To: Mary Lynn Roper, KOAT President/General Manager
Special education students, parents and educators deserve an apology from Dr. Barry Ramo
The students, parents, and educators who participate in, help to deliver, and/or receive special education services in the state of New Mexico deserve an apology for Dr. Ramo's callous and ill-conceived comments and beliefs. On the KOAT website, you allow him to proclaim: "I enjoy explaining complex issues and making them simple for patients and the public to understand." We ask that the management of Albuquerque's KOAT station, channel 7, insist that Dr. Barry Ramo retract his comments and publicly apologize to the viewers of New Mexico.
Why is this important?
On the Thursday, August 1, 2013, 6:00pm KOAT news broadcast, while discussing the incidence and diagnosis of ADD in minority children, Dr. Barry Ramo said that children can be "DOOMED to a life IN special ed. with a limited chance for success..."
1. Special education is a PROGRAM NOT A PLACE!!! Special education services are not a special place, box, or other location from which students cannot escape, as your words presuppose.
2. Special education services are based on individual student needs and are reviewed and revised each year based data collected by highly qualified educators and input from parents and the students themselves. The implication that students who RECEIVE and PARTICIPATE in these services are DOOMED to an UNSUCCESSFUL FUTURE based merely on the fact that they RECEIVE and PARTICIPATE in these services is absolutely ludicrous and borders on professional malpractice.
1. Special education is a PROGRAM NOT A PLACE!!! Special education services are not a special place, box, or other location from which students cannot escape, as your words presuppose.
2. Special education services are based on individual student needs and are reviewed and revised each year based data collected by highly qualified educators and input from parents and the students themselves. The implication that students who RECEIVE and PARTICIPATE in these services are DOOMED to an UNSUCCESSFUL FUTURE based merely on the fact that they RECEIVE and PARTICIPATE in these services is absolutely ludicrous and borders on professional malpractice.