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Helping a Bllied Child
B Ja Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tues da, Februar 14, 2006 11:06 AM
One da in Ma 2004, a student at Short Pump Elementar
School in Henrico Count, Va., walked up to fourth-grader
David Henck in the cafeteria and said, "It would be a hol
da if ou were shot dead b a sniper."
That single incident would have been bothersome enough to
David and his parents, Bill and Leigh Henck, but it was not
the first time children at Short Pump Elementar had been
cruel to David. He has Asperger Sndrome, a
neurobiological disorder marked in part b social clumsiness. He was, as his father put it, a bull magnet, and hisparents did not think the school was doing enough to help him.
I am telling this stor based almost entirel on Bill Henck's account. I asked the Henrico Count school sstem
for a response, but at first got onl two short and relativel general statements from the superintendent, which did
not surprise me in the least. I have been investigating several cases of communication between parents and
school officials in difficult circumstances, and the standard official response to the parents, and to an reporters
who might inquire, is often as little a response as possible.
I don't blame the school officials for this. It seems to me, and the biarre twists of the Henck case buttress that
impression, that the educators are doing onl what their lawers tell them to do. I don't have an cure for this, buI think relating what happened to the Hencks, and how the achieved the momentar but still remarkable
milestone of getting the Short Pump Elementar principal indicted for perjur, will dramatie what an awful
problem we have in parent-school relationships, and how it might be a good time to get people other than
attornes involved.
The tale of David Henck and the bullies of Short Pump Elementar began long before what the hearing officer in
their special education transfer case called "the sniper incident." Students had been mean to David throughout his
fourth-grade ear, but he did not tell his parents about it until Februar 2004. When his parents called his
teacher, she admitted that she "was aware of earlier incidents of bulling, but had not notified us," Bill Henck
said. The teacher was not identified publicl and not made available for comment.
At least three students harassed David. He told his parents he regularl informed the teacher of what was
happening, and more than once she spoke to the students and sent them to the principal's office. But after the
sniper incident, the Hencks decided their child, because of his disabilit, had to transfer to another school for his
safet and mental health, a decision that the felt was particularl wise when the learned later that the child who
made the sniper comment was never given detention or even a suspension for that offense.
When the Hencks made the transfer request, common under special education rules, the Henrico Count officials
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Francis' report, as he laid out the cold, hard truths of the special education system in America.
"Although I find from the evidence that David was subject to what I shall term as harassment, teasing, bullying
and threatening conduct from other students because of his qualifying educational disability and I find that it had
at least some effect upon his social and emotional adjustment and stability and therefore by inference must have
had some effect upon his ability to learn, I cannot therefrom conclude that Henrico has failed in its statutory duty
to this student," Francis wrote.
"Whether one agrees with it or not," he wrote, "the law establishes a minimum baseline of educational benefits
that the county must offer students with disabilities." The law said David was entitled to a "free and appropriate
public education," not, Francis said, "the best possible education."
No matter how angry and disheartened the Hencks, and other parents like them, feel about the way they were
treated, all that is required is that the school system provide specialized services that "are sufficient to confer
some educational benefit upon the handicapped child," Francis wrote.
David Henck is apparently doing better at his private school, but the whole experience, his father said, "has cost
my family dearly. Not only the money and time we have had to invest, but also the stress and pain we have had
to endure."
That is too bad. The legal system doesn't seem to care much. The U.S. Supreme Court in one of its most recent
decisions made it even harder for special education families such as the Hencks to get what they consider justice.
So it may be time to focus instead on those few schools that have found ways to make special education work,
and how they do that. Good educators are the only people who are likely to get us out of this mess. The lawyers
as thoughtful and dedicated as they often are, just follow the rules, and that didn't get David Henck and his
parents anywhere.
Vie all commen ha hae been poed abo hi aicle.
2006 The Washington Post Company
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