Local News in Brief : Schools Appeal Decision
The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District has filed suit in federal court to reverse a state administrative decision ordering the district to allow a 6-year-old girl--paralyzed from the neck down--to attend a regular kindergarten class.
The parents of the girl, Stephanie Statford, asked that she be placed in regular classes, but the district contended that she belongs in a special class with other handicapped children. A state hearing officer ruled for the parents Sept. 11 and ordered her placed at Rancho Vista School, the school nearest her home.
Stephanie, who is mentally alert, needs a respirator to stay alive and uses an oversized wheelchair she drives with her chin.
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