PARENTS, ADVOCATES, COMMUNITY LEADERS TAKE A STEP TOWARD UNITY IN PISCATAWAY, JUNE 19, 2006
Piscataway Organizing Flyer and Petition (MS WORD)
Piscataway School District Health Hazard: No Soap in Boys Room
at CONACKAMACK Middls School!

Parents, advocates, organizers and community leaders converged at June 19 meeting at the JFK Library on Hoes Lane in Piscataway NJ.  In all, about 20 attendees participated.  The meeting was called together by The NJ Student Advocacy Union and local parents in response to reports of disparate disciplinary treatment and other mistreatment of special education students at a school in Piscataway.  As the state prepares new special education code that will make it much easier to suspend and expel special education students from NJ public schools, the situation described by Piscataway parents at this meeting provide an ominous warning of the future of NJ schools – that will likely lead to the demise of thousands of NJ students with disabilities.

The meeting was presided over by two co-founders of the NJ Student Advocacy Union, Evelyn Delgado and Bob Witanek.

The situation in Piscataway, according to parents, which is probably not much different than public schools in towns and cities across the state of New Jersey, is tantamount to the criminalization of children with disabilities.  Tales of 45 school day suspension for possession of a less than 2 inch pocket knife for a special education child while in the same school – two children who actually used large steak knives to attack another student were give just 5 days suspensions were heard.  The parents were told, allegedly, that their child got a lengthier suspension because of the child is in special education.  We heard reports of a student being jacked up against the wall, a student having a pencil thrown toward him or her, a special education student being forced to transfer out of a school to another district school with just 2 months left in the year because the family moved across town and a student allegedly being assaulted by the same teacher and the teacher now being assigned administrative duty.

Parents told of various forms of retaliation – of being locked out of a room as teachers and police interrogated a young child – of having a truancy officer called.  There was a general fear in the room of coming forward and taking a stand – a fear of retaliation.  Parents explained the debilitating impact these events have on children, on their attitude toward school and their ability to be educated.  These are children who already have various disabilities that can only be compounded by school imposed traumas.  There was discussion as to how changes in NJ code will likely make the episodes described at this meeting much more commonplace across the state of NJ.

Aside from the discussion around special education issues, there was something else very important that occurred at the meeting.  There were representatives of the local African American community including a former local school board member.  There is concern among this constituency that the district might be planning to eliminate an important Student Advocate professional position at the high school.  The Student Advocate position was created years back in response to community engagement around issues of racial disparities in the Piscataway school district.  Now there are indications that the administration could be trying to curtail the advocacy of this position or eliminate it entirely due to the effective advocacy of this person for students facing challenges in the Piscataway district.  There were reports of excessive disciplining of students as well as the arrest of students for discipline issues in Piscataway schools and there was an immediate recognition of the plight being described by special education parents.

We discussed the potential of mutual support for the position of the Student Advocate as well as for the commonalities between special education children and students of color dealing with racial disparities in education.  The potential for convergence between advocates of special education students and advocates of African American students, some of whom are also part of the special education student body,

We recorded testimony of several parents, collected statements and signed letters supporting opposition to flat funding Abbott districts, support for pre-IDEIA 2004 manifest determination protections, stay put and action to eliminate racial disparities in special education.  See:

http://studentadvocate-nj.org/June8Letter.doc

We reviewed some of the strategies as outlined in our newspaper (see: http://studentadvocate-nj.org/Spring_2006_NJSA_Promote.htm ) including running special education parents for school board, mobilizing for school board meetings and having a spokesperson (including NJ Student Advocacy Union representatives from out of town – to protect parents from retaliation) address the individual cases of Piscataway families and a plan as to how to reach out to all of the special education families of Piscataway.  We discussed the filing of complaints calling for investigation of not only individual situations, but of the entire district.  The NJ Student Advocacy Union has been discussing a strategy of mobilizing our members to attend school board meetings around the state where parents are facing adversity – to assist and bolster local board participation efforts.  We are currently in discussion with community leaders in Piscataway to plan for such a school board meeting mobilization.

We will use the recording we made of testimony provided at this meeting to work with parents in the drafting of a working document that can provide the foundation of an organizing drive in Piscataway.

Since the meeting, we are exploring plans to attend a school board meeting and possible coordination of our efforts with the efforts of other constituencies in Piscataway facing adversity in the local public schools.  We will urge participation of local parents as well as parents from other communities – to promote solidarity from one community to the next.

The NJ Student Advocacy Union will have a table set up at the Juneteenth Event this Saturday in Piscataway where we can further organize around these important issues.  See: http://www.juneteenthnj.com .  We are preparing a flier about the Piscataway situation and a petition to have at the Juneteenth event.  Volunteers are needed from 10 am until around 4 pm – contact Advocate@studentadvocate-nj.org  or 908-881-5275 if you are interested:

Second Annual 
Juneteenth NJ Festival

Saturday, June 24, 2006 (12-6 pm)
(An African-American Cultural Heritage Event)

 Saturday, June 24, 2006 (12-6 pm)
Conackamack Middle School
 5205 Witherspoon Street
Piscataway, NJ 08854

It was the eve of the last day of school, yet parents and advocates were determined enough to come out and begin to lay out a plan to organize.  Let’s hold strategy sessions in the public libraries of each of the over 600 school districts across the state.  Let’s put the ball in the air and spread it everywhere!

For Our Children,

Bob Witanek, Co-Founder, NJ Student Advocacy Union, http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org Advocate@studentadvocate-nj.org 908-881-5275