11 28 07 Beverly Review Letter to the Editor

Dear Mr. Thomas:

Thank you so much your article regarding the November 13, 2007 , Barbara Vick LSC meeting. As someone who was present and spoke at the meeting, I would like to respond to some of Principal Cathy Lawton’s statements in the article.

I assert Ms. Lawton is being disingenuous when she stated “There has not been one teacher who has gone through the discipline process this year.” While the discipline process has not been completed, Ms. Lawton did serve Ms. Fitzgibbons with a document entitled “Notice of Pre-Discipline Hearing” wherein there were listed “Acts of Misconduct,” so certainly, any reasonable person would agree that a “discipline process” has been initiated by Ms. Lawton against Ms. Fitzgibbons.

I further assert that Ms. Lawton is trying to cloud the issues by stating that the credentials of staff at Barbara Vick were in question. Please be clear, no one ever stated that the staff at Barbara Vick lacked the necessary credentials to teach there. What I questioned is Ms. Lawton’s judgment in placing a teacher who merely has an endorsement (which requires 6 additional college credits) and no instructional classroom experience to be the special education instructor in a cross-category instructional classroom. The cross-category instructional classroom serves the children with the most profound cognitive and physical delays in the school. There are several other teachers at Barbara Vick who have both their Master’s Degree in Special Education (requiring a minimum of 32 college credits) and teaching experience in an instructional classroom who could have been placed in the instructional cross-category classroom. I assert that Ms. Lawton placed Ms. Fitzgibbons in the special education teacher position in the instructional cross-category room without additional training, mentorship or support, and that Ms. Lawton further cut the number of aides in the classroom, to make Ms. Fitzgibbons’ work life difficult in the hopes Ms. Fitzgibbons would quit.

Ms. Lawton is being disingenuous in stating that it is up to the teachers to ask for assistance in the classrooms if they feel they need it. Ms. Fitzgibbons shared with me that she asked Ms. Lawton repeatedly this school year to simply keep the amount of 3 or 4 aides that had always served in the instructional cross-category classroom since the classroom was opened. This year, Ms. Fitzgibbons was given two aides to assist her in teaching 18 children with the most severe disabilities in the school. One of the aides spent the entire school day attending to toileting tasks, leaving Ms. Fitzgibbons and one aide to try to teach 18 preschoolers whose needs are so great they are in an instructional classroom. It was only after the regional office was brought in by a concerned parent advocate to review the situation that 3 part-time aides were added to take care of toileting tasks in the room so that the children would be properly served. I further want to clarify that Ms. Fitzgibbons is not on medical leave because she was “offended” by Ms. Lawton’s charges against her. Ms. Fitzgibbons shared with me that she is on medical leave because of a medical condition brought about by the stress of trying to teach and serve the children in such a hostile and unsupportive work environment.

Our children with special needs depend on the benevolence of the people in their lives in order to get their needs met. As has been evidenced with increasing regularity over Ms. Lawton’s tenure, I assert that Ms. Lawton is presently incapable of putting the best interests of the children before her personal feelings. I again request that Ms. Lawton tender her resignation so that a Barbara Vick may acquire Principal from our community who has a strong special education background and a nurturing disposition who fosters an environment of open communication, mentorship and generous leadership.

Mary Hughes
Chairperson and Founder
Beverly Area Parents for Special Education

Barbara Vick Early Childhood and Family Center
Beverly Neighborhood
Mt. Greenwood Neighborhood
Morgan Park Neighborhood
Chicago, Illinois
60643