A reader writes

Last updated on: December 31, 2014 at 3:45 pm by Mark Shea

A reader writes 2014-12-31T15:45:55-07:00 Mark Shea

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Zakh Price is an eleven-year-old boy from Fort Smith, Arkansas with various disabilities including mental retardation and autism. When the following occurred, he was in the fifth grade of a mainstream school, in a small special needs classroom.

Despite repeated requests from his family, the school had refused to provide him with a full-time aide or a behavior plan.

Instead of following his grandmother’s instructions as to what to do (and what not to do) when Zakh got overwhelmed or frustrated, the school responded to several of Zakh’s meltdowns by calling the police.

On October 30, Zakh had a meltdown which was needlessly escalated by school personnel. Zakh became upset about some extra credit spelling words being erased from the blackboard too soon for him (he is obsessive-compulsive about spelling, which his grandmother had informed the school about). First, the teacher wouldn’t stop talking to him and insisted on keeping him in the classroom instead of letting him go someplace quiet. When he didn’t calm down, the male teacher took the rest of the children out of the classroom, leaving Zakh with the female teacher. Zakh was throwing things the floor. After half an hour, just as Zakh was starting to calm down again, the principal and the female teacher went to the corner where he was standing, hovered over him, grabbed him, and tried to restrain him. (Restraining a student who isn’t posing a threat to anyone just for being difficult may soon be illegal.) Zakh tried to get away, kicking the principal (once) and pushing the teacher (also once). Again the police were called.

When the police arrived, the principal and the teacher were pinning Zakh down. Both women reported pain but didn’t have visible injuries or need medical treatment; Zakh had a skinned knee.

The school district is now pressing felony charges against Zakh for second-degree battery. The hearing will be on April 13.

The competency hearing and a due process hearing about Zakh’s educational rights as a special needs student have already been decided in Zakh’s favor, but the battery charges are still in place.

This means that Zakh is still at risk of being taken from his family and locked away – again. When he was institutionalized before, the staff showed very little, if any, understanding of or willingness to accommodate his autism. He was drugged and put in isolation a lot, and was not permitted to see his family, or allowed to grieve when his little sister died.

Academically he didn’t just stagnate, but regressed.

A lawyer has been found who is willing to represent Zakh, but there are fees to be paid. Because Zakh’s family can’t do this alone, a ChipIn fundraiser has been set up, and the story is going through the autism/disability blogosphere (the case has had no official media coverage to speak of). Almost all the money is in, but there are a few hundred dollars still to go. If you can, please help to give Zakh a chance in the fight to retain his liberty, stay with his family, and have a proper education.

Website: http://thezakhappeal.com/home/

There is an abridged and subtitled video of the interview with Zakh’s grandmother, in which she talks about the incident and about Zakh’s earlier institutionalization.

More details here and here (these articles have been read and corrected by Zakh’s grandmother).

You can donate money through paypal or
option=com_content&view;=article&id;=2:chip-in&catid;=3:donation&Itemid;=10″>by cheque to help pay for Zakh’s legal support. You can also sign the petition.

Diplomatically gifted people are encouraged to email and/or phone the school principal and superintendent, requesting that they drop the charges against Zakh (numbers and addresses are in the sidebar to the video linked above). The Zakh Appeal website also gives addresses of government officials you can contact about this.

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