School For Deaf Students Excluded Other Disabilities, Suit
Claims
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
October 11,
2006
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA--In an unusual case that could affect a large
number of California students, a federal judge has ruled that a 14-year-old can
sue the California School for the Deaf in Freemont over claims that it
discriminated against her and other deaf students with other disabilities.
In the suit, the student, identified only as "J.C.", claims that the
publicly funded school excluded her because she has autism and an intellectual
disability, according to a press release from the Stanford Legal Clinic's Youth
& Education Law Project and the law firm Bingham McCutchen LLP, which are
representing her.
After J.C. had attended CSD for 10 years, administrators placed the
girl, who only communicates in American Sign Language, into a specialized class
for hearing students with autism at another public school within the Fremont
School District. They then informed her parents that she had never been
formerly admitted to CSD in the first place.
"The policies of the California Schools for the Deaf are discriminatory
and deny multi-disabled deaf children their legal right to special services,"
said William Koski, the Stanford clinic's instructor.
The case could affect at least five other children with multiple
disabilities who have been removed or excluded from CSD, along with an unknown
number of other school-age deaf children who have at least one additional
disability, the press statement indicated.
Related:
"Press release -- Federal Judge Allows Discrimination
Suit against California School for the Deaf"
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/06/red/1011c.htm
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