1,000 signatures reached
To: Schoolcraft Public School Personal Policy Makers
Are you Susie's mom?
My name is Andrew Medema. I have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a muscle wasting disease. Unfortunately, it is a terminal illness with no known cure. My parents and I have been asking Schoolcraft Public Schools for my mother to be my dedicated aide for several years now. Every time we are given a different excuse as to why this cannot happen. She is offering to do the job FOR FREE, passes every metric to be inside the school, and has already been my primary care giver for 13 years of my life. We have provided the school with a doctor's note stating that my mom should be my dedicated aide. The school requires us to provide a doctor's note in order to get an IEP (special learning plan for special needs children) in the first place. They also require a doctor's note if we want to make certain changes within that IEP. However, when provided with a doctor's note on how to care for my diagnosis that they make me prove with a doctor's note, they IGNORE IT! We have found there is no state law, federal law, school by-law, policy, or rule they can cite as a determining factor for the denial. Our superintendent, Nate Ledlow, told my parents the real reason they cannot let my mom inside the school is because he is concerned about what he would have to tell Susie's mom as to WHY my mother is inside the school helping me every day. That makes this a personal policy within a publicly funded school. I do not want just any aide, I do not want a nurse or doctor, I want my mother to be my aide.
SO, we have decided to reach out to the community and ask Susie's mom ourselves. If you are Susie's mom and believe I have the right to choose my own aide, please sign our petition in support.
THANK YOU TO ANY AND ALL THAT TAKE THE TIME TO READ THIS AND SIGN!!
SO, we have decided to reach out to the community and ask Susie's mom ourselves. If you are Susie's mom and believe I have the right to choose my own aide, please sign our petition in support.
THANK YOU TO ANY AND ALL THAT TAKE THE TIME TO READ THIS AND SIGN!!
Why is this important?
We are seeking to take our signatures before our school board and ask them to overrule the personal policy makers inside Schoolcraft Elementary, which includes our superintendent. We are also seeking to make a change greater than our local community. With these signatures, we plan to take this to the Michigan legislature and work with our politicians to get a law made that prevents a public school from being able to tell a tax paying, law abiding, in district citizen that they cannot come to help their own disabled child inside a PUBLICLY FUNDED SCHOOL. As tax payers in this great country, this sort of action by a publicly funded institution should outrage us all and we hope the rest of our community and state feel the same way.