Lucas Camilo

Burke and I haven’t written a lot recently about schools here, in part because things have been getting better for Lucas and his peers with disabilities at his school over the past couple years.  Things could be better, but there is momentum toward improvement.  All-school events are now often planned with children with disabilities in mind.  His teachers have been incredible this year.  Lucas has a 1:1 aide who really understands him and is incredibly dedicated.

But there are still moments that are so painfully hard.  Like last Tuesday.  It’s not the first time Seattle Schools has left behind children with disabilities on a field trip while their non-disabled peers went off on adventures.  We are working to make it the last.  Here’s a letter I sent to the Superintendent and board.  If we have a sign-on letter (or a civil disobedience opportunity), we’ll let you know.  Here’s the letter.  And for fun, a picture of this incredible kid (not on field trip day — at a Lucinda Williams concert at the zoo!)

June 21, 2019

Dear Superintendent Juneau and members of the Seattle School Board,

This week my son, who uses a wheelchair, was left at school while his class went on a field trip.  The failure to provide him with bus service was avoidable, illegal, and unconscionable, and I hold Seattle Public Schools responsible.  In order to serve all students under the law, SPS can and must find another mode of transportation for students when the current bus company is failing so regularly.  I want to know what you are going to do to ensure no other kids get left behind.

My son Lucas is a fourth grader at Orca K-8, a Seattle public school with the declared motto “We All Belong.”  For years, I have been part of the hard work with parents and staff to make that motto feel real, especially for families of students with disabilities.

Lucas loves nature and science, so I was happy imagining him and his classmates at Seward Park with the Audubon naturalists exploring our local ecosystem. I felt glad knowing that the Audubon staff had gotten to know Orca’s students over the years, and after learning from some past mistakes, I trusted that they would remember to stay near paved paths and make sure that my kid and all the kids could see and touch everything that their non-disabled friends could get down on the ground to explore.

And then at 12:40 my phone rang and “Orca” appeared on my screen.  And I knew it. I knew that, once again, I was going to hear that my kid had been left behind.

Orca’s wonderful secretary – the one who had ordered the incredibly expensive accessible bus that we have to use – had to explain to me that the bus wasn’t coming.  She had waited until 12:30 to call transportation to check when the bus seemed late, and it was only then that someone told her that the request for the wheelchair bus had been denied.  She told me that my son was still at school playing with a couple other kids from his class – non-disabled friends – who had stayed behind to ride the bus with him.

I felt myself sink into the familiar feeling of nausea and heartache.  Once again, someone had overlooked my kid. As parents we work so hard to make sure Lucas knows that he is valuable, that he feels included, that his disability is a wonderful part of him and that it shouldn’t stop him from doing everything he wants to do.  And we often feel grateful that so many people at school – especially his teachers and his amazing team of aides and therapists – are part of that effort as well. And yet, there have been so many times when all-school activities were planned with no thought for my son or his peers with disabilities and mobility access needs, and each time it breaks my heart.   More often than ever, teachers, parents and staff are getting it at Orca—they are planning events with ALL students in mind.  But then, even when they do everything right, the bus doesn’t show up and my kid is left at school while his non-disabled friends are at the park learning about ecosystems.

I am acutely aware that I cannot protect my child from all the injustices and unfairness of the world, but nine and a half years into parenting, I haven’t given up trying.  When I got that call I dropped everything I was doing and rushed to Orca. On my way, I hastily texted his nurse to ask her to bring Lucas out front so we could race to Seward Park.  I texted with his teacher to make sure we could find the class when we got there. I calculated what to do about the other kids who had stayed back to ride the bus with him. It was a strange kind of relief to know that this time my kid at least wasn’t left behind alone.

But when I got to school, I realized it was too late.  Lucas insisted that he wanted to go home. I tried to convince him that it wasn’t too late, he could still get there in time for part of the field trip.  He said flatly that he wouldn’t go. He didn’t cry or talk about his feelings – in fact, when I asked why he wouldn’t go, he refused to talk about it.  But I am sure that he knows, whether he puts words to it or not, that he was left behind. And who wants to be the kid who shows up halfway through a field trip after being left behind?  So I let him stay at school, probably to play computer games by himself for a couple hours while he waited for his class to finish the field trip and walk back.

(If you’re wondering why he didn’t get pushed to the park – you try pushing a 150-pounds of wheelchair and kid and medical equipment down and back up the hill from Seward Park, picking him up and down dozens of curbs with no ramps.)

Seattle Public Schools has a contract with First Student, a private bus company that the PTSA has to pay $400 for a wheelchair adapted bus for every field trip, even for a 10-minute ride.  It would cost eight dollars in a wheelchair accessible Yellow Cab. It might cost forty or sixty in a medical van. But SPS says that is not an option because the contract with First Student requires us to hire only them. And then, even at this price, the buses don’t show up.  My kid is just one of many students with disabilities – at Orca and around the district – who are often left behind while their non-disabled or ambulatory peers pile on a separate bus and roll off to their field trip.

My partner and I have been able to structure our work lives to be flexible enough to drop everything when our kid needs it.  We have the financial resources to own a wheelchair-adapted van. We speak English fluently and can easily pick up the phone and speak with school staff.  This is not true for many students at Orca and throughout Seattle. While I could at least hurry to school on a moment’s notice that day and offer our van as a back-up ride, most parents I know wouldn’t be able to do that for their kids. That’s why this is not only a disability and access issue but also a race and class equity issue.

And this is also personal.  It’s hard for me to know where the fury ends and the grief begins.  I love Lucas so deeply, and I am sure he is changing the world with his brilliance and humor and unique insights and passions and personality.  He is resilient, and he teaches me every day how to still see yourself as whole even when the world doesn’t. His friends and classmates deserve to know that about him – and themselves – too.  Instead, when he is prevented from going on field trips they learn that in Seattle schools it is OK to treat the kids in wheelchairs as second-class citizens.

It is unacceptable for the Seattle school district to routinely leave kids out of school-sponsored events because of a contract with a negligent bus company.  First Student’s wheelchair adapted buses only hold 2 or 3 wheelchairs, so when we want to take everyone at Orca on a field trip, we have to use PTSA funds to rent four or more First Student buses.  This puts an incredible financial burden on families to make sure field trips include everyone. I am proud that Orca’s PTSA has prioritized accessible and inclusive field trips this year as part of the budget. But I am appalled that — even when we’re willing to shell out way too much money — the district’s one transportation option leaves kids stranded.

I know there have been many other problems with First Student in Seattle, and I realize that all of them need solutions.  For kids with disabilities, one solution would be quick and relatively simple: SPS should contract with multiple companies that can safely transport kids with wheelchairs.  Cab companies. Medical van services. Other bus services. In the long run, all students in Seattle deserve dependable transportation. SPS could solve this problem by simply ending its contract with First Student and running its own transportation service.

I am grateful to be part of a school community that believes all kids have a right to be included.  I am waiting for Seattle Public Schools to show us that they share our values. What will you do to ensure children with disabilities are no longer left behind by the bus?

Sincerely,

Krista Hanson