My five year-old son is in Kindergarten at a private Christian Academy in Maryland that has a "Church-Exempt" status according the State Education department. My son has been diagnosed to have a speech problem. He has been receiving speech therapy for the past two years and at the begining of the school year this year and last year, my wife and I have met with his new teachers to inform them of his speech problem, his on-going therapy, and to let them know to keep the lines of communication open with us about our son's progress. We told them don't hesitate to contact us if there are any issues that arise, if he needs extra help or if he needs to do extra work. So far that has worked out.

However, this school year, I was elected President of the school's PTA. With that, I proceeded to organize our PTA Board, created by-laws, and basically put some structure and organization to it that has been missing. In doing that and moving forward, the schoo's director and our PTA, moreso me, have butted heads on a couple of issues concerning the school. As a result of that and the actions that I am about to describe to you and seek your advice on, I have stepped down as PTA President.

In part of us butting heads with the director, we as a PTA board wrote a letter to the school's Board of Directors requesting a meeting with our PTA board, the school director, and the Board of Directors. I was contacted by the school for a meeting with just myself, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and the school's director. So to stop or eliminate myself from being "ganged up on" by the Chairman and the school's director, I bought my PTA Vice-President and Secretary along for the meeting. Well, the letter and their presence did not sit too well with the Chairman and school's director. To make a long story short, there was little resolution to the issues that resulted from that meeting.

The following week, my wife and I received word that we are scheduled for a meeting on that coming Friday (Oct. 12th) concerning our son. My wife was puzzled because we had been in communication with his teachers and that they know to contact us directly if there is an issue with him. Well, Friday came and it turns out that the school director called the meeting and we found out later that the teachers had no idea what the meeting was about. Well, in that meeting, the school director basically informed us that the school was not equipped to deal with our son and that we may want to look at placing him somewhere else. I had been researching other schools myself and identified one that has programs that work with students with speech and other learning deficiencies as a supplement to their regular course work and schedule. The school director called this meeting to inform us of that and did not once discuss his G.P.A. in the first quarter at all. Our son has a 90.4 G.P.A. in the first quarter with his lowest grade being a 76 in handwriting. He's five years-old in Kindergarten. He has not disciplinary actions against and basically has clean record.

The school director went on to make assumptions and statements of what she proclaimed she has observed with our son. One observation being that she observed him in one instance during the last school year where he threw what she said was a tantrum because another child in his four year-old class took a toy from him. Note that these were four year-old children; my son is an only child; and he loves Thomas the Tank engine. Also, note that the school director is not a licensed therapist, social worker, speech pathologist, etc. She's a school director with a degree or degrees in education and claims to have a master's in psychology or social work but does not practice. She also stated that he appeared stand-offish because he did not return a greeting to her one morning. The school director had teachers present that clearly by their body language and demeanor, did not understand why the meeting was called. The P.E. teacher did not have anything to say other than my son has trouble sometimes following directions and that he has trouble with coordination, specifically hopping on one foot, which was later rebutted because we had him hop on one foot with not problem. The P.E. teacher could not look my wife and I in the eye the whole time he was present. Also, during this meeting, the school director revealed the name of a student and his parents name that has Autism and suggested that my wife and I talk to these folks. During my son's summer physical, his Pedtrician informed my wife that our son is not Autistic based on his professional experience and recommended that we go to a facility to have him evaluated and treated because he had seen all of the symptoms of speech and actions that our son displayed in children before and once they went to this facility, within a year to two years they were absolutely fine.

The teachers have informed us in confidence of course, that they had nothing to do with that meeting. They were only doing what they were told by the school director. And that our son is doing fine and improving every week in their class. One of my son's teachers also informed me in confidence that the school director has not called anyother type of meetings with anyother students and pointed out in particular that one student in his class has serious academic and behavioral problems but no meeting has been scheduled. My son's homeroom teachers also informed us that our son is doing fine and that the school director isn't even in their classroom to see whether or not our son is doing good or bad. So my question is:

Do we have any legal recourse against this school and this director for what she has done? IMO, she did this to come after me as the PTA President and basically get me to leave the school or step down. The Monday after that meeting, I did indeed step down because she made this personal by calling a meeting with us to suggest we move our son to another school when his behavior, grades, and overall standing in the school were fine. Also, what about confidentiality? She revealed the condition of one child and his name and his parents name, who goes to say that she won't do the same with us? We are exploring our options in terms of what sort of recourse do we have in this matter where a school director abused her power and showed vindictive judgement in dealing with a PTA member by suggesting that the school is not for their child when the child is not struggling at all.

JudyKayTee

As you describe it there are many twists, turns and sides to this - I would get advice from an Attorney. Your son's education is at stake here - get an Attorney.

froggy7

First, let me state that I have no expertise in this area, and am just going off of what you have written.

You state that you had been investigating some other schools, and found one that dealt with children with speech issues. It sounds like you were doing this before the meeting with the school director. If that's so, then it sounds to me like you were not entirely happy with how your kid was doing at school, and are thinking that he might do as well or better somewhere else. If that's the case, then I'd go ahead and put the boy in the new school.

Yes, she may be doing this because of your actions with the PTA. She may also being doing it because she doesn't feel that her school can adequately meet your child's needs. Yes, you can hire a lawyer and go to court over this. But it's a private school, they can accept and not accept who they want based on whatever guidelines they want. And if your kid is getting an equivalent education somewhere else, what are your damages? And what happens if, after spending all this time and money, the court finds against you? Then you will be out time and money that could have been spent on doing things with your family.

Based only on your side of the story, I think that the director was wrong. But life is short, and how much energy do you want to spend on proving that?

Fr_Chuck

It sounds like you had some idea that the PTA had real authority and was some "union" to actually get changes made. And I would suspect your changes were not wanted or appreaciated by the school.

But a private school does not have to take children they are not able to handle since they do not recieve government funding for special needs. or they can ask you to pay for such services as needed.

Sounds like you should just step down out of the PTA and let them go back to being a fund raiser like most are.