Steel Valley SD School Board try to deflect blame to teachers after the removal of SpecEd restroom. [View all]

[greatlaurel]

Last edited Fri Mar 27, 2015, 10:59 AM - Edit history (1)

Diana Borges, director of pupil personnel, special services and elementary education ruled a student in the special education classroom will be required to use the faculty restroom in the bottom floor of the school rather than be forced to climb stairs to the student restroom. The teachers filed a grievance over the decision. The grievance was backed by 18 teachers, including 2 special education teachers. The teachers are being made out as selfish for filing the grievance. However, the school district removed the restroom that had been in the special education classroom for a ventilation unit. It makes one wonder what the conditions were in the special education classroom that the school had to add ventilation equipment rather than keep an easily accessible restroom for the children. The lack of investigation in the newspaper article is quite glaring.

The teachers' representative stated in the article that they were trying to get a decision that would benefit all the kids whose classrooms were on that floor.
Diana Borges admitted "the lower level used to have a small students bathroom in the special education room. But recently a ventilation issue forced the district to use that space for a ventilation unit."

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2015/03/26/Steel-Valley-teachers-unhappy-about-disabled-student-using-bathroom/stories/201503260039

The school district puts the special education classroom in the ground floor of the building without access to an elevator. Then, they remove the only handicapped accessible bathroom for students on that floor for ventilation, "recently". Another article mentions the special needs kids have to go outside and up stairs to be able to go to music and art.

The teachers, including the special education teachers, file a grievance which is supposed to be confidential, but is released to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette which used the information to make a teacher bashing story. They conveniently bury the information about the removal of the restroom in the special education classroom. The administration made a decision to force all the special needs kids to use the restrooms upstairs rather than rebuild the restroom they removed.

In addition, the little girl in the article cannot attend music or art classes, because she cannot climb the stairs to those classes. Music and art are vital to the education of children with disabilities.

Most of the comments to the article are anti-teacher and anti-union. They fail to understand how the school board has been in violation of the ADA and probably IDEA. The school board is more interested in bashing the teachers than in providing a proper education and proper facilities for all students. The people of this school district need to elect people who care about all the kids to the school board.