Dear Near Future…
Soon, I want Jaden to be healthy and happy. I want jay and I to face our fears about school and anything else that brings us anxiety or distress. I want my son to be in an educational environment where he is thriving not just surviving. I want him to be in an environment where educators, mentors and protectors’ dwell.
I want Jaden to be around his peers so that he can establish positive and lasting friendships. I want him to be in an educational environment that promotes kindness, compassion, and love.
I want his educational environment to encourage his curiosities so, long as they are school appropriate. I want his educators, mentors and protectors to discipline fairly, compassionately and most of all keep me abreast to what is happening to my son while he is in school. WE want to trust EVERYONE that is on school premises! Teamwork makes the dream-work!!
My son used to love
school and I want him to fall in love with school again! I loved school and
still do; I would love a master’s degree, but our education system is
disgusting. People who are narrow minded and not really invested in our Education
are in control of our future. Their ignorance and lack of leadership discourages
me from getting my Masters. Plus, higher Education is expensive A.S.F. and if I’m
going to invest in myself, my future,
I want to be able to choose all my classes and not be limited to certain classes.
There were plenty of communications that I wanted to take but couldn’t because
I had to take other classes I wasn’t interested in. I do agree a student should
be well rounded in different areas, but WE should get to choose what we take. I have a bachelor’s degree in communications
and I also have an associate in medical assisting. Two different majors but
together they have been changing my life.
I was headed into my junior year of high school when I got pregnant with my son. Before I got pregnant, I loved school and was excited about the educational path I was going to take. Everything that I was exposed to in kindergarten, elementary and middle school helped prepared me for my high school experiences. Except, getting pregnant that is. I had the privilege of taken classes in high school that helped me release my creative gene and communication was a major where I could release my creative genius. When my son was diagnosed, I stopped my bachelor’s degree and pursued medical assisting. I wanted to do massage therapy, but a great counselor listened to my story and suggest I take up medical assisting, as it would make me more well-rounded to deal with doctors. My instincts constantly reminded me to not let doctors’ experiment with Jaden. Yes, there will be trial and error but certain things we are not down for, I don’t care what the statistics are.
My son was 2 when he was diagnosed with a rare chromosomal disorder called MECP2 Duplication Syndrome. MECP2 has many symptoms but my son suffers from epilepsy, hypotonia, sleep apnea, reoccurring constipation, is more susceptible to respiratory infections, and is globally delayed. On May 31, 2019 Jaden went in for what should have been a routine MRI, but it turned into a nightmare. He never woke up from the anesthesia and ended up in ICU for nine days. Seven of those days he was hooked up to a ventilator and on an ass load of pharmaceuticals. He spent a total of 14 days in Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. During this hospital stay I also found out his aortic root is moderate to severely enlarged. Jaden is currently on restricted activity level. This life changing event rolled up almost 4 months after I had to pull Jaden out of Atlantic County Special Services School which is in Mays Landing, NJ.
On January 18 and February 14, 2019 my son was neglected and abused on school premises.
On January 18 he had a bloody nose and none of the faculty could explain why
there was dry and wet blood inside and outside his nose.
On February 14, the nurse and his teacher said he was playing on the floor and that’s
when they noticed a scrape under his nose and what looked like a chapped lip.
In my son’s IEP, Individualized Education Program, it states my son is to have a
one to one personal aide 360 minutes daily. Where was his personal aide when
these incidents happened? Why wasn’t an incident report filed? Why wasn’t I
contacted January 18th? The nurse called me February 14th
but that’s only because I complained about not being contact about the January
18th incident. I filed a
complaint with the resource officer stationed to ACSSSD, but he didn’t find any
foul play. I asked him for a copy of the report, and he said no problem. However,
when I requested the report from Hamilton township, they denied my request. I
filed a complaint with the Department of Child Protective Agency and their
report was inconclusive. I also
requested my son’s school records from Atlantic County Special Services School
and Hamilton Township school district, neither institution has provided me with
those documents.
Continuing, it feels AMAZING writing about how challenging 2019 has been. My biggest fears have manifested, and it is now time for healing. My son and I are fearful to go back to school and we both have PTSD from everything that has happened thus far but the one thing that has kept us going is GOD. We must ask GOD daily, to help us to forgive Atlantic County Special Services School and Hamilton township for their negligence, abuse, lack of response and lack of compassion. I pray that all parties involved have repented or choose a path that will bring them closer to GOD. All parties involved should be grateful that Jesus and GOD reached me before I could reach them. On September 10, 2019, I received a letter from Marylynn Stecher who the supervisor of Special Education and Child Study Teams. Ms. Stecher wanted to remind me that the Hamilton Township School District shall remain ready and willing to provide my son with a free and appropriate education. I think its adorable that the township wants to provide my son an education but wont even give me my son’s educational record nor will they give me the truth as to what happened to him while he was at school January 18th and February 14th.
Dear near future,
My son and I will find success in our educational environments. Educational environments where we will be safe, protected, nurtured and thirsty for knowledge. Jaden used to love school but has become timid about his educational future. I could live without a master’s degree, but my son was in 6th grade when the BS happened at Atlantic County Special Services School. He still has a great deal of primary education to gain. One of the reasons I loved school was because of the educators, counselors, faculty and staff that worked in the environment. I was blessed with some phenomenal people who nurtured, motivated, protected and educated me. I want my son to feel safe when he’s at school. I want him to have all the same educational opportunities I did. DAMN THE SPECIAL NEEDS, DAMN HIS RACE, DAMN ALL THOSE STEREOTYPES THAT EXIST IN THIS 3D WORLD!! This world and societies mind set is narrow minded and that is part of the reason our EDUCATIONAL system is DISCOMBOBULATED!
Abba Yah's Daughter 
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