My nephew is diagnosed w/ ADHD & ODD. He has been seeing a court ordered psychologist due to problems in school. He is now 12 years old & has had behavioral problems in school since 1st grade. My sister & her husband have tried everything. They love their son very much but he is very difficult. He can be the most loving wonderful boy at home most of the time, but despite the fact that he is very intelligent & has no trouble academically he most often acts out in school & refuses to participate in class or do his work. The school stepped up & got the courts involved. She lives in a wealthy town that seems to have zero tolerance for children with these conditions & NO education plan in place to deal with them. They were back in court this week due to further noncompliance on my nephews part & the judge ruled that my nephew will be sent to a special school for children with behavior problems for a period of 45 days & if he shows no improvement he will be removed from my sister's custody & placed in residential treatment. I don't understand HOW they can do this. My sister has done nothing but try to get help for her child. There is no abuse or neglect on her part or her husband's. Nor has the court or school ever alledged there to be. She has been compliant with everything the court has ordered. How is removing him from her custody supposed to help. SO MANY kids are severely abused and/or neglected & NEVER taken from the home! How can this be?? She is terrified, mainly because of what he could be exposed to or what could happen to him in a residential facility. I feel like they are punishing her because she was a teenage mother when she had him. They seem to be intimating that this is her fault. Like somehow she's causing his behavior. Even his psychologist told the court that it is against her recommendation that he be removed from the home.
Has anyone else ever heard of this kind of court ruling. I must mention he is not violent ever. He has never been a threat to himself or anyone else. Mostly he is simply defiant & sometimes VERY hyper. I would appreciate any feedback. My heart is breaking.
Hi Heartbroken,
I would love to know exactly what kinds of behaviors he's exhibiting in school that it would come to this point. If he's simply not compliant and hyper, I can't see why that would cause the courts to get involved. He hasn't acted out? Got into fights? Broken the law? Even if that's the case, most of the time there are safeguards built in to HELP a child before he is taken out of school or worse.
Does he have an IEP? A behavioral plan set up?
I would tell your sister to find a special ed attorney immediately. There is a list here: http://www.copaa.net/find/index.php
Keep us posted-
Terry
Thank you so much for your response Terry. I wish I had more detailed info to share with you. My sister is reluctant to share many details with me. I suffer from a chronic illness & she feels like she burdens me when she speaks of her problems. He has never been involved in any sort of violence & never broken the law. the incident the precipitated the courts getting involved happened as follows:
My nephew had been in detention for a week or so for refusing to do his work. Bored, he asked the teacher, "What's a guy gotta do to get suspended around here?" The next day he was in class & around 10am stood up & announced, "The day of reckoning is upon you all." A line from one of his movies or video games. This was about a year & 1/2 ago. After that the school proceeded to file a CHINS with the courts & so the process began. I realize in this day of Columbine & the like how that must have sounded. I can understand them being alarmed. I don't understand how it has gotten to this point of them wanting to take him out of the home. He's not even agressive!
As far as his IEP, I don't really know anything about that. I don't think the town she is in chooses to deal with these kids in the public schools. They have an academy in the town where these kids are sent when they become "unmanagable" & it costs the town $30,000/yr. So instead they would rather torture & intimidate the parents in hopes that they will just take their kids & move.
I will pass on the link to my sister that you sent me. I hope she will consider relpacing her current attorney as the one she has now did not even show up to court this past Monday while they were ruling to possibly take my nephew away.
I'll keep you updated.
Thanks again,
H.A.