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Complaint Filed On Behalf Of Disabled Students

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By MARILYN BROWN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 2, 2008

TAMPA - A class-action complaint with the Florida Department of Education was filed in Tallahassee on Wednesday by three civil rights groups on behalf of students with mental and emotional disabilities in Hillsborough County.

The complaint alleges that six students did not receive services such as counseling, social work or psychological help that they were entitled to under federal law.

Instead, students were subjected to repeated disciplinary measures including more than 10 days of in- and out-of-school suspensions, court referrals, and undocumented, illegal removals from school, it said.

Such students "are literally pushed out of school" and many end up in prison, Marlene Sallo, attorney for the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, said Wednesday at a news conference in Tampa. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Florida State Conference of the NAACP are the other groups bringing the action.

The action is on behalf of "all students of the Hillsborough County public school system with emotional/behavioral disabilities, or who manifest such behavioral issues, and who have been or are being, subjected to repeated disciplinary removals totaling more than 10 school days."

A similar class-action complaint was filed Wednesday on behalf of five students in Palm Beach County, said Brandi Davis, lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Similar successful complaints have been filed in Louisiana and Mississippi that brought changes for all students, she said.

State Required To Investigate

The state Department of Education must investigate the complaints and, if found to be true, order corrective action. The groups want the districts to agree to changes, including hiring experts to train teachers, other school staff and bus drivers to learn strategies to deal with discipline of students with disabilities.

"It's important to direct the Florida Department of Education's attention to theses issues," said Ronald K. Lospennato, director of the School-to-Prison Reform Project for the Southern Poverty Law Center in a phone interview. Two districts were chosen for the complaint, Lospennato said, but "it's definitely a statewide problem."

Statistics cited by the groups:

•Hillsborough led the state in the number of students referred to the juvenile justice system with 1,881 in 2006-07.

•Hillsborough's graduation rate for students with disabilities in 2005-06 was 39 percent, compared with 75 percent for all students.

Elia Surprised By Notice

Hillsborough Superintendent MaryEllen Elia said she did not get the complaint until Wednesday and would be analyzing it. She said she has not identified the students named and could not speak to specifics.

Elia said she was surprised when she got notice Monday of the upcoming news conference, but will work with the state and agencies involved to identify and address the issues.

The district has been working on discipline issues for a couple of years, Elia noted, and started programs including one that keeps some students out of the court system by offering them civil citations with community service.

"It's a concern," Elia said of the complaint. "We have to deal with the issues and still maintain a safe learning environment for all students."

Pat Spencer, a director of the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, said the local NAACP chapter has a "very favorable" working relationship with the district that will continue, but the complaints are valid. She is also an officer in the local chapter.

"By failing to meet the needs of such students and by adopting harsh, zero-tolerance policies that push them out of school for minor misconduct, the Hillsborough school district is helping feed Florida's school-to-prison pipeline," Spencer said.

A Third Were Black Males

About 33 percent of the 23,000 school referrals statewide to the criminal justice system in 2006-07 were black males, Spencer said, even though they are only 23 percent of Florida students.

Many of the referrals are children with disabilities, Spencer said, citing statistics showing that 70 percent of youth in Florida's juvenile justice system have at least one mental health disorder.

Hillsborough and Palm Beach counties may be just the start, Spencer said: "I'm not sure this is where it will end. This is just the beginning."

The complaint does not name the Hillsborough students, but includes initials and details.

Five of the six are in foster care, said Sallo, who recently has been representing them individually either through her organization or as attorney ad litem. One is a 10th grade girl who is educable mentally handicapped with an emotional behavioral disability attending Simmons ESE Center. Eight years went by after she was identified as eligible for exceptional education services before she received any counseling, Sallo said.

Early intervention on behavior issues such as this could mean fewer disciplinary incidents and suspensions, Sallow said.

The other students are: a 12th grade trainable mentally handicapped boy; a boy with an emotional behavioral disability/severe emotional disturbance; a boy with an emotional behavior disability; a boy who is educable mentally handicapped; and a 12th grade boy with autism spectrum disorder and speech/language disorder.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

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