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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

In which I'm Confused about the Status of the Bartons' Lawsuit...

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bloomsberries on Flickr

This is another quick update on Alex Barton, an autistic kindergartener who was voted out of his class. Barbara at Mommy Life sent her last care package to the Barton family filled with good wishes from folks around the world. In Melissa Barton's thank you message, she says "We are taking the case to federal court and I expect that this will be a landmark case for autism."

One of the most recent news reports I saw said the Bartons' lawyer "put the district on notice they intend to sue" and quoted him as saying, "If they [the school district] do that ["investigate the claim, and come to us with a possible resolution"] then we can it's a realistic possibility we can work things out with them and we won't have to file a lawsuit."

I'm not familiar enough with the way the legal system works to know if we can read anything into those two combined statements to get a sense of how the investigation is going. It may be that the federal Melissa Barton mentions is separate from any lawsuit seeking damages or one of the outcomes she desires: having teacher Wendy Portillo dismissed.

Posted by at 2:49 AM
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6 comments:

  1. I think somebody's lawyer is getting excited at the prospect of glory.

    Seriously, the mom might have been advised to seek redress under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is a federal law, hence the federal court.
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  2. Hmmm...I'm going with the 2 separate cases thing. It will be interesting to follow.
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  3. Generally speaking, a lawsuit is a blunt instrument. Unless the School Board supported the teacher's actions, the Barton family has no cause of action against them -- the teacher's actions weren't in any sense usual or authorized, right? Anyhow, if the School Board investigates, disciplines or discharges the teacher, and offers a Alex a suitable resolution, the family won't have a cause of action. They could I suppose bring a damage action against the teacher, but her pockets are not likely to be deep enough to make it worthwhile.

    anyhow at least in principle, what the parents would want would be a workable solution for their young son, not publicity and the chance of dollar damanges. Right?
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  4. This teacher's behaviour is unacceptable regardless of why the child was unpopular. No child should be persecuted for something they have no control over, so even if they exhibit intolerable behaviour because they have Bad Parents, the child shouldn't be persecuted. Of course teachers probably need some other options in that case. So while I see how it is so acutely relevant to anyone with a child with some form of autism, it is a more general issue.

    Not to mention that if I was a parent of a child in this class I would be disgusted that this was the role model for my child. Even if the kid in question was choosing to be obnoxious on purpose, it hardly helps the other kids to present such an appalling way of dealing with it.

    So it seems less about the legal system than about teaching standards to me, but I live in a totally different legal space (Australia) so I could be way wrong.
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  5. Mary P Jones (MPJ)Jul 9, 2008 01:59 PM
    Ariane, I think in the US everything is about the legal system. ;)
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  6. Somehow I missed seeing this posting.

    I'm still puzzled as to why the school district hasn't already asked Portillo to pursue other career alternatives more appropriate to her skill set. Makes me wonder if there's something about that school system that fosters the actions she took.
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