A Chicago family is returning their son’s high school diploma and sending him back to school at age 21 because they say his special education program was subpar.
Abraham Esquivel’s family says he has emotional and learning disabilities and functions at the level of a 10-year-old. They cannot understand how their son earned passing grades in classes ranging from psychology to chemistry since he was absent frequently and students were often seen sleeping or wandering around when they visited his school. What’s more, he hasn’t had homework since 2008.
Even Esquivel himself says he didn’t deserve the grades he received.
Dissatisfied, the family returned Esquivel’s diploma to Chicago Public Schools along with a letter indicating that they don’t believe he was ready to graduate. Now, Esquivel is headed back to school where he’s legally entitled to receive services until he’s 22.
Meanwhile, school district officials insist that “no student receives special treatment,” reports CBS 2 Chicago. To read more click here.
Maybe more families have to do the same. Whatever happened to honor?
I wish more parents would do this. It takes strength and courage to be realistic about our children’s education. These parents were not satifisfied and had the courage to act on that.
I get very upset when you walk into a special school or sped classroom and the student’s are sleeping or staring at a television. School is not day care!
To the family, the student and the school system … “What is going to be done differently?”
They didn’t know the program was subpar until *after* he graduated? What were they doing all those years when their son was in a bad school not learning anything? My son is only in 1st grade and I know better than to trust the school system alone to educate him. Special ed services are always the bottom of the barrel and they always will be. It would be great if we could all see our kids make great progress with the school programs alone, but name me one parent who has seen that happen. We know we have to get our kids help outside of school and if we can’t afford it, we do it ourselves. It sucks, it’s unfair, but I”m not going to let my child languish while I wait for the system to change. I feel sorry for this young man but I think his parents need to take some of the blame for this too.
violetred says:
“They didn’t know the program was subpar until *after* he graduated? What were they doing all those years when their son was in a bad school not learning anything?”
This was the gist of my comment; in 4 years of IEP meetings, Parent – Teacher Conferences, and Transition Planning no one noticed that this young man’s needs weren’t being met?! And exactly how is this gesture going to help him meet his post-secondary goals? I believe in this case all parties concerned are culpable and can only hope that from this point forward efforts will be made to get his future back on track.