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Two days before school was set to start, my sons school had an open house. This was done so the students and the parents could look around their new school building, to find their classes, and to meet the teachers. As I was talking with my sons teacher, I noticed a man sitting in a wheel chair at the bottom of the stair case leading up to the second and third floors of this school. I asked the teacher why he didn’t use the elevator to go up to see his child’s class. The teacher then informed me that the school was not wheel chair accessible. I then asked the teacher what about the students that were disabled? She told me that they had one student with a birth defect in the fifth grade who was unable to climb the stairs, so they put the fifth graders on the first floor. If any other students wanted to enroll who had a disability, they would have to go to another school.

This school had been a middle school a few years prior. The city had closed it down stating that it was not up to standards to teach middle school students. I can understand that! So why then, did they decide that it was up to standards to teach pre-kindergarten through fifth graders?

My question is: Isn’t this illegal in this day and age? It seems like blatant discrimination against people who are handicapped. What of the students who already attend this school? What will happen if by some horrible chance one of these students who are not lucky enough to be on the first floor happens to break their leg or other wise becomes unable to climb the stairs? Will they be shipped off to another school simply because they are temporarily or permanently disabled?To this writer, this seems unreal and unconscionable. This is not even a small town school. The population of the town is over 47,000. Shame on the school district. Our children are our future, whether they can climb stairs or not, they deserve equal education rights and privileges.