Special Education Law: Discussing the Realities of Retaliation and What's Required to Prove That.

Описание: As I explain in the video response, working in government is a club and most of us aren't in it. They give themselves special "powers" along with immunity from most lawsuits attempting to hold them accountable. They are a difficult class of people to terminate or take responsibility for bad decisions/actions. In a lot of circumstances, they are actually given more tax funding when they are failing or doing a poor job where we (as citizens) are told to expect different results or improvements that rarely happen.
There is no market principle in government that makes them directly accountable to results or risk going out of business or being legally challenged. Their tax funding through sales taxes, income tax, property tax or fines/surcharges supplies them with a never-ending source of your money without ever having to show tangible results that might cost them their jobs. You may say that Superintendents lose their jobs, etc. but can a superintendent mass fire incompetent teachers that might be at the core of the lack of tangible progress? No.
So, government is a club and you ain't in it. Once you accept that reality then you can begin to navigate this process of advocacy with some success. Yes, there are already sufficient laws on the books to where you ARE permitted to legally challenge a school team and/or school personnel. There's the ADA and 504 and Title IX... the IDEA is also available but doesn't have any damages component to it yet corrective action is a powerful tool. On the ADA, 504 and/or Title IX (and other legal theories), you can assert those along with a Section 1983 claim yet understand that you'd need to navigate around some immunity assertions by those you are attempting to hold accountable. Many damages attorneys won't take these type cases on contingency because of the risk involved.
But, there are available avenues without having to try and get your legislature to adopt and enforce new laws that they likely would never entertain. You just need to make sure that you are documenting and being smart in your communications, actions and behavior, as you're also under the microscope of scrutiny.
As I state repeatedly in my video response, you MUST be able to show actual retaliation and in the manner required. This is incredibly hard to do and, remember, school personnel have their opportunity to explain their actions/behavior in the form of legal "defenses" and Judges give a lot of weight and deference to why government people make the decisions that they do and tend to excuse rotten government official behavior over that of a private citizen or company. This is just reality and the world isn't fair.
So, the smartest approach is to win the hearts and minds of your team. You need to be above their pettiness and, yes, you need to be emotionally regulated and in control. You need to document and you must expect the unexpected and be on alert and listen to your gut when it's screaming at you that X,Y or Z person is bad news and being questionable. I have far too many parents that feel betrayed and shocked when school personnel "retaliate" for basic advocacy.... it's not hard to identify the bad leaders because bullying and retaliation is their "go to" because they are largely ignorant and have no redeeming qualities to engage in logical, positive and beneficial discussions.... they see "power" as something to abuse. Once you identify these people then you can successfully avoid or navigate around them.... intolerance is not a bad thing with bad people, as I refuse to tolerate bad behavior nor do I recognize bad leadership and bad action.