Roy Exum
The United States Attorney’s Office and our nation’s Justice Department just thrust an unwelcomed spear into the heart of the state of Georgia. And while I am scared to death the same war party is now headed into Tennessee and other states, I wish the DOJ had stopped in Chattanooga for lunch and a quick visit at our Orange Grove Center before filing last Tuesday’s lawsuit against our neighbors to the south.
The lawsuit alleges the state of Georgia, through its Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support Program (GNETS), has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. I have little doubt the state of Georgia is guilty, just as the state of Tennessee and all 48 other states are guilty, of loving our children who have intellectual and physical disabilities and trying to address their special needs.
In principle the Supreme Court ruling 17 years ago is right: our physically and mentally challenged citizens – most especially our children who must rely on their parents or guardians for their lives – should not be denied the equal footing that every other American enjoys.
But in reality the Americans with Disabilities Act is wrong – it blatantly infringes on our special-needs Americans who ought to have the freedom to go to school, eat lunch, and play together in the most pleasant and inspiring setting anyone can imagine. I can think of nothing that will be as hurtful, or as cruel, as denying children like those at Orange Grove the happiness our nation should go over-board to provide.
The DOJ lawsuit against the state of Georgia from U.S. Attorney John Horn reads, “This complaint alleges that many children in the GNETS program are consigned to dilapidated buildings that were formerly used for black children during segregation, or to classrooms that are locked apart from mainstream classrooms, with substantially fewer opportunities of participating in extracurricular activities like music, art, and sports.”
Oh, please! Did you get the rub, “formerly used by black children,” as though the legal eagles in ‘Justice’ should be the first to abhor scare tactics and inflammatory jargon. My heaven’s gracious. We have black kids at Orange Grove who now openly weep because all their fragile minds can comprehend is that they will soon be cut away from the friends they see every day at school.
If you have ever watched Orange Grove children and adults together, there is no black-white. Everybody is pals. So this past winter, when a dreadful collection of state officials informed a packed cafeteria at Orange Grove they were here to help, the audience looked at them like General Custer did the Indians. And, yes, tell any Native American the government is here to help.
Attorney Horn added, “The law mandates that all children, including those with behavior-related disabilities, must have equal opportunities for education, and several existing programs within our Georgia schools show that with appropriate support and services, these students can enjoy far greater integration with their peers.”
In my personal belief, nothing could be more untrue. No children or adults with special needs are alike. On one hand we have a darling girl with Down syndrome who is doing well as a UTC student and we have another child with Down syndrome who will always have the intellectual abilities of a two-year-old.
The answer is we should in no way whatsoever impede our UTC heroine but we should also – again in no way – deny our more severely crippled child the best possible life for his given circumstances. To throw a blanket judgement over our developmentally challenged is as cruel and as inhumane as any punishment I can imagine since “The Trail of Tears.” I mean, really!
Instead of allowing these children to go to Orange Grove together or to other specialty centers around the country, the world’s biggest morons suggest we have “volunteers” (read: “untrained,” “unlicensed,” and “ totally unprepared”) who we meet with our afflicted in social settings where the callous who I guarantee are in our midst will scare, point and terrify the weak. It is absolutely unconscionable and, in my opinion, it is all because our politicians from top to bottom are driven by the cost of government instead of the proper service to our most needy.
My heavens, if we could give our special needs children what the nation has wasted on gender restroom that would be a dandy start. Why, in the space of the last 17 years, haven’t our leaders realized that the greatest societies tend to their weak instead of sending $400 million to Iraq in some God-only-knows scheme? Quit giving millions in foreign aid to those who openly defy us in the UN meetings!
A news release regarding the Georgia lawsuit quotes Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Georgia has relegated thousands of students with behavior-related disabilities to separate, segregated, and unequal settings, failing to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Justice Department seeks to make the promise of community integration a reality for all of the state’s students. “
“Students with disabilities in Georgia are entitled to access the services and supports that they need in the most integrated setting appropriate, where they can interact with and learn alongside their non-disabled peers and access educational opportunities that are equal to those available to other students in general education classrooms.”
Hogwash! Vanita, in her heart, knows there is no way anyone under the sun can level the playing field for those with permanent intellectual disabilities. The parents and the siblings of these children and adults alike will be the first to tell you this is insanity and to force these tender hearts into our mainstream madness will literally crush their souls.
Government contends, “Approximately 4,600 students with disabilities are currently in GNETS. In July 2015, the department issued an extensive findings letter, notifying the state that it was violating the ADA by unnecessarily providing mental health and therapeutic educational services to students with behavior-related disabilities in segregated settings, denying them opportunities for meaningful interaction with their peers without disabilities.
“The department found that most students in GNETS spend their entire school day, including meals, exclusively with other students with disabilities. Specifically, more than two-thirds of GNETS students are assigned to attend school in regional GNETS centers that exclusively serve students with disabilities in buildings that are often located far from students’ homes.”
What’s the matter with that? The clients are happy. There basic, medical and nutritional needs are met and, if indeed, the centers are “far from the students homes,” let’s lay the blame at the very feet of those who are most responsible – that would be our state and federal governments.
“Other students are assigned to regional GNETS classrooms located within general school buildings, but often in separate wings or isolated sections of the buildings,” the news release read, not daring to acknowledge the stark reality that the state of Georgia’s mainstream schools are also identically paralyzed for lack of available funding.
Albert Einstein once said, “Logic will get you from Point A to Point B but imagination will take you anywhere.” It is time for the United States of America to use its greatest minds to figure a solution for our intellectually challenged instead of this horrid life sentence.
Our most needy are depending on our strongest and, on the principles this country holds most dear, each should have the freedom and the protection to do whatever they want – not what some faceless crowd of Bozos day-dreams would be best.
royexum@aol.com