https://www.reddit.com/r/AutismInWomen/?f=flair_name:"Vent/Rant"
My son is autistic and in kindergarten. He is in a functional learning class for special needs children in the local public elementary school. There are 2 other kindergarteners in there. The school has a K graduation the last day of school.
I asked his teacher if the kindergarten graduation was still the last day and she told me the principal said that the functional class will have a separate Kindergarten graduation from the typical K class.
I waited until after morning drop off and announcements to go to speak to him.
He came out of his office to speak with me in the main office area. I asked him about the separate kindergarten graduations and he confirmed, yes they will be separate. I asked him why.
He then tells me that he felt the functional kindergartens would disrupt the NORMAL kindergarten graduation and that wouldn’t be fair to those parents. I lost it at “normal kindergarten”.
I raised my voice and asked him if he thought discrimination was more appropriate than accommodation? And how the hell is it okay to exclude these children? He asked me to calm down and that made me lose it more.
I started yelling at him that my child deserves to be treated fairly and even if he wouldn’t sit through the graduation he should be allowed accommodations. And if the other parents knew he was excluding the special needs kids? I also told him he needs to read the ADA act. I said more but I started crying and shaking and pulling my hair.
He called the resource officer in there to escort me to my car without any answering my questions. On the way out I was yelling “accommodate don’t discriminate!” over and over.
The resource officer told me that she agreed with me and she was sorry. I sat in my car rocking to calm myself down. I called my husband and he offered to get off work to come get me and talk to the principal. I didn’t want him to miss work so I rocked more until I could drive.
A paper came home today letting the parents know if they want their child to participate in kindergarten graduation to please fill it out and write down accommodation needed. And his teacher thanked me via text letting me know she pushed for it and he declined her. It’s their first year having the functional class so I’m sure she didn’t want to seem out of line to her boss but I also let her know I feel she should be an advocate for them.
I was so embarrassed for having a meltdown at the school in front of staff members. I’m nervous that the staff members will look at me differently. Why did I have to have an epic meltdown?