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Point of View: We shouldn't return to segregating school students by disability

Palm Beach Post - 10/24/2019

A recent Letter to the Editor published by The Palm Beach Post asks why deceased William T. Dwyer High School student Kedar Williams was in high school, when he couldn't graduate, and why Kedar wasn't in a "special ed" school.

Although well-intended, the letter witer shows a common lack of understanding about the education of students with disabilities.

Hundreds of studies over the decades have proven that students with disabilities learn more when educated with their typical peers. They gain more language skills, appropriate social behavior and higher academic levels. They graduate high school more prepared to function in the real world. This holds true for students with mild disabilities, as well as those with very significant disabilities. In the past, we put students lacking language and social skills in classes with other students lacking language and social skills, and then we couldn't understand why they never learned language and social skills.

Segregation of students by race was morally wrong in the past, and segregation of students by disability is morally wrong now. The move to welcome students of all abilities into our public classrooms is called "Inclusion." As the mother of a beautiful young woman with Down syndrome, I call the movement a welcome end to forced segregation. Although my daughter's official IQ score would predict a very limited life, the reality is anything but that. My daughter reads and writes extremely well. She works at a day care center, and attends theater and art classes. She has a long-time boyfriend, and is now working on moving into her own apartment. All of her success can be directly attributed to the fact that she was educated in regular classes at her neighborhood school from Pre-K through senior year in Palm Beach County.

The data supporting inclusion is so overwhelming, that the Palm Beach County School Board voted in 2006 to implement an "Inclusion Plan," to ensure that every school had the capability to include students with disabilities. The plan has been a resounding success. Although a very small number of students still attend a "special ed" school because of their intensive and unique needs, the vast majority of students with disabilities go to school with their friends and siblings. Dwyer High School is equipped to meet the needs of students like Kedar. Unfortunately, one person apparently failed to do his/her vital job, and Kedar's heart-wrenching death was the result of that one individual's failure.

Let's not let Kedar's tragic death become a justification for a return to the segregation and institutionalization of people with disabilities. Instead, let's honor Kedar's life and pray for his family.

SUE DAVIS-KILLIAN, LAKE WORTH BEACH

Editor's note: Davis-Killian is director of education for the Gold Coast Down Syndrome Organization.

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(c)2019 The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.)

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