Modifications to Classroom Aren’t the Answer in Case of Jimmy Peters

* This is in regards to the ongoing saga of Jimmy Peters. I am a special education teacher and wholeheartedly support full inclusion and parent involvement. I also expect cooperation from a parent in the ongoing struggle to include special education students into the regular classroom.

Mr. Peters has unfortunately set back the attempts to include all special education students into the classroom. Does he realize that regular education teachers read the newspapers also? They miss all of the positive attempts at inclusion because of his ongoing battles. I understand the district is making attempts to accommodate his son. He needs to understand that compromise sometimes is the best solution.

I too would like to see my students included in the regular classroom and make the best attempts to do so. However, unfortunately, not all teachers are accepting, not all districts are accepting and the negative press that Mr. Peters is receiving has only made it more difficult for others.

I hope that we will soon read less of Jimmy Peters and find more of the positive role models for inclusion that are happening in the Orange County area. There are plenty of successful cases of inclusion; let’s hear about those students.

LARRY HERSCHLER

Westminster

* I find Jim Peters’ attempts to privatize a public school for the benefit of his son dismaying. Schools are drained of funds, yet $5,000 has been spent to handle his child. Mr. Peters also wants two-way mirrors installed, and the boy’s baby-sitter hired as a teacher’s aide.

Perhaps the “appropriate educational program” Mr. Peters seeks can be found at a private school, rather than disrupting the education of everyone at this publicly funded school.

TIMOTHY MORGAN

San Clemente

* The new school year begins with renewed demands by special education advocate Jim Peters that his disabled child, Jimmy, will be “mainstreamed” into a regular first-grade classroom in the Ocean View School District. We have been reading about this case for the past six months. The most recent article about Mr. Peters and Jimmy shows that the parent now wants the following modifications to the regular classroom at Circle View Elementary for the ‘94-’95 school year: Moving the class to a different room, hiring the child’s baby-sitter as an instructional aide for his child only, replacing students in the proposed class with those deemed more sympathetic to the child, the purchase of special education materials, purchase of an aquarium and guinea pigs (or the housing of Jimmy’s pet rabbit), and the placement of an eating station in the room.

In addition the school district has spent $5,000 training the proposed teacher in techniques to deal with Jimmy and $1,200 in a failed attempt to hire a behavior specialist to design an assessment plan for Jimmy.

A note to Jim Peters: Do you fail to see the inconsistency of one hand claiming that your child can function in a normal classroom and on the other hand trying to transform it into a special education class set up for the benefit of your child alone? Can you not see the chaos that would result if each and every other parent made similar demands that the school provide the perfect learning environment for his or her child with the entire focus pointed toward that end?

Mainstreaming is a valid concept. Certainly any disabled child who can fit into a normal classroom should be allowed to attend and reasonable modifications to the classroom and program should be considered to expedite the process. It is now up to the Ocean View School District to draw the line at what is reasonable in terms of time, money and sacrifice by the others in contact with Jimmy.

ANN G. DELANEY

San Juan Capistrano