four years ago and "we've never had a complaint before," he said.
Reidy would not say whether any children were harmed, but he did relate that all 12 children are continuing their education at the school. He referred questions regarding the charges to police.
Police issued a press release outlining the charges but were unavailable for comment Friday.
Harriton said Friday the third-degree assault charge against his client involved a child who was injured while lining up for the bus.
"She [Card] had her hands on the child's shoulder, on the backpack straps," Harriton said. "The child playfully indicated that he was going to lurch forward and run forward "? She gently held him back."
When Card couldn't hold the child back, he said, the child fell and got a bloody nose.
Harriton said Card treated it with a cold wet compress and made sure he was OK. She then told the bus monitor and the bus driver and called the mother, he said.
"Somehow that has become an assault charge," Harriton commented.
Harriton claims the child endangerment charges run the gamut from "nicknames" that someone found inappropriate to restraining a child so that he or she doesn't get hurt.
"I hesitate to mention the nicknames "? but those nicknames were employed in a family-type atmosphere," Harriton said. "Some children giggled and enjoyed their nicknames."
He said in another case, there was a child whose only form of communication was screaming, "to the point of becoming disruptive and scary to the other children."
Harriton said Card used a "wearing out the behavior technique," wherein she took the child to a bathroom and encouraged him to scream until he was able to return to the classroom.
Harriton said it is likely that disgruntled aides filed the complaints. He called the charges "utter nonsense" and "the product of a witch hunt."
"None of these complaints come from the students or the students' parents," Harriton said.
He said another complaint stemmed from a child who wouldn't eat away from home. His mother encouraged Card to teach him to eat at school with food brought from home.
Harriton said she used "touch, smell and taste" for this child, who has a hypersensitive gag reflex.
"The child would gag even touching PlayDoh. He would jerk away and had violent physical movements," Harriton said.
Sometimes, Harriton said, his client would have to hold the child's head so he wouldn't get hurt.
Another charge involves teaching "time-out" by holding a child's head down on the desk while the child counts to 10. That forms the basis, Harriton said, for at least three charges.
Other charges allege that Card saw staff members engaged in inappropriate activity, Harriton said, adding, "I don't know what that's about."
Harriton said Card "has devoted 20 years of her life to these challenges." He said she has been spit on and beat on and seen children becoming a danger to themselves and others.
"Her personnel files are filled with complimentary reports from parents, teachers, administrators and other professionals," Harriton said.
Card was a Disney Teacher of the Year nominee in 2005 and was honored twice in Who's Who Among America's Teachers.
Attempts to reach other defendants on Friday were unsuccessful.
Joyce Emmett, director of special services for the Danbury public school system, said that in Connecticut children with special needs are integrated with their peers.
She said an autistic child would likely attend regular classes and be involved in a part-time special needs class.
Emmett, who didn't want to comment specifically on the New York charges, said many times behavioral issues in autistic children are because the child doesn't understand instructions or is frustrated and can't communicate.
"Their behavior is communicating something to you," she said.
Emmett said teachers must use different approaches or techniques according to the child's specific needs.
"All behavior has a purpose -- you have to do a thorough assessment piece and evaluate each child," Emmett said. "If a youngster is in danger of himself or to others "? those things don't happen frequently if you have a good understanding of what that child's needs are."
Danbury elementary schools have about 15 children with mild to severe autism. She said occasionally they've had to look outside the school system for a more intensive program for those with severe autism. But she said highly trained staff can usually learn to deal with each child on an individual basis.
Emmett said most children with autism aren't any more difficult to educate than "any other youngster," while a small percent can be very challenging.
"It's very labor intensive," she said.
But once you've figured out how a child responds, the behavior should be easier to deal with.
"Restraints (holding a child) aren't something you use frequently," Emmett said. "It means you haven't figured something out."
(Mahopac, New York)...Inside Secor has been written by veteran teacher/writer Al Bruhn and given exclusively to an undisclosed major publication February 24, 2005. Al Bruhn was on staff at Secor, one of Mahopac, New York's Alternative High Schools, last fall and witnessed a lot of action, which he reported on in the 2129 word document Inside Secor. No names were mentioned in the news account, only facts about the ill conceived Alternative High School framework and lack of student focus at Secor. The director at Secor sent Al Bruhn a letter of recommendation for his part as a staff member. In the investigative report, Al Bruhn states that when he talked to the Secor director about an expelled student, who wanted to come back to Secor and whom Al Bruhn said he had a good rapport in class, the Secor director screamed at Al Bruhn and said the expelled student is a murderer, and in essence can not be readmitted despite the student's congeniality in the eyes of Al Bruhn. Al Bruhn also states that the Secor director refused to listen to teacher input into how to motivate emotionally disturbed students at the remote site building next to the Taconic Parkway in Mahopac, New York. Al Bruhn added that Secor is not serving the legal needs of emotionally disturbed students and should be further investigated.
UPDATED MARCH 23, 2005:Reportedly, the director of Secor and Falls Alternative High Schools will be replaced with a new administrator next school year, but there are administrative problems including the alleged suspension of a teacher on harassment charges of a fellow staff member at Falls Alternative High School according to an inside school source which is now under investigation by a major New York based news publication.
UPDATED APRIL 1, 2005:Reportedly, staff members at Secor and Falls are being terminated according to an informed source within the Mahopac Central Public School district.
UPDATED May 29, 2005:According to an inside source with the Mahopac Central Public School District, Secor will be closed at the end of the current 2004-2005 school year, and the other alternative high school at Falls will be shut down as well. Falls students will be transfered to the regular Mahopac High School. It is unclear what will happen to Secor students. In the meantime, Dianna Bellettieri, an education reporter for The Journal News, is investigating this news report.
UPDATED June 10, 2005:Secor students will be going to either Mahopac High School or BOCES, a special education out of district placement facility starting Fall 2005. Secor students attending MHS will be housed in basement away from general student population along with Falls students, it was learned from inside source with Mahopac Central Public School district. Al Bruhn reports he is pleased his initial news report has sparked changes for his former students, but is concerned about their placement at MHS. Bruhn said he will continue to provide education assistance to Journal News in its on-going investigative report on alternative high schools in Mahopac.
UPDATED June 16, 2005:Journal News education reporter Dianna Bellettieri interviewed Al Bruhn today and said the news report on Secor will be published during week of June 27, 2005. Bruhn is "mum" on his interview with Journal News, but happy he has been able to expose the Secor story in a major newspaper.
UPDATED June 25, 2005:Secor is exposed in The Journal News today. Click here for news report.
UPDATED June 27, 2005:Journal News education reporter Dianna Bellettieri thanked Al Bruhn for his help and patience in the Secor news report. Bruhn said he would make available his initial investigative report on Secor to whomever requests it via e-mail. Simply e-mail Al Bruhn at [email protected] Bruhn remarked The Journal News did an outstanding job in its report on the expose of Secor.
Students feel abandoned by closing of alternative high school
By DIANA BELLETTIERI
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: June 25, 2005)
By the time Joe Burgos entered his junior year at Mahopac High School, he had mastered the art of cutting class. He would duck certain hall monitors, befriend others and take at least a four-period lunch break every day.
Eventually, he said, the effort of evading authorities became pointless. He had fallen too far behind his peers and was ready to drop out. In fact, he would lock himself in the bathroom at home until his grandmother stopped nagging him to go to class. Then he would go back to bed. "I was in way over my head," said Burgos, 16. "I couldn't pay attention, so I stopped going."
This attitude made Burgos a perfect candidate for the district's alternative high school at Secor.
The Secor program was born in September for students who have difficulty managing their emotions in the larger setting of Mahopac High School, which has more than 1,700 students. Secor classes are more intimate and informal than those in a typical high school. The days are shorter and vocational preparation is emphasized. Fewer than 30 students are enrolled.
To his own surprise, Burgos admits he actually enjoyed school at Secor. His grades improved, he got back on track to graduate and he was finally feeling good about himself. He said Secor was the greatest thing to ever happen in his life.
But his days at Secor have come to an end. School officials cut the program from the 2005-06 budget to rein in spending.
Burgos said he hated the idea of attending another school and said he might just find a job instead, probably in construction.
He is not alone. John Barker, 16, said he, too, is done with the classroom. He said Secor was the only school that ever worked for him because the teachers understood how he learned and they wouldn't overreact if he occasionally slipped up. At Mahopac, he said, there was "no hope" for him to succeed. After making an effort to turn his life around at Secor this year, he feels betrayed by Secor's closing.
"We do all this work, and now they don't even care about it. It's all worth nothing," Barker said as he flicked a crumpled straw wrapper on the table where he sat. "Why should I care if they don't care about us?"
Schools Superintendent Robert Reidy, who first proposed the Secor program, said he did not want to cut it but didn't think it was possible to maintain it.
Yet, the district will lose money in 2005-06 by shutting down Secor. Some Secor students are being recommended for Mahopac's other alternative high school, which will move in September to a contained setting in the high school. Nineteen are to attend programs through the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, which charges $50,000 each, or $950,000. Eliminating the Secor staff, which includes five teachers, a principal, a psychiatrist and a secretary, saves the district $410,000.
But the cost of keeping Secor open would rise down the line because more staff would be needed, Reidy said. "Over time, we realized we'd have to commit more and more resources to do the job properly," he said. "I'm not sure we'd be able to sustain that commitment."
David Zurhellen, hired in July to oversee Secor, said he disagreed. A 27-year BOCES veteran who has helped set up other alternative programs, Zurhellen said he didn't want to pick fights, but he didn't need more staff; in fact, more staff would be detrimental. For students like those at Secor, whose "lives are like one huge roller coaster," Zurhellen said, "It's best to keep school relationships as intimate as possible."
"My philosophy is that the center of the students' life are their teachers," said Zurhellen, whose job has been eliminated. "Once they respect their teachers, you'll find that their behavior problems go out the window."
Missy Battease, 16, said she respected her Secor teachers because they respected her. At Mahopac High, she said she had been notorious for causing trouble. Secor was the only place she felt comfortable learning. Her grades rose to B's from F's.
Now, she feels lost. "It's not right," she said. "We go to that school for a reason. If they close the school, where are we supposed to go? What are we supposed to do? If I go back to the high school, I know I'm not going to succeed, so it's not worth it. It's too hard."
Not everyone thinks this is so bad. Al Bruhn, a former full-time substitute teacher, said Secor was "ill-conceived" from the start, and called it "a quick scheme to try to save money. It's a pipe dream that is just blowing up."
Zurhellen said Secor needed at least two more years to reach its full potential. He hoped Mahopac will find the "intestinal fortitude" to once again dedicate itself to the program. "We were just getting started," he said. "Mahopac didn't fully understand what's fully required, but no one does. You have to get to the end of the tunnel before people realize why they went into the tunnel in the first place."
Inside Secor Update
USA TV Talk News
Copyright 2005 Albert G. Bruhn. All Rights Reserved.
All photos herein are the exclusive property of Albert G. Bruhn.
Reprint without permission is prohibited.
Herein defines the front page and all with the initial html coding - http://www.usatvtalk.com
|