The following story was written by a Lincoln, Nebraska couple whose 10-year-old autistic daughter was targeted by Lincoln Public Schools, the Lancaster County Attorney's Office, and Child Protective Services under the guise of preventing "excessive absenteeism." In order to protect their daughter, and because of the ongoing threat from CPS, the family wishes to remain anonymous at this time.
During the 2012-13 school year, our child missed over
20 days of school. This was a
combination of partial and full days. Because
she missed over 20 days, we were served by the county sheriff to appear in
court. The count against us stated that
we lack proper parental care and failed to ensure our child’s regular and
timely attendance at school. It also
stated these absences from school are negatively affecting our child’s
educational progress.
We received our summons in June, 2013. That week, we attempted several times to reach
the county attorney assigned to our case, Daniel J. Zieg, to explain our
situation. He did not return any of our
phone calls, so we emailed him. Here is
a transcription of our email from June 20, 2013:
I am requesting that you dismiss (our case number). This is a
result of our (child) missing more than 20 days of school during the previous
school year. All of her absences were excused absences for either medical
reasons or because our family was out of town. We informed the school prior to the
school year and during the school year about the dates our family was going to
be out of town. All homework and projects were completed on time. (Our child)
is on the autism spectrum, and many of the absences were because of emotional
or medical reason related to her autism. Some of her absences were partial days
and some were full days. Reasons include doctor appointments, therapy and
autism symptoms (high anxiety, migraines, vomiting, etc.). (Our child) also
missed about a week of school because one of the paras (who has now been
dismissed from the school) caused (our child) to have great stress and anxiety.
As a result, she self-inflicted herself in her throat and had to receive
medical attention. (Our child) continually gets good grades and no teachers
have complaints about her. We are active parents in our kids’ education and
well being. We can provide documentation
related to the family trips, medical appointments, autism diagnosis, etc. We appreciate your understanding.
Mr. Zieg responded to our email the next day. This is his response:
At this point I am not willing to dismiss. I am concerned
that (your child) is being pulled from school to go on family trips.
Family trips are not an excused absence. A family needs to exercise
discretion in pulling a child from their mandatory school program to go on a
trip, especially when the child is autistic as they need a structured daily
program. The information I have from the school indicates they informed
you that another family trip would put you over 20 days of absence however you
still chose to take the trip.
This was our email response:
I appreciate the response. I
forgot to clarify that the times we were out of town were related to my work,
and we did not have control of the dates. This was unique this last school
year. It had not occurred prior to this year, and we don't see that happening
again in the future. Prior to the school year, the school said that it would be
OK to take (our child) on the business trips so we planned accordingly. It is
difficult finding someone to watch her with her autism. She is more comfortable
being with us.
We did not hear another word or get another response
from the county attorney.
The next day, a case worker with the Nebraska
Department of Health and Human Services (Child Protective Services) came to our
house. We were not home, but he left his
business card with a hand written note on the back of the card that read: Could
you please call me as soon as you can. We called him, and he stated that he wanted to
interview us and our child – separately! We told him no and that we were going to
retain an attorney. The next day, he
called our house again, insisting that he interview us and our child. Again, we told him no and that we were going
to retain an attorney.
A couple days later, I did retain a private
attorney. We appeared in court in July
2013. Present in the court room were two
case workers from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human
Services, an attorney from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human
Services, the county attorney handling our case, the judge, the court reporter
and an employee of Legal Aid as Guardian ad Litem for the minor child. That’s seven people paid by our tax dollars to
appear in court for our case!
Before entering the courtroom, one of the case workers
from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services made a comment to us that
we shouldn’t even be there. I asked then why were we there, but did not get a response.
Our attorney requested that the case be continued
until October 2013. All parties agreed
and an October 16 court date was set.
For three months, we were under enormous stress because of the
accusations of neglect against us. Our
attorney told us that he attempted to contact the county attorney numerous
times but never received a response. On
the morning of our October 16 court appearance, the county attorney finally
notified our attorney that our case was dismissed. Back in June, our case was urgent enough that
CPS was called, but suddenly our case is so unimportant that it was dismissed? Why is that?
What was the county attorney trying to accomplish? Was he trying to intimidate us into never
keeping our daughter home from school again?
On October 22, a few days after our case was
officially dismissed by the county attorney and the judge, we received another
call from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services case worker
asking to interview our child again – knowing full well our case had been
dismissed. We told him no. We notified our attorney. This infuriates us! Why are we continuing to be harassed after our
case was dismissed?
Here are some excerpts from a Nebraska Legislature
Judiciary Committee hearing on February 13, 2012 regarding the truancy law.
This was the hearing to discuss the amendment to LB800. Senator Brad Ashford,
the Senator behind this law, stated that “It
was never the intent of this committee that the 20-day review be some
prosecutorial effort to bring unexcused students into one big group with
excused absences and start throwing them into the juvenile system.” During that same hearing, Alicia Henderson of
the Lancaster County Attorney’s Office stated that their office is dismissing
referrals that are excused for illness and travel with parents. This is obviously a lie!
So the bottom line is we had to spend nearly
$1000 for a private attorney for something we had worked out with the school,
as well as endure months of fear and stress for no reason. The school knows our family situation and our
child’s special needs, yet they chose to turn our ten-year-old autistic
daughter over to law enforcement. Worse
yet, the county attorney decided to file charges and someone even filed a CPS
report, as if we are abusive parents because we chose to take our special needs
child with us on a business trip!
We are
not against education. We have college
degrees ourselves. We are against this ridiculous law and its complete
infringement on parental rights!
How dare Lincoln Public Schools and a
young county attorney (who appears to be fresh out of law school) presume to
judge the decisions we make in the best interests of our own child! How dare a county attorney tell us, the
parents, that our daughter shouldn’t go on a trip with us because autistic
children need a “structured daily program”!
He doesn’t know what our child needs, we do. He is a prosecutor who has never met our
child, we are her parents who have raised her and loved her and advocated for
her needs her entire life. They are
threatening our life!
And think of all the tax dollars wasted
on our case alone. These dollars could be better used to help our Nebraska
kids, especially kids with special needs.
This law is wrong and it needs to be
repealed. I have a meeting scheduled
with our state senator and we will be sharing our story and asking her to help
get rid of this terrible law that has harmed our family and many others.
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
On October 26, we received certified mail from the
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. The letter stated that the
case against us was considered “unfounded.” The report we were
named in was alleging Physical Neglect of our daughter. Are you kidding me?
Physical Neglect because we took her on
our business trips and because she missed school for medical reasons! This is
absurd! The definition of Physical Neglect on the Nebraska Department of Health
and Human Services’ Web site is when a parent does not provide basic needs or a
safe place to live. This is a complete lie!
Isn't that something how they can have 7 people (who are paid by the taxpayers) for a court date that was truly uncalled for. This whole thing is just a boat-load of job security for all those people. Why would they NOT want to continue going after people. Their jobs are secure if they have someone they are "pretending' to go after. Then in he end it is all called off. What a crock of s***t.
ReplyDeletePraying for you and your family. Way too often, the "systems" seem to find that one open crack and have to push and push and push. However, there are so many children in the system that are honestly being ignored and forgotten, that they are being abandoned by those that are there to help them. Your family did not need this "help" when instead other children could have been helped during this time. What an awful waste of time, money, and breath, not to mention the harassment upon your family and the mental anguish your child may feel. I pray your story helps your family and others!
ReplyDeleteSorry to rabble rouse, but I honestly think that until people like you and others who have had similar run-ins with these jokers join in a class action law suit against this sort of blatant harassment, it won't stop. There, I said it. Maybe somewhere there is a decent attorney willing to take on these bullies that isn't looking to fill his or her own pockets at the expense of sick children.
ReplyDelete