Just when you thought it was safe and we were free of Indian Agents, they returned. They returned to us in the form of administrators, school teachers, principals, counselors, specialized administrators, and other well known professionals.
We had a 504 meeting today. The administrators wanted to "play ball with us," only if we rescinded our right to due process. For the lay person out there, they wanted an assurance that we wouldn't "sue" if they didn't live up to the 504 plan and so therefore, they would not be adding any accommodations for my son because wouldn't make any such promise. Then they started to twist the law as specified in IDEA as if we couldn't read the law or didn't study it in depth before we asked for accommodations to be written to ensure that our son had an equal opportunity to participate in sports despite his disability.
It is just like the old days, we will put you on this little strip of land and you can't leave unless we give you permission. There is no food on your land and you can't get your own food. If you leave your little strip of land, we can shoot you. If we shoot you, you can't retaliate against us or help yourself in any way because that will nullify the treaty we made with you.
The principal said, "there was a mention of suing us if we didn't live up to the 504 plan." I want to be clear that we can still play ball with you..."
Yes, I said the word "sue" as I detected that you are very fearful of us and I do not know why. I wanted to get the elephant out of the room and so that maybe there would be room to help us focus on my son. We are not out for blood. We want to exercise our right to add accommodations to the already existing 504 plan so my son can play sports. We will not give up our right to due process. What does due process mean to you?
A lot of chatter with no substance ensued.
I said, it is hard to play ball with you when you own the equipment (balls, the bat, the mitts) and arrange the game schedules and can decide to tell our son about the game plan or not. Yet, if we still want to play ball with you because we have been taught that we are just as capable of playing ball as anyone else and we should never think that we are better than any other player, but you want to control when my son can play ball. You want him dressed and ready to play, but you may or may not play him. You want you dressed and ready to play, but you don't want to tell him when the game is going to be or talk to him if there are any changes made to the schedule. Does this seem fair to you?
I don't think we are asking for anything unreasonable. Give him the schedule, directly discuss any changes to the schedule with him, and initiate communication with him and/or us if there are concerns relative to his participation.
A lot of chatter with no substance or relevance.
Again, here is your little strip of land. Stay on the land. Do not leave the land. Do not retaliate against us if we fail to live up to the treaty we made with you.
No, I am sorry Indian Agent. I know my rights. The old days are gone. You have to add the accommodations that we have discussed with you or we can work together to craft new accommodations that will help you meet the needs of my son so that he can have an equal opportunity to play sports. If you chose not to add the accommodations, please give it to us in writing and we will take it from there.
Where is there? We will appeal to the OCR and file a complaint of non compliance. The old days are truly gone Indian Agent.
