Grandparents continue fight for child’s schooling

Will Oremus

Friday, Aug. 8, 2003 | 9:29 a.m.

Mikki and Ray Cassidy say they made a promise years ago to their granddaughter Missy that they would always take care of her. They've been fighting to keep that promise ever since.

They won one battle Tuesday when a state hearing officer ruled that the Clark County School District has failed to meet Missy's educational needs and must therefore reimburse the Cassidys for the cost of home schooling and private tutoring.

The Cassidys said they initiated the due process hearing after numerous School District officials rejected their psychiatrist's recommendation that Missy, a 10-year-old girl with behavioral disabilities, be temporarily removed from school. The school refused to pay for home schooling, so the Cassidys hired a private tutor.

Hearing officer Walter Tarantino found that the School District had failed to provide Missy with an appropriate individualized education program, which is required by federal law for all children who qualify for special education in public schools.

The result, the Cassidys said, was that Missy's teachers were not properly informed about how to deal with her and ended up exacerbating her problems rather than helping her. Worse, the Cassidys charge, special education teachers at John S. Park Elementary School physically and psychologically abused Missy in their misguided attempts to control her behavior.

The Cassidys have legal guardianship over Missy, whom they describe as a "very bright little girl" who is difficult to deal with because of her hyperactivity, sensitivity and frequent anxiety attacks.

Michael Harley, chief compliance officer for the School District, said his office plans to appeal Tuesday's decision.

Confidentiality laws prohibit school officials from commenting on the specifics of any case, he said.

"There are two sides to any story, but all we can say here is that we disagree with the hearing officer's findings and expect to appeal," Harley said this morning.

But the Cassidys said any appeal would be part of a continuing effort by the School District to "wear them down."

Mikki Cassidy said they met with a procession of administrators "all the way up to (Superintendent Carlos) Garcia," and they all promised to look into the situation.

"We never heard what the results of their investigation were," Cassidy said.

Meanwhile, Ray Cassidy said, Missy's teachers, some uncertified or untrained in special education, continued to scare and even hurt her with their disciplinary actions.

Missy's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder makes it nearly impossible for her to sit still, Mikki Cassidy said. But one teacher would pry her hands apart or even bear-hug her tightly from behind to stop her from fiddling with a pencil or an eraser.

Cassidy said the girl also suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result of abuse from her mother, who is now in prison in Ohio.

That certainly wasn't helped, she said, when a teacher locked her in a dark closet to punish her. Or when another teacher slammed her desk with a baseball bat to get her attention.

After the hearing process is resolved, the Cassidys said they intend to pursue civil action against one or more of Missy's former teachers for child abuse.

"There's a lot of other kids in (special education) classes that cannot speak for themselves," Ray Cassidy said. "We're not only fighting for Missy, we're fighting for the kids that come along behind her."

Without the suit, he contended, teachers will continue to mistreat their students and the district will continue to stonewall concerned parents by asking them to trust the teachers, not their children.

"We trusted the school," Mikki Cassidy said, by at first believing teachers who told them that nothing was wrong. "Missy paid the price."

Ray Cassidy said he has worked with a lot of good people in the School District, but on a systemwide basis, the district devotes insufficient resources to special education. Many of Missy's problems, he said, were caused by untrained long-term substitutes and aides, rather than by certified special education teachers.

"Clark County is a big school district with a lot of problems," Cassidy said. "They don't have enough revenues, they don't have enough teachers, they don't know how to deal with these children -- they're overwhelmed. And some of them don't care."