Special Ed teacher wins retaliation suit for flagging IDEA non-compliance

[Left coast liberal]

A California special education teacher has won a suit for retaliation because she spoke out about the limited services provided to her special education students.

According to an article in Disability Scoop, Susan Barker was a resource specialist in Riverside, Calif. in 2005 when she raised red flags about the limited services provided to students with disabilities in the school district and that the school district was "non-compliant to federal and state laws".

She made a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. At that time, she says, her superiors in the school district began to retaliate and made the work environment "intolerable".

Barker says her colleagues stopped communicating by phone and e-mail, excluded her from staff meetings, limited her responsibilities and changed her work location. As a result, she alleged in a lawsuit against the school district that she was “constructively terminated” in August 2006 because her employer “subjected her to an intolerable work environment.”


Sheesh. Me thinks we've got a "culture" problem at that school.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-19093-Seattle-Special-Needs-Issues-Examiner~y2009m11d3-Special-Ed-teacher-wins-retaliation-suit-for-flagging-IDEA-noncompliance

[tonysam]

1. This one is a rarity in that she prevailed

This one would have helped me in my case when my principal tried to get me to violate federal law for him, but I missed the statute of limitations in filing a federal civil rights lawsuit.

The union and their attorneys knew about his wrongdoing, but they failed to give me any kind of advice to seek a lawyer. They were covering up for this son of a bitch.

[Left coast liberal]

2. Yes, I bet there is quite a bit of this happening out there.

Unfortunately, the way the funding is, special education takes money out of general ed and there is resentment.

Horrible what happened in this teachers case. Maybe it will act as a deterrent or give other teachers some hope to be backed up in an awful situation like this.

:-)