BREA : Boy’s Mother Files Suit Against District

Marta Lopez says her learning-disabled son, Jeremy, spent more time last year in the principal’s office than in the classroom.

Unable to keep up with his fellow fourth-graders on an examination, Jeremy was sent to the office, where he spent nearly five hours, she says. When the class made paper airplanes for a project and he let his fly before everyone else, he was forced to sit out his science and physical education classes, she says.

After keeping Jeremy out of school in protest and wrangling with school administrators, Lopez has filed a federal civil-rights complaint against the Brea-Olinda Unified School District, claiming that her 11-year-old son’s rights were violated.

“It is not so much that he is my son; he is a learning-handicapped kid and is not getting the support he needs,” said Lopez, a single mother of two.

District officials admit that Jeremy needs special attention, but they argue that he has a discipline problem that his mother is trying to attribute to his learning disability.

“If you have a child who has a learning handicap and you discipline him or her for batting around other kids on the playground, that has nothing to do with the learning handicap,” said Edgar Z. Seal, superintendent of the Brea-Olinda Unified School District.

He added that while Jeremy has made progress of late and is doing well in his studies, he “just doesn’t want to go by the rules” of school behavior.

Seal said he was not aware of allegations that Jeremy had been punished for not being able to keep up academically with the other students, which Seal admits would be a violation of the student’s rights.

Lopez said Jeremy’s learning problem stems from “short-term memory,” leaving him unable to process information as quickly as other children. In the first grade, he was diagnosed as being hyperactive, she said, but the learning problem was not discovered until later.

Under federal law, school districts must assess the special needs of learning-disabled youngsters and provide services specifically tailored to individual students, said John Palomino, regional director of the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education, which is investigating the complaint.

In the civil action, Lopez contends that the district failed to properly implement such an individual education plan for Jeremy.

Lopez said Jeremy has had trouble with writing assignments, although he has done well in other subjects. Under federal requirements, Jeremy is supposed to receive special instruction for writing assignments, but his mother claims he did not receive specialized lessons.

“They did not implement (the individual instruction plan),” she said. “It isn’t right for me to send him to school that way when this is what happens to him.”

Seal said he believes an individual program for Jeremy was properly implemented and administered, and he said district officials will continue to work with Lopez to help Jeremy.

“We believe that (a specialized program) has been implemented,” he said. “I think it is probably a misunderstanding or a misinterpretation of what constitutes discrimination on the part of (Lopez).”

If the Office of Civil Rights rules in favor of Lopez, the district will be given a chance to comply with the findings or risk forfeiting federal funding, Palomino said. He said his office should reach a decision within the next few months.