Public condemns Alabama school board member's remarks on special education

Public condemnation of remarks made by Alabama board of education member Ella Bell, D-Montgomery, questioning whether students with special needs could be separated from general education students because special education students' test scores drag down other students' scores, has been swift and wide.

The public outcry came after AL.com columnist Cameron Smith called out Bell for those remarks, made at a June 21 work session. Smith's original column has been shared more than 102,000 times.

Though Bell tried to explain her remarks to AL.com and apologized in a statement issued Thursday evening, the public appears unconvinced, couching Bell's remarks as a throwback to days when children with disabilities were isolated from their non-disabled peers.

A petition on change.org demanding Bell's resignation, started by Bessemer resident Mary Catherine Hanson, has gathered nearly 52,000 signatures from all over the country since being placed online Thursday morning.

Hanson told AL.com she started the petition because "Ms. Bell's statements were shocking. They were antiquated and bigoted and seriously have no place in our school system."

Hanson's two children, now adults, received special education in school, and she now has a grandson with Down Syndrome receiving special education. She said she knows how hard her daughter will have to fight to get her grandson the basic services in school. Though school is going well currently, Hanson asked, "Who knows what challenges we will face with him along the way?"

Disability advocates call out state board at public meeting in Hoover

Attendees at the Alabama Disability Advocacy Program's (ADAP) annual public meeting at the Hoover Public Library on Friday called out Bell and the rest of the state board of education on what they see as a lack of knowledge about special education.

"What kind of training do state board members receive," asked a parent of a child with special needs.

"It doesn't help if you have people in Montgomery that don't even know what inclusion means," one parent said, pointing to the need for state board members to be educated not only about special education law, but about the challenges faced by children in special education in Alabama's public schools.

Inclusion, or mainstreaming, is the educational practice of including students with special needs in general education classes alongside their peers.

One attendee had attended a school for students in special education. "I don't want to see any kid go to a school like that," she said, saying parents historically had been forced to place their children with disabilities in segregated classrooms and schools.

"It definitely needs to be pointed out to the board that civil rights are disability rights," said one attendee who serves on an ADAP panel for people with disabilities.

"The atrocity of what [Bell] said is abhorrent but the board's reaction is equally abhorrent. They should be reacting the same way we are reacting," another parent said. "I'm shaking with what I saw happen."

"They're students first," she added, to loud applause.

Associate ADAP Director Nancy Anderson said the group should seize the opportunity to engage the state board of education in a discussion about special education, something other board members in the video of the June meeting suggested in response to Bell's remarks.

Anderson said, "If you want a discussion, we're here, and we will give you that discussion but we're going to give you that discussion from the perspective of a parent, a family member, even frankly the student."

Attendees agreed to craft a plan to help educate board members, not only at the state level, but also at the local level, and all levels of board members should understand special education, they said.

Some attendees were skeptical the board would even be interested in learning more about special education. "How will we know that they have listened to us," one parent asked.

ADAP Director James Tucker opened the meeting by acknowledging Bell's remarks, saying, "One of the members of our state school board made some comments that, I think, most of us just would not have expected to hear in 2017," Tucker said.

"We have a grave concern, and we know you share that concern, about any segregation of any segment of our society," Tucker told the group of 35 attendees.

One parent said Bell's remarks were an example of the stigma associated with children with disabilities and welcomed the opportunity to have an open discussion with the board.

"We do not need to go backwards to a time when things were done that way," Tucker said, referring to the historical practice of educating students with special needs in separate classrooms.

Tucker said many of the people in the room were educated in segregated classrooms and fought for the rights of children with disabilities to be educated alongside their non-disabled peers.

After the meeting, Tucker said they addressed Bell's remarks first because they knew it would be on the minds of attendees. "It's not very often that a comment from a state official breaks through the din of noise," Tucker said, "and provokes this kind of reaction from such a broad range of individuals: people with disabilities, disability advocates, and the general public."

As to what happens next, Tucker said, "I hope we can translate the frustration that has been expressed here into concrete action steps and that we at ADAP can help our colleagues communicate with the state school board so that we can get their attention and ask them to act and change their behavior and to be leaders for providing services and respecting all students in all systems in the state."

Gov. Ivey and state superintendent respond

Gov. Kay Ivey, who serves as president of the state board of education by virtue of her position, issued this statement through press secretary Daniel Sparkman today: "Governor Ivey believes strongly that all Alabama students should have access to the best possible educational opportunities and should be treated fairly, with respect and dignity."

When asked if he believes students with special needs drag down test scores, as Bell stated in her remarks, Alabama superintendent Michael Sentance said in an email to AL.com, "I think that all schools are faced with many children with challenges. Some of those challenges are poverty, bias, problems at home, and special needs. I think our schools have to raise the attainment of all children to help them realize their potential. We educate the children that we have, who come through the door into schools and we embrace that opportunity."

Sentance wrote, "I believe that children with such challenges can - and do - learn to their ability."

Sentance added a personal view, writing, "I understood these issues as both of my children as well as several nieces and nephews were diagnosed as having impediments to their learning. Some of these challenges were relatively mild, some were more profound. I have worked with friends and accompanied them at parent conferences to help them with the arcane language and processes of the special education program. This is not just an academic policy issue. It is a deeply personal issue."

Phone call with Bell recorded, posted on Facebook

In this phone call from Thursday morning, publicly posted by Stan McAdams on Facebook, Bell and Dawn McAdams of Springville discussed how test scores impact schools.

When asked what she took away from the conversation, McAdams told AL.com, "I think that [Bell] is uneducated when it comes to the needs of the special needs community. I think she is uneducated in federal and state law. I think upon having that phone conversation with her, she is more interested in race issues than the special needs issue. To me, she would rather segregate a whole group of kids to make a test score look better than to look at the test and make the test better."

At one point in the conversation, when McAdams tried to tell Bell where her son, who has Down Syndrome, goes to school, Bell said to McAdams, "I don't care about your son getting a public education."

That strengthened McAdams resolve to see Bell removed. "I can tell you now," McAdams said, "I will not stop until she is fired. And there is a following behind me that includes nearly 50,000 people that signed that petition."

McAdams plans to attend the next regular board meeting, scheduled for Thurs., Sept. 14 in Montgomery, and said she anticipates many of those who have been upset by Bell's remarks will attend as well.

National disability groups weigh in, demand retraction

As Smith's column gained traction, national disability groups weighed in through social media.

Birmingham city councilman Jay Roberson joined in, too.

This article was updated 9/10/2017 at 9:50 p.m. to correct board member Ella Bell's quote to Dawn McAdams during their phone conversation.

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