Legal Question in Disability Law in California

I have a 21 year old severly disabled daughter who's in a county class at a public school. For the past couple years her teacher has decided to single her out to be mean to. She started with giving her to much water when feeding her through her G-tube that resulted 9 times out of 10 in her "dumping". She would then insist my daughter stay home from school because she had diarrhea. She stopped this after I had her dr. send a note saying cut back on the water. Next she sent her home with a bandaid on her finger that was still bleeding, saying they accidently cut her finger while cutting her nails. They had no permission to do this. When told that, the teacher said it was because she scratched another kid. My daughter is very spastic and cannot move her arms out enough to even scratch her knee. To be able to scratch another kid, they would have to be placed under her hands on her lap. After this was pointed out to the teacher she moved on to not changing my daughter during the whole day. They would place another clean diaper over her old diaper and leave her that way all day, yet the teacher would send weekly notes home saying my daughter was changed at least 3 times a day with either a peed diaper or a BM. I started marking the date on the bottom of each diaper in the morning just to make sure and she would come home with that same diaper on at the end of the day plus another over it and both would be soaking wet. Her clothes would be soaked halfway up her back. I called the principal who said the teacher said it was a misunderstanding and I just didn't see my daughters name on her diaper, that of course they changed her often. Almost on a daily basis my daughter has come home on the school bus leaning half out of her chair. I have asked every bus driver she has had to please not let her on the bus if they bring her out that way but only one has actually done it and my daughter is forced to ride home leaning out of her wheelchair because the staff refuse to put 1 blanket under her right arm. At the beginning of this year the teacher has started with telling me my daughter smells very bad and needs a bath. I bathe my daughter at least 3 times a week as she does wear diapers and she is an adult. Her hair is very thick and oily so she gets her hair washed more often then that. I finally lost it when monday of this week the teacher sends a note home saying her G-tube site is very infected and needs treatment or they can't allow her back at school. I take her to the G-tube Dr tuesday and he said it's not infected, that because she has a hole in her gut, fluid is bound to leak out and that is just fluid. I knew this as she has had it for many years and have told the teacher this previously. I let the teacher know what the Dr said Wednesday and wednesday she sends another note home saying that not only did her and her staff notice my daughters foul body oder but so did other visitors to the classroom. I contacted the principal who told me that basically my options were to keep her in that class as they would not transport her out of district and they have no other class, or keep her out of school, but she would be dropped after 10 days. There are other classes like my daughters but they are in other school districts and they would have to bus her there. I called Adult Protective Services and made a report and the woman I spoke to there said my daughter is being mentally abused. I'm just wondering if it's legal what they are doing and does my daughter have any rights here.Thank you very much for any information


Asked on 10/08/10, 11:26 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Daniel Bakondi The Law Office of Daniel Bakondi

I dont know this area of law, but I have a colleague who dedicates 100% of her practice to disability rights cases against schools. If you send me an email, I would be happy to give you her contact info.

Best,

Daniel Bakondi, Esq.

[email protected]

415-450-0424

The Law Office of Daniel Bakondi, APLC

870 Market Street, Suite 1161

San Francisco CA 94102

http://www.danielbakondi.com

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Answered on 10/13/10, 9:37 pm


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