I CANT DO THIS BY MYSELF 1

I Cant Do This By Myself

Ryan Martorello

College of Southern Nevada

 I CANT DO THIS BY MYSELF 2

ABSTRACT

We all have our deformities, which separates us from each individual in the world.

Unless you are a identical twins or triplets, our appearance will be always be different

from one another. Another deformity would be the matter of being disabled. You can have

physical or mental defects. In this case, Jonathan is a disabled high school student with

mental and physical disabilities. His parents approach the principal; Debbie Young to ask

her if the school could take their son in. Debbie used to teach special education and

worked with kids with disabilities a lot. Young refuses the request to accept Jonathan at

the high school due to the multiple disabilities that require attention. The parents sought

to sue the school for not allowing Jonathan in. Let us see what we find out.

I Cant Do This By Myself

 I CANT DO THIS BY MYSELF 3

When we go through our public school education, most of us will be able to

perform the idea of school. On the other hand some students, require personal attention

and special types of tutoring. Those students are the special needs students. At this high

school, a student is brought in with multiple disorders including mental a physical

disabilities. The principal; Debbie Young, declines the offer to accept Jonathan into the

high school. She feels as if there is a need for more attention towards the disabilities then

the actual education aspect of it and does not believe that Jonathan belongs at school.

Well, the parents did not like that answer so they took it to a higher authority by going to

court. Who is in favor, the family or the school? Discussing the pros and cons of the

scenario will help to understand this better.

Looking through the eyes of the school. You can definitely see that they could win

this case because of the multiple disabilities following Jonathan. Would the focus be

directed to care for his disabilities or his education? With Jonathan being paralyzed

mentally and physically, the amount of care needed to nurture him would be more than

him actually furthering his education. Looking at the court case, Irving Independent

School District v. Tatro, there is a three-part test that must be conducted that allows the

student to be provided with the service. The school would look at this part test and see

would Jonathan benefit from the special education learning and by the disabilities

described, he probably would fail it due to a mental and physical situation. We ventured

from the schools side, now let us see where the family of Jonathan would be in favor.

Jonathans family became extremely upset with Debbie because she denied their

child to her high school. What is a way for Jonathan to attend high school benefit from it?

We can easily refer to the court case. Pennsylvania Association of Retarded Citizens v
 I CANT DO THIS BY MYSELF 4

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The final verdict of this case was that the states and

school districts had to recognize the right to let special educated students attend school.

That would be your standard court case to refer to on a general scale. I would look to that

case to open up in a court for an insight to siding with Jonathans family. We have taken

in consideration of both sides winning the court case now; let us look at what would be

the downfall into the negatives of both sides of the case.

Looking at the aspect of where the school would take a downfall would be where

they would be denying a students right to attend a public school with out running certain

tests to have physical proof of evidence to show that they cannot allow Jonathan in to the

high school. The case, Cedar Rapids Independent School District V Garrett F, proves

that this where the school can take the downfall. Now that Jonathan has entered into a

higher level of education, the school should accept Jonathan and allow him to have

assistance from the school to help him succeed in his school. In high school, the certain

age limit for continuing a high school education ends at 21 before you must get a GED

instead. If all these services can be offered from the school to aid Jon, why is he denied?

Now that the school has had its downsides, let us look at Jonathan losing the situation.

Jonathans special needs are at a high expectation for caring for his disabilities.

Looking at the last case of, Board of Education v. Rowley, the final decision of that

case states that a free appropriate education does not mean that an opportunity to achieve

full potential equal to other children, but provide access to specialized instruction for

benefit of the handicapped student. After the ruling of this case birthed the two-pronged

test. Jonathan would fail the second part of the pronged test. Has the IEP calculated to

award educational benefit? Looking at that, Jonathan being so mentally and physically
 I CANT DO THIS BY MYSELF 5

disabled, the IEP could conclude that he would not be suitable to be put in that

environment. The ups and downs of this case have been stated; now let me tell you my

personal verdict after analyzing the case

Has the grand jury of one reached a verdict? Yes your honor, my final verdict is in

favor of the school. After analyzing the situation at hand, I concluded that Jonathan is too

disabled body and mentally to the point where he would not benefit from the high school

education. With him paralyzed in all of his limbs, he cannot write, with his seizure

disorder, it would be difficult to keep Jon on task if he had reoccurring seizures. It seems

to me that the only way for Jonathan to show any range of improvement would be all

verbal speaking. It would be a very prolonging situation to have Jonathan in a public high

school environment.
 I CANT DO THIS BY MYSELF 6

References

Underwood, J., & Webb, L. D. (2006). School law for teachers: Concepts and
applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.

Pennsylvania Association of Retarded Citizens v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Board of Education v. Rowley

Irving Independent School District V Tatuo

Cedar Rapids Independent School District V Garret F