Back to the Weekly Home Page

Classifieds

Palo Alto Online

One woman's story

by Jennifer Deitz Berry

When newlywed Antoinette Simms moved into her husband's home in Menlo Park, she had no idea the district her daughter, Shazia, was supposed to attend had been mired in a class-action lawsuit over special education for more than five years. But after months went by and the school still wasn't providing services outlined in Shazia's independent education plan, Simms reached her wit's end and called in a lawyer.

Simms is now among a group of parents that attorneys for disabled students may put on the witness stand this June, when a federal judge will hear testimony before deciding whether Ravenswood City School District staff have fulfilled their promise to improve special-education services, or whether it is time to oust top-level administration and bring in state-appointed officials to do the job.

Simms moved to east Menlo Park last spring, after she married an old friend, Joseph Nathan Simms. The couple married in the summer and she and two daughters moved into a house he already owned, just a few blocks from Belle Haven Elementary School.

Simms enrolled her daughters at the school, and at first, she said, "everything seemed to be going great." Staff at Belle Haven were alerted that Shazia would need special assistance, and her records arrived from the Newark school district detailing her disabilities, which included dyslexia, difficulties with visual and auditory processing, memory problems, and math and writing skills well below grade level.

Shazia also suffered from a variety of medical problems including sleep apnea, blackouts and borderline diabetes. In recent months, she had been in and out of hospitals as doctors worked to combat a mysterious skin growth, which had formed a ring around her neck and a hump on her back. To accommodate her learning disabilities, the Newark school district had allotted 135 minutes -- four sessions per week -- for Shazia to work with a resource specialist.

But a few days after her daughters started at Belle Haven, Simms was told the school was full and that the girls would be sent to Willow Oaks. However, staff at that school had heard nothing about a possible transfer. Simms' calls to the superintendent's office were not returned.

She went next to the San Mateo County Office of Education to lodge a complaint. After county staff intervened and her husband went to Belle Haven to argue his family's side, administrators agreed to let the girls back in.

Scheduling a meeting to talk through Shazia's individual education plan (IEP) and discuss her medical conditions was the next battle. School staff told Simms it was still only the first month of school and they needed more time to iron things out.

Hearing nothing after a week, Simms went to the district offices and filed a request in writing. She was encouraged by a meeting in early October with the district's IEP facilitator, Bob Shaw. He was familiar with Shazia's records and made an extra effort to help the family, Simms said. She couldn't afford a breathing machine to help her daughter sleep better, so Shaw donated an old machine his family owned, fitted Shazia's face for a mask, and helped set it up in their home.

Simms' other saving grace was Shazia's teacher, Izora Hansteen. "God, that lady loved those kids," Simms said. "She made Shazia feel that if she got one spelling word right, she got 100 of them right."

Hansteen encouraged Shazia to write as much as she could without worrying about spelling. Before putting a grade on the paper, she would work with Shazia to correct the mistakes. The care the teacher was taking helped Shazia's self-esteem and eased her fear of writing, Simms said. Seeing her daughter become less ashamed of her disabilities was also a comfort to Simms, who knows first hand the challenges of being a special-education student, having suffered a head-injury when she was young that impaired her own abilities.

"I know how Shazia feels," Simms said. "It's very embarrassing because you want to express yourself, but it's hard -- especially when you want to do it on paper -- because you can't get out all that you feel inside. You hear it, but getting it out is hard."

Though appreciative of Isora's efforts, Simms was concerned that two months later Shazia still wasn't receiving special-education services. Simms asked Shaw to look into the problem again, but never heard back from him. Then she discovered Shazia's teacher would not return in January.

The long-term substitute, Regine Neptune, lacked credentials or training in special education. During this time, Shazia would come home from school more and more upset. Simms argued with the new teacher, who refused to let the mother review Shazia's homework assignments. Simms then found herself slapped with a restraining order.

A judge dismissed the case, but lawyers' fees to fight Neptune's claim set the family back $300. (The district did not represent Neptune in court, and soon after the incident, she was dismissed. Neptune could not be reached for comment.)

In the meantime, Shazia had been transferred to another classroom, but still was not receiving adequate support services. She worked sporadically with a resource specialist, but the assignments were well below her abilities. Simms set up another meeting with district staff, only to watch another week go by without any follow-up.

At her wits end, Simms decided she needed outside help. A parent advocacy group pointed her to the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, which had brought the original suit against Ravenswood back in 1996 on behalf of disabled students whose needs were not being met.

"At that time I was hysterical. Nobody was helping me and I felt that no one cared," Simms recalls. "Basically I had no choice but to contact a lawyer to help me because I felt that my back was against a corner and I had nowhere else to go. I didn't know what to do and my daughter was falling behind."

Stanford professor and attorney Bill Koski accompanied Simms to her next meeting with Ravenswood officials, where it was agreed Shazia would be transferred to Flood Elementary School. She is now receiving one-on-one help two hours each day from instructor Stephanie Hendrickson, who has established a rapport with her student.

"She's sweet and she's nice and she helps me with all my homework," Shazia said.

For Simms, the victory is bittersweet. "I've never been through anything like this in my life. It cost me a lot of sleepless nights, anger and sadness," she said. "It shouldn't have to cost me to defend my daughter."

Belle Haven principal Ellen Spencer, and district superintendent, Charlie Mae Knight, declined comment about Shazia's case. But Michael Norman -- a consultant hired to help bring the district into compliance with special-education laws -- apologized for what the family went through.

"We're taking full responsibility for having made mistakes," Norman said. "Her daughter was not getting some of the services that were written into the child's IEP. We thought we had that corrected and as it turned out that wasn't true."

Norman hopes the district has now succeeded in providing the accommodations Shazia needs, and said he would like to think the district would have responded to concerns raised by a parent even without the presence of a lawyer. But given what's happened, he can understand why Simms would believe otherwise.

Norman said he also regrets the problems with teacher Regine Neptune, but points out that Ravenswood, like many other districts in California, is in a desperate struggle to find qualified teachers who can meet the needs of a highly diverse student population.

He remains optimistic that the district's special-education program has -- and will continue -- to improve.

"I can tell you, you will see some fairly significant changes at Belle Haven by the start of next school year in terms of training, staffing and reconfigurations."

For Simms, the assurances may be too little, too late. She is doing her best to help other Ravenswood parents by speaking up at public meetings, sharing her stories with the press, working with attorneys on a statement to submit to the federal court judge, and meeting with other district activists to talk about ways they can bring new leadership to Ravenswood and improve relations between parents and school officials.

"I'm just a parent out there trying to fight for a cause. This is my first time fighting for anything," Simms said.

E-mail Jennifer Deitz Berry at jberry@paweekly.com