The Hard Facts of Generakos Story

* Eric Stevens’ Dec. 6 letter on the Generakos hostage-taking incident implies that a causal factor in the shooting is that the Orange County Department of Education allegedly does not listen to parents or teachers.

It was quite revealing to witness the flood of news stories which followed the shooting death of Michael Generakos.

Rather than report the situation for what it actually was, news reports inaccurately characterized it as an action manifestation of the frustrations which special education parents supposedly experience when working with school district personnel to identify appropriate educational services for disabled children.

For anyone who took the time to read between the lines of the news stories, what really happened in the Generakos case was as simple as it was tragic.

Generakos was a mentally deranged parent who did not have custody of his disabled child and who wished services for his child that were at odds with the services desired by the child’s custodial parent.

Generakos’ ex-wife, from all news accounts, seemed to be quite pleased with her son’s educational program.

Rather than come to terms with his former wife and try to reach joint agreement regarding the treatment plan to be followed, he decided to take his frustrations out on the administrators at the Orange County Department of Education, hard-working, dedicated professionals, who were properly working with the child’s court-designated custodial parent.

JAMES A. FLEMING

Superintendent

Capistrano Unified School District