helping a bullied child

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ashingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article//AR2006021400793_pf.html

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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