Monday, December 31, 2012
A special education scandal, politics, prostitutes, personal tragedy and an apocalypse that wasn’t: A look back at the year that was in Lexington.
It’s almost impossible to be objective when considering the biggest stories of any given year. An issue of the utmost importance to one person or group may matter not at all to another segment of the population. And so, as we look back onthe year at the year that was in Lexington, we're leaving the deciding up to you – or to UVs, to be more precise. What you’ll find below are the top Lexington Patch posts in terms of pageviews, which is to say these are most widely read stories, polls, updates and photos galleries from 2012. What you won’t find in the list below is our coverage of the Busa Land and its farming future, the redevelopment of the Dana Home as the Inn at Hastings Park, Hurricane Sandy or the start of Lexington’s …
Friday, November 16, 2012
Survey looks to gauge experience of families of students receiving special education services.
Special education has grabbed its share of the spotlight in recent months following the revelation earlier this year of the usage of seclusion rooms within the Lexington Public Schools. A little more than two weeks after allegations of mistreatment of young students with special needs surfaced, the district’s Special Education Parent Council began discussions about a parent survey. An online survey, which included input from the School Committee and district administration, went live earlier this week, and SEPAC members are hoping responses will come in by Tuesday, Nov. 27. “This is a chance for parents to be heard,” said Jennifer Yaar, co-president of SEPAC. “If you’re happy, if you’re not happy, if you’re somewhere in between, we want …
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
There was low turnout and few questions at a SEPAC-hosted panel discussion on Tuesday, Oct. 9, but a forthcoming survey from the Special Education Parent Council will offer parents of students with special needs a chance to weigh in more anonymously.
As the minutes ticked past the 7 p.m. start time, SEPAC and the superintendent decided to call an audible. Their game plan going in to the Oct. 9 meeting called for a panel discussion for the Special Education Parent Advisory Council and school administrators to respond to concerns following the publication of an unsettling piece penned by a former Lexington parent and the subsequent flurry of allegations of mistreatment of special needs students. However, with about two-dozen gathered in Clarke Middle School's auditorium, and probably half of them SEPAC members or staff, the panel shifted from the stage down to the floor to encourage more of a two-way conversation. That this meeting, a follow-up to a previous iteration on Sept. 20, drew…
Monday, September 24, 2012
The following is the text of a Sept. 20 statement regarding allegations of mistreatment within the special education program of the Lexington Public Schools, as provided by School Committee Chairwoman Margaret Coppe.
Providing a safe and protective environment for all of our students is the absolute paramount priority for the Lexington Public Schools. When the School Committee members first read the op-ed column that appeared 10 days ago in the New York Times, we were as stunned as everyone. The detailed descriptions about the young student, from six years-and-a-half ago, were very disturbing. State law requires that the School Committee meet and deliberate in public and provide 48 hours public notice. Our meeting on Sept.11, two days after the op-ed appeared, was the first time that we were able to discuss as a committee the issues raised in that article. Members of the community joined us in Cary Hall to hear from the Superintendent and Director of…
Thursday, September 20, 2012
A third Lexington family has shared its special education story and asked for an independent investigation into the treatment of their 17-year-old son when he was a young student with special needs.
This past weekend, 17-year-old Robert Ernst had plans to visit Cornell University, where he might like to study entomology next year after graduating from Lexington High School. But, listening to the way his story begins, it sounds as though this high school senior’s road through LPS to the Ivy League has been rockier than most. Ernst is a member of the third local family to come forward with allegations of mistreatment of young special needs students in the Lexington Public Schools. More to the point, he is the one alleging the abuse. According to him and his mother, Wendy Ernst, Robert was put on an individualized education program (IEP) since pre-school, but wasn’t diagnosed with Asperger’s until fifth grade. During the intervening …
42.476432
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Estabrook Elementary School
117 Grove St, Lexington, MA
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232083
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42.460334
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Fiske Elementary School
55 Adams St, Lexington, MA
/articles/seclusion-rooms-only-part-of-the-story
232084
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42.42913
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Jonas Clarke Middle School
17 Stedman Rd, Lexington, MA
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232112
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Monday, September 17, 2012
The call and response renewed this weekend when the New York Times attached an editor’s note to the former Lexington resident’s op-ed alleging the mistreatment of his daughter by the Lexington Public Schools.
For the past week or better, the Lexington Public Schools-Bill Lichtenstein seclusion room saga has been ongoing game of read and react. It started on Saturday, Sept. 8, with the publication by The New York Times of an op-ed Lichtenstein wrote, which painted a scary picture of the treatment of his daughter when she was a kindergartner in the Lexington Public Schools. The district’s administration and officials read, and reacted. In a prepared statement and then again speaking publicly at a School Committee meeting last Tuesday, Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash said his review of the case did not match up with Lichtenstein’s claims. Lichtenstein responded to that response, as did many Lexington residents. Though the superintendent has …
Friday, September 14, 2012
Another family has come forward alleging a special needs student was left alone in time out rooms; DA’s office confirms involvement.
A third Lexington family has come forward and asked that their case be included in a state investigation into the alleged mistreatment of special needs students within the Lexington Public Schools. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office on Thursday confirmed the office was looking into a complaint associated with the seclusion room allegations, but could not comment about the specifics or who filed it. That confirmation came a day after Lexington Superintendent Paul Ash said the district filed a 51A with the state’s Department of Children and Families following public calls for an independent investigation into allegations made in an opinion piece published last weekend in the New York Times. In the OpEd, …
Thursday, September 13, 2012
From the publication of shocking allegations to competing statements to calls for an independent investigation and beyond.
In recent days, the Lexington community has been abuzz over allegations of the mistreatment six years ago of a special needs student. First came the opinion piece published by the New York Times in which former Lexington resident Bill Lichtenstein claimed his daughter, then a 5-year-old kindergartener enrolled as the Fiske School, “was kept in a seclusion room for up to an hour at a time over the course of three months, until we discovered what was happening.” That discovery, Lichtenstein alleges, was on Jan. 6, 2006, when he and the girl’s mother found their daughter standing naked and alone “on the cement floor of a basement mop closet, illuminated by a single light bulb.” Next came the school district’s response, in which Superintendent…
42.460334
-71.221549
Fiske Elementary School
55 Adams St, Lexington, MA
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232084
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42.44148
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Lexington High School
251 Waltham St, Lexington, MA
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232115
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Wednesday, September 12, 2012
With members of the community and School Committee calling for an independent investigation into allegations of mistreatment of students that arose over the weekend, the schools chief is asking the state to step in.
Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash is asking the Department of Children and Families to investigate two reports of young students with special needs being left in “time out” rooms following allegations of abuse within the Lexington Public Schools. In a phone interview with Patch, Ash reiterated his belief that school staff acted appropriately during incidences of alleged abuse involving a Fiske Elementary School student being left in a time out room during the 2005-2006 school year. However, as members of the community have called for an independent investigation of the allegations, Ash said he felt filing a 51A report was the best way to allay those concerns. “In the abundance of caution, the prudent thing to do is file with the state,” …
An excerpt from Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash's remarks at the start of the Sept. 11 School Committee meeting.
Addressing the public during a Sept. 11 School Committee meeting, Lexington Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash said there is a "significant gap" between allegations of the past mistreatment of a kindergartener and his review of the “detailed contemporaneous notes” from the day. Residents and School Committee members both called for an indepentent investigation into the situation, which allegedly occurred during the 2005-2006 school year, as a means to bridge those gaps and bring transparency to the situation. Members of the public also sought assurances that the types of practices in question -- mainly the placement of children in "time out" rooms outside the classroom -- are not still used in the Lexington Public Schools. LPS Officials …
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8:48 pm on Tuesday, December 18, 2012
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