A Fight for our Lives – Part 2

I sent the email on Sunday night at 11pm. Before 9am on Monday, I received a phone call from the superintendent herself. She was very upset about the circumstances and assured us she was calling an emergency 504 meeting and would mandate a safety plan written for Aaron as well. She had the district 504 coordinators reach out to me. Within about 10 minutes, the coordinator had called as well. She solidified a date and time for the meeting, and clarified some of the grievances we’d cited, stating she was absolutely heartbroken to hear of the challenges we had been facing with Aaron and the school district.

This morning, we went to the meeting. My husband and I attended together – and I brought a notepad for notes and Aaron’s safety folder, and a million other things I thought I’d need, including screenshots of assignments, what was missing, what was locked, what Aaron could do and what he could not complete because he was waiting on a teacher.

Our meeting had about 10 people including several from the superintendent’s office.

– Referrals about attendance to court were immediately taken off the table as an option

– The science teacher who had been the culprit of much of the harm was replaced by another one (something we were told previously was impossible)

– his 504 was updated

– a safety plan was written (basically a social 504 that the admin and teachers have to follow per professional guidelines) that includes his name and gender

– the district removed his middle name from Infinite Campus

– Several options were presented for high school including avoiding the PE requirement by doing it this summer (ahead of time) so that locker rooms aren’t an issue

– Hand selecting teachers for Aaron with guidance to avoid teachers who aren’t “as good” at keeping up pronouns

– including a get-out-of-class-without-penalty card to the counselors office

– sending him to a counselor instead of the nurse for panic attacks

The principal was obviously upset, her body language and voice were stressed and cross the whole 2 hour meeting. The rest of the the staff who were there were extremely effective, understanding, supportive, and helpful. We made some concise changes, some provisions for the future, and Brent and I were heard when we spoke about our concerns when it came to our son’s safety.

We will see how it actually goes from here. But tonight, I lay down with hope and peace in my soul.