PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Melody Ostrow, Parent of a Child with ASD in District 75
6:01:42
ยท
3 min
Melody Ostrow, a parent of an 11-year-old with ASD in a District 75 program, provided testimony highlighting issues in special education, particularly in District 75. She challenged the DOE's claims about lack of playgrounds and expressed concerns about the treatment of children, lack of proper training for staff, and the overall approach to educating children with special needs.
- Criticized the DOE's statement about lack of playgrounds, citing her own experiences
- Raised concerns about abuse of power, mistreatment of children, and lack of guidance for teachers and paraprofessionals
- Described the current approach in District 75 as "conditioning and programming" rather than effective teaching
- Mentioned personal experiences of retaliation when advocating for her child's rights
Melody Ostrow
6:01:42
Thank you again for holding this meeting.
6:01:45
I don't know if there's anyone left in the room, but there is.
6:01:47
Thank you for staying, and, I know we're all tired.
6:01:50
So I'll get right to it.
6:01:52
I, my name is Meli Ashdow.
6:01:53
I have an 11 year old daughter, diagnosed with ASD in a d 75 program.
6:01:59
I have I wrote down a testimony and I threw it in the garbage after I looked into the DOE in response to chair Joseph's questions.
6:02:07
I do wanna address some of their responses, and I can follow-up with, written testimony on the original things I was going to address.
6:02:15
I think we've already established related service providers are are issue.
6:02:21
Related services are an issue in in special education, so I'm not really going to touch on that much.
6:02:28
I do want to address other things though.
6:02:30
The, the DOE stated that there was lack of playgrounds for the children to have recess.
6:02:39
Not in my experience.
6:02:40
2 of my child's 3 schools were located next to a playground.
6:02:45
As a matter of fact, her previous school had a public pool separating the school and the playground.
6:02:51
I don't know why they didn't start a swimming program in the summer.
6:02:54
The kids were not allowed outside.
6:02:56
So that is the very first thing I'd like to address and just get that off the plate.
6:03:00
In my experience in the DOE, and no one has discussed this tonight, and I would like to address the pink elephant in the room, is the abuse of power, the, mistreatment of children physically, psychologically, the lack of no guidance actually for teachers.
6:03:18
I've seen teachers go to administrators for help, and they're just like, figure it out.
6:03:23
No training for paraprofessionals.
6:03:25
Parprofessionals aren't even given the IUP to read.
6:03:29
I was recently told that, a one to 1 para is a service, not a person.
6:03:33
So I'm to expect that everyone reads the IEP, every paraprofessional, doubtful.
6:03:39
What I see going on in d 75 is conditioning and programming, and it's not effect and it's increasing challenging behaviors.
6:03:47
I don't see children learning.
6:03:51
I don't see them generalizing skills.
6:03:52
They're not being taught.
6:03:53
They're like I said, they're being conditioned.
6:03:55
A child like mine cannot does not comply with conditioning.
6:04:01
She wants her voice heard and she would she likes to she wants to self advocate.
6:04:06
When she self advocates, the techniques used to address this have been planned ignoring, telling her no and she must do it, telling her she's bad, and telling her she's wrong.
6:04:17
My child now has an an increase in anxiety diagnosis since coming back.
6:04:23
We left the private school sector to come back to public school because we wanted rights.
6:04:27
The DOE doesn't care about our rights.
6:04:29
They they steamroll us in our rights.
6:04:31
And when we advocate for our children, we're met with retaliation.
6:04:36
And in my case, a false call to ACS by this b 75 superintendent.
6:04:41
AC thank god.
6:04:42
I know that ACS is getting a lot of backlash for this CARES program, but in our case Thank
Lucas Healy
6:04:46
you for your testimony.
6:04:47
Time has expired.
Melody Ostrow
6:04:48
No problem.
6:04:49
Have a good
Althea Stevens
6:04:55
evening.