The Fortuitous Journey

In 2007, I was pregnant and about to deliver twin baby boys. Jack’s older brother, Logan, was being evaluated to determine the cause of his academic struggles. The assessments appeared to confirm he was dyslexic, and the school district initiated a 504 Plan that encouraged us to have his attention deficit addressed by a local pediatric specialist. Dr. Karen Rogers turned out to be a terrific physician and the best decision I ever made. I remember asking several questions throughout Logan’s 2nd grade school year, but I vividly remember being threatened by the school’s principal that if I continued to ask questions my son’s transfer would no longer be accepted. I voiced that discussion many times with family and friends throughout the years. That principal eventually became the Superintendent, and I later found out that my family was not the only family threatened with their transfer status. It was a tactic the District used to control transfer students and their families.

After the accident, Dr. Karen Rogers played an essential role in Jack and Logan’s life. Logan was the only one who witnessed the attack on Jack, and it caused him to struggle significantly after witnessing the attack. Dr. Rogers offered medical expertise to help evaluate the effects that the trauma had on Logan and Jack at such a young age. After being retained in the 2nd grade, and witnessing Jack’s accident in 4th grade, we continued to try everything to remediate Logan’s learning deficits. We spent nearly a decade trying Sylvian Learning Center, sports camps, academic camps, tutoring, SPECT scans, neurological assessments, and medication for his attention deficit disorder. We hired a neuropsychologist who administered several assessments on Jack to assess Logan in hopes to better understand how we could help Logan academically. We shared her findings with the school district the Fall of 2015. Dr. Kim Johnson found Logan to have a specific learning disability which was language based. I initially requested they have Logan tested by their SSA to qualify him for services to support his learning disability, but I knew that meant involving SPECO. SPECO was found guilty by the Texas Education Agency for misidentifying Jack, so the last people I wanted to involve was SPECO. The Middle School Principal (Eddie Carter) had always conducted himself in a fair and balanced manner. I chose to work with the administration since I had such a great relationship with the Middle School Principal and teachers. They promised to be attentive and appeared determined to try unconventional strategies to accommodate Logan. Logan’s teachers did what they promised. Unfortunately, accommodations were not enough, and Logan had gotten to that age where he required more than just accommodations. His time spent in the dyslexic program may have resulted in a grade equivalency of 17, but Logan struggled with comprehension and an underdeveloped vocabulary. In 2016, after learning how TEA placed an arbitrary 8.5% enrollment cap for children with special needs, we asked to review Logan’s academic file. We decided to initiate the paperwork to have Logan officially tested by SPECO (the District’s SSA), so Logan could receive more individualized support. He continued to struggle with executive functioning skills across all academic areas, and after receiving Logan’s academic file we discovered it contained answers to the questions we had been asking for almost a decade.

Logan’s academic file contained specific assessments (WRMT-III and GORT-4) that were administered every year since 2nd grade. We were very surprised because we were never told about the assessments nor were we given the results of the tests. After starting Logan on ADHD medication, apparently that solved several problems because his assessment scores increased significantly and Logan no longer resembled a child who was dyslexic. We were shocked to find how well he scored on the assessments. The school administration tried to explain how they used the test to “determine academic progress” ,which didn’t require our consent. As you might expect, that infuriated us as Logan’s parents. This decision was made while he was attending Elementary grades, so I was confused as to why the Middle School administration never made us aware of their results. I had trusted them for years! Besides the ethical responsibility, they had a moral responsibility to inform us. This discovery ignited a fury within my soul as a mother. I spent many years asking the appropriate questions. I spent years begging for help so that my son was afforded the same opportunities as every other child. I realized at that moment, Jack’s Journey had led me to the answers I had long sought after. At that moment, I made a solemn vow to NEVER allow someone to withhold information about my children again. At the time I made that vow, I had no idea how much these tactics were practiced by many well respected public school administrations. We settled our differences with the public school district during mediation, but they had already stole precious time from my son’s. I made plans to move and make a new start for Logan, Jack and their siblings. I had no idea that my battle had just begun. There were several educators who didn’t always do what they should have done, but the majority were apologetic and rectified their errors in an effort to help Logan throughout the years. The majority of LCISD employees did the exact opposite. I am happy to report, there were several employees who admitted their errors and we were able to work with those professionals, but LCISD didn’t make it easy on us or the employees. We had no choice but to file a Due Process Hearing. Here is the transcript to explain the entire process: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:a03ef314-bb3c-4c65-b51a-09d0f4afc445

Be sure to read the Pre-trial Hearing Transcript below to better understand why the questionable conduct by the attorney’s representing LCISD came into question after their “Good Faith Effort” turned out to be a failed attempt to mislead and manipulate the Hearing Officer and Petitioner’s. Read opening remarks before the first witness is called, and be sure to read page 416 for a better understanding how manipulative and dishonest the attorney’s conducted business. It should be noted, during an Education hearing, both sides are given limited time. That time is used for questioning witnesses and cross examining witnesses. The attorney’s spent several hours on a pre-trial hearing conference on May 5th. During that conference the Petitioner’s request to hold depositions were denied based on the “Good Faith” response from the attorney’s representing LCISD. That turned out to be a blatant lie. In hopes to let the actions of the District employees speak from themselves, I will post the information and allow you to draw your own conclusion to keep anyone from misinterpreting the information that has been reluctantly provided to me after multiple requests. Unfortunately, I still haven’t received documents I have requested under the Public Information Act.