« Autism Vitamins | Main | Smothered In A Classroom »
No Yearbook Photos for These Kids!
By Richard | June 19, 2008
No Yearbook Pictures for Autistic Kids
News10.net
ROSEVILLE, CA - Darla and Blandon Granger have grown some tough skin. They say they’ve had no choice ever since their 8-year-old twin boys Hunter and Holdon were diagnosed with autism.
“You’re kind of used to getting discriminated against out in society,” Darla Granger said. “When your kids do something weird, you get used to that.”
But their kids’ school was not a place they thought they’d meet discrimination. Hunter and Holdon take special needs classes at Quail Glen Elementary in Roseville, but otherwise are included with non-disabled kids. That is, the couple said, until the school yearbook was published.
The second grade class page in the yearbook had the names and pictures of every child — except those in special needs classes. Granger’s boys, and every other child with autism, had been left out of the class pages in the yearbook. The teachers who taught those classes weren’t pictured, either.
“It’s very surprising to me that something that simple would get overlooked,” said Blandon.
“Because it was the school,” added Granger. “An entity that you expect to be so supportive of your kids and your situation. It really just hit me wrong. I actually sat here in the kitchen and I cried. It upset me. It hurt me.”
Placer County Superintendent Gayle Garbolino-Mojica said the yearbook mishap “was not expected and discouraging. What happened was an error by the school district.”
Garbolino-Mojica said a school parent volunteer was in charge of yearbook production and was responsible for the mistake. The Grangers don’t want punishment for anyone involved with the issue. They just want people to re-think how they think.
“We just want our kids to be considered normal,” Granger said.
The Placer County Office of Education released a statement on its Web site, promising to make sure that all special needs kids from across the county are included in all yearbooks in the future.
Topics: In The News |
June 20th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
What bothers me about this is that these boys are NOT Quail Glen Elementary students. They are part of the special needs class overseen by the Placer County Office of Education (PCOE). PCOE leases space from the Dry Creek School District on the Quail Glen Elementary Campus to offer the County’s special needs program. These students and teachers do NOT report to Quail Glen Administrators, but PCOE. PCOE students have not been included in past Quail Glen yearbooks at PCOE’s discretion, not Quail Glen Administration…Where did these boys attend school last year? How mnay fundraisers did their parents participate in at Quail Glen? Have they attended any Quail Glen extra curricular activities? Let’s get all the facts right.
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:19 am
Reggie - Thanks for the input. I’m not familiar with the details of the situation. All of my info on the subject comes from the article posted.
If anyone else has MORE info on this, please comment.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I have a son with autism. He is a third grader attending a school In rocklin CA which is also Placer county. I believe that the exlusion of the yearbook pictures has little to do with the Grangers being in the County’s program for the fact that my son IS a part of the districts special education rather then the county, enrolled at his school yet was still excluded, along with other special education students at his school.
I fail to understand the relevence of whether or not the Grangers have attended fundraisers?