11/30/2023
An Open Letter to Swampscott Public Schools and Principal Kohut
I am using this public forum to address the Administration regarding their new Phone policy, as no one has answered a single email regarding the concerns of students with disabilities.
For years, students on IEPs who require technological assistance to access their classwork have had a secret helper – Their Smart Phones. Students with sensory processing issues can slip in earbuds attached to their phones and drown out the overwhelming sounds in the hallway; dyslexic students can take a picture of a handout, their textbook, or notes on the board and have them instantly translated in their discreetly placed earbuds, a child with a reading disorder can listen to their ELA book during lunchtime or a study block, the lunchroom can be a nightmare for those students with sensory processing or social pragmatics disorders, can you guess what they can do? Yes, they have a way to drown out the world, that already dismisses them.
Suddenly, Principal Kohut, without discussing it with the community prior to applying for this grant has unilaterally decided that this is being stripped away from them? Not exactly.
At the very bottom of the announcement, there is a paragraph stating that “reasonable individualized accommodations will be made to allow students access to devices necessary for their access to school.” This was tagged as an afterthought by Mr. Kohut, as this is the first time I have seen it since the controversy began.
Well thought out indeed, Mr. Kohut. Are you aware that in 2009, the Massachusetts Advocates for Children conducted a survey of nearly 400 parents of children with special needs across the state and found that 88 percent of children have been bullied at school, ranging from verbal abuse to physical contact? No? Then, as a principal who cares about his community, you must be aware that students with disabilities are more worried about school safety and being injured or harassed by peers as compared to students without a disability (Saylor & Leach, 2009). No? Have you ever picked up an educational article where the cover read “Our most vulnerable students” regarding children with special needs?
I will assume that you are, at the very least, aware that your school's student body is very unhappy with this new policy. Under that assumption, what do you think will happen when one of your vulnerable students, who is already anxious about their relationships with peers, takes out their phone to have “access to school?” You even put those words in your statement…they CANNOT ACCESS an education without this device!
You have just painted a HUGE target on the back of every child with an IEP. The only reason that they could have their phone out during school hours is because they have a disability. Would you like them to sign a registration form on a public bulletin highlighting this? Perhaps you would like them to put a Scarlet Letter around their neck. Maybe you want them all to stick on a name tag that reads: “Hi My Name is Dick and I have Autism” “Hello My Name is Jane, and I have trouble reading.” Or maybe you JUST DON’T CARE.
An accommodation has now become a shaming device. Either the child will use their phone, forcing them to answer questions from their peers about their disability…or…they will stop using their accommodation – effectively denying them a Free and Appropriate Education. After all, in your announcement you did state that they needed their phone to have “access to school.”
I fully acknowledge that phones can be misused, and it is a discipline problem for your administration. I do not have an answer for you on how to address this. But as I wrote to you on numerous occasions without a single response. This is NOT the way. Not only will it probably not work (accidents happen, fishing magnets that open the case are under $10 on Amazon, and what is alarms start going off on phones and they are locked away---parents having to pay for the damages), but you now have a civil rights discrimination problem.
And you Just Don’t Care. Or at least the message that you are giving to those children who put their trust in you is that you do not care.
