The School District Replies

A modified bilingual class (like Laura’s) has both English and Spanish speakers--they try to achieve a balance of about half and half. But in this particular class, there’s very little Spanish speaking going on. These are Spanish speakers who are ready to move into a full English curriculum.

Linda Jones has had grave concerns from the first day of school, when she walked into the class and saw Laura was not with her friends. She took her out and tried to put her with her friends. There has to be some control of that, otherwise we would have children moving all over the place.

Since then, the principal has met with Mrs. Jones and her husband twice. I’ve been in continual contact with her and I’ve even talked to a therapist she referred me to who had seen Laura. We continue to feel it’s much more of a concern to Mrs. Jones than it is to Laura.

I observed Laura’s class just a couple of weeks ago. She was working on a task, doing very well, seemed very happy. She’s not confused in class. She’s doing beautifully.

Mrs. Jones decided to picket and that embarrassed Laura greatly. She saw her mother out there at lunchtime and she just burst into tears.

In general, I believe in the skills of the teachers and the administration to put children in classrooms with the appropriate instructional grouping, and it is not my job to overturn those decisions. In many schools, parents would love to make those decisions, but it would just create chaos.

In this case, there’s no evidence in our minds--the educators’--that the behavior Mrs. Jones sees at home happens at school. Laura does not cry at school until she sees her mother coming.

We talked about maybe moving Laura to another school and Mrs. Jones said she would need one that provided after-school child care. I found out which schools provided child care in the area and she has been given that information this week. We’ve tried to really work with her, but it’s been pretty clear only one solution would satisfy her.