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hrmjustin

(71,265 posts)
Thu Jul 24, 2014, 08:53 PM Jul 2014

City Council Passes Avonte’s Law to Evaluate School Door Alarms

Jillian Jorgensen

The City Council unanimously passed legislation to require the Department of Education to evaluate putting alarms on school doors following the death of an autistic boy who disappeared from his school.

The bill is named for Avonte Oquendo, a 14-year-old boy who was caught on camera walking out of his school. There was a massive search for the missing youngster, but his remains were found in January.

Sponsored by Councilman Robert Cornegy, the bill requires the DOE and the NYPD to evaluate placing alarms on exterior doors at schools and prioritize where they are most needed. The DOE would have to submit a report to the Council by May 30, which would include a list of where the alarms were needed and a timeline for installing them.

Read more at http://observer.com/2014/07/city-council-passes-avontes-law-to-evaluate-school-door-alarms/#ixzz38RAJkHKZ

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City Council Passes Avonte’s Law to Evaluate School Door Alarms (Original Post) hrmjustin Jul 2014 OP
That's ok, I guess. I'd be interested to know what Avonte's school was actually working on with him. Smarmie Doofus Jul 2014 #1
 

Smarmie Doofus

(14,498 posts)
1. That's ok, I guess. I'd be interested to know what Avonte's school was actually working on with him.
Thu Jul 24, 2014, 09:42 PM
Jul 2014

I taught kids w. severe autism for many years. In the 80's and 90's someone like Avonte would have been focusing on *survival* skills. That is.... given the nature of his disability ( non verbal, non-reader,, etc.).... Avonte would have been working on how to function in the community. That would entail... it sounds like in Avonte's case... learning what do do if one is "lost" in the community. Teachers and kids would prepare laminated name tags, for example.

We would role play what to do if one is "lost". ( i.e. look for a police officer, or go into a store and show the cashier your laminated ID, which often included the info that the person was handicapped and that police should be contacted.)

When Obama and Duncan came in they decided to ... as we now all know... "reform" education. By 2010, kids like Avonte were following the Common Core standards. If he was 15 ty.o. he had to be studying Algebra and Geometry for instance. Because that's what ALL 15 year olds have to do under CCSS. This despite the fact that severely handicapped kids often have no knowledge of numbers at all. Nonetheless, such kids, starting in 2010, spent their time in school learning the difference between a right angle and an acute angle. Or trying to.

This sort of insanity quickly crowded out learning opportunities that, in the old days, we used to create to introduce and reinforce "survival" skills.

I'm not sure *exactly* what Avonte was doing in his particular school last year, but I know for a fact that the kids in that school district have to be taught curriculum that is "aligned " with the CC.

I'm not sure that we can "blame" Avonte's death on CC... but it might be a good time to look at how deranged the thinking is behind many of the ideas that are being promoted by the present United States Department of Education.

Educating kids is serious business. It is sometimes "life or death" serious. One gets the distinct feeling that nothing in the background of either Mr. Obama or Mr. Duncan has prepared them for an undertaking as serious as this.

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