Monday, February 11, 2013
A recent Lexington High grad says Naomi Martin 'was one of the most professional and enthusiastic members of the faculty I encountered at LHS.'
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Monday, February 11
Editor's Note: John Bernstein, a recent Lexington High graduate, wrote this letter to Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash in support of Athletic Director Naomi Martin, who was recently suspended for a week for doctoring an email sent to Middlesex League athletic directors. Bernstein asked that his letter be posted to Patch. Dear Superintendent Ash, I am a recent Lexington High alumnus, former track and cross-country runner and current collegiate athlete at the University of Rochester. I wanted to provide a word of support for Naomi Martin on behalf of the many athletes she has helped and supported throughout their high school careers. As a captain for several teams and sports editor for the high school paper, I had the pleasure of meeting …
42.44148
-71.23178
Lexington High School
251 Waltham St, Lexington, MA
/articles/letter-lhs-grad-supports-ash-ad-martin
232115
/locations/8782229
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 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
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Fiske Elementary School
55 Adams St, Lexington, MA
/articles/recapping-the-lps-seclusion-room-controversy-to-date
232084
/locations/7815097
42.44148
-71.23178
Lexington High School
251 Waltham St, Lexington, MA
/articles/recapping-the-lps-seclusion-room-controversy-to-date
232115
/locations/7815098
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 …
As the Lexington Public Schools deal with shocking allegations of mistreatment of a special needs student six years ago, parents and School Committee members want an investigation into the incident and records from the time.
“Welcome to the 21st Century Classroom,” read yellow letters across a blue screen behind the stage at Cary Hall as the room slowly filled with residents and media. The cheery message was a stark contrast to the reason the masses assembled here on a chilly September night. Most of them weren't there for the presentation on an iPad pilot program at Lexington High, or to hear the latest about the three elementary school building projects. The electricity in the air had sparked a few days earlier, with the publication over the weekend in the New York Times of an opinion piece in which a former Lexington resident makes shocking allegations of the mistreatment of his daughter when she was a student in the Lexington Public Schools. According to…
42.446369
-71.22389
Cary Memorial Building
1605 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA
/articles/residents-school-committee-members-call-for-independent-review-of-isolation-room-complaints
232593
/locations/7790011
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
At the start School Committee's meeting at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Cary Hall, Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash is expected to address allegations that a kindergartner with special needs was locked in a closet six years ago.
A former Lexington resident's allegations that his daughter was locked in a basement closet with padded walls six years ago as a kindergartner in the Lexington Public Schools have taken the town by storm over the past few days. Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash issued a statement Monday night in response to the allegations, first published by the New York Times over the weekend. And the schools chief is expected to have more to say at the start of the School Committee's meeting at 7:30 p.m. at Cary Hall. School Committee Chairwoman Margaret Coppe first said Ash would address the allegations in an email last night to Patch. She reiterated the statement this afternoon on Yahoo discussion group popular with residents. Bill Lichtenstein …
42.446369
-71.22389
Cary Memorial Building
1605 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA
/articles/lps-officials-to-further-address-seculsion-room-allegations-tonight
232593
/locations/7811158
The following statement was provided by Bill Lichtenstein, the former Lexington resident who claims his then-5-year-old daughter was mistreated while a kindergartener in the Lexington Public Schools.
In Travis Andersen's article in today's Boston Globe (9/11/2012), Lexington school superintendent Dr. Paul Ash supposedly "rebuked" the New York Sunday Times story I wrote on the use of restraints and seclusion in schools and the case of my daughter Rose. But he failed to dispute any of the facts. His claim: no one did anything wrong. Read the statement Ash released last night. Below are the documents from the administrative action in [Lichtenstein's daughter's] case that resulted in the settlement. They were handled by our attorney, and the charges made in them were based on Lexington Public School's records, files and depositions with school staff. I defy anyone to read them, particularly the 20-page "Parents Proposed Findings of Fact …
TypicalLexingtonParent
9:56 pm on Monday, February 25, 2013
Whos the boys basketball team playing in the state tournament? Oh ya right more ›