Lee's Summit R-7 School District: Lee's Summit Autism Conference

Lee's Summit R-7 School District: Lee's Summit Autism Conference

Every year the district puts on a four day autism conference.  Many of the individuals that worked with my son never attended this.  I did.

On the first day of the conference they have a group of parents that bestow gratitude and love on the district.  They were sorely unaware of just how little the district was doing for their children.

One mother had twin sons.  One had autism and the other did not.  She had very little positive to say about her son, but was in love with the school district.  She spoke of watching a program on television that talked about how some twins are consumed by the other.  At one point she said she thought, "If only."

Another mother talked of how intelligent her son was, but that he was placed in classes below his intelligence level because he was autistic.  She thought the district was doing a wonderful job.

One mother was pleased that her autistic son spent the whole day being asked to get dishes out of a cabinet and then put them away.  The woman working with her son never smiled, was never pleasant, and seemed impatient many times.  I know because they showed us a video of this.

I, too, attended this conference early on.  I was one of those parents that sat up front and spoke of how wonderful the district was.  That was before I knew that they were doing nothing for him and that they would ultimately destroy him emotionally and psychologically.

At some point during the conference a parent in the audience asked how he should tell his son's baseball coach that his son was autistic.  All off the parents on the panel told him not to tell anyone.  Can you believe that?  They didn't want anyone to know.

During a break I went over to that man and told him that they were wrong and that he should not be ashamed of his son.  He was thankful because he couldn't understand why these people were telling him to hide his son's autism.

The conference had a lot of good information, but the district does not implement any of it.  It states that an autistic child will never learn social skills simply by being with other kids.  However, I have attended an IEP meeting where the district told the parent and the parent's attorney that the child will learn social skills simply by being in the classroom with other kids. 

I have been made to look like a crazy woman by this district.  The superintendent even asked another parent if he was working with "that Tucker nut".  But, I will not stop telling the truth and helping parents fight this district.  Too many lives depend on it.