Red Flags

Wow -- Red Flags

What constitutes a "red flag"? I guess it depends on the situation. We are in the process of helping Kyle transition from Jr. High to High school. He has been attending Jr. High at a school that is about 6 miles away. This is because the Jr. High schools (there are two) closer to us, don't have a good program to meet his needs.

We have loved the program at Redmond Jr. High! Kyle's teacher, Darlene, and the aides, Russell (Mr. R), Mrs. Sproul, and Mr. V have been with Kyle all three years. The administration are in the classroom daily and know all of the students and most of the parents by name. It's been a very positive place, and Kyle has grown so much.

High school looms very large right now. Redmond High school is about a block from the Jr. High, and has a great program! Alas, we live in the Lake Washington High school boundaries. Derek and Scott both attended L-Dub (as Lake Washington is referred to), and it was a good place for them. But it's a terrible place for Kyle.

We visited BOTH High schools and the difference between them is about 25 years in attitude and mentality. The teacher at Lake Washington was gone for a week as "acting-principal" for an elementary school and informed me, "It's okay, I have seven para's (para-educators/aides) in the classroom and they can handle the kids." Huge red flag! If she wants to be an administrator, shouldn't she give up her classroom and be an administrator? When we visited the classroom, she didn't introduce her staff, she didn't really answer questions -- she did say, "Well, Kyle's at an age where he's probably finished with academics, so we'll see if we can find something for him to do." Okay -- red flag #2! Are any of the other High school students "finished" with academics? Should he not learn as much as he possibly can? Red flag #3 -- "I'll just make a few changes to the IEP to reflect that he doesn't need academics" I thought "Like HELL you will!" Excuse me? You don't just "change" the IEP, so your lazy butt doesn't have to see progress in your students!

Red flag #4 -- and the clincher in our decision -- when we asked about involvement in the community she said, "Well, we go on community outings periodically -- see the photo's there? That's when we went to the Seattle Center. The kids really enjoyed that. And these photos are of the sleepover at my house. Since these kids don't get invited to too many things, and there's not much for them to do, we had a sleepover at my house and they loved it." WHAT? A SLEEPOVER? When is it EVER okay for a teacher to have a sleepover at their house with students? NEVER!

We likely will have to leave the house we've loved, the neighborhood that has been so good to us and find a home in Redmond.....we can't get a variance for Kyle to attend Redmond because of the boundary.....so we will be likely be moving -- we can't afford for him to lose ground or stop progressing -- or worse yet -- hate school. We're not moving quietly though. I sent a rather scathing e-mail to the Superintendant over Special Needs at the school district, nothing he can do really , just wanted him to know and be aware of the red flags in that program!

In the words of Scott -- "Mom, you can't let Kyle go to Lake Washington -- the kids don't do anything and the aides are mean to them.....he can't go there!"

My advice....pay attention to the red flags you see -- trust your instincts!