Todd Walked Tall For All of Us

Todd Geraci walled with his class of 2009 last night at Peoples Academy in Morrisville.  And good for him.  Good for the Class and good for the community.

here is the story from the Free Press.

Tracy Wrend the Superintendent and the Uppity-Ups  in the district tried to block Todd from marching in the graduation ceremony because he is returning to PA next year to continue school programing.  Todd has an IEP for special education, an independent educational plan, which is designed to give students with learning disabilities REASONABLE MODIFICATIONS for their studies.  That means that a student that is blind can have braille texts, or text books on tape.  A dyslexic student might get more time to take a test.  A student with Aspergers might have an aid with in class.    I don’t know the specifics of Todd’s plan, but I do know that he completed all of the general education requirements set for all students at PA to graduate.  The issue was this:

IF you are marching,then  you are getting a diploma, and if you get a diploma, then you can’t return to PA. (as a post grad student) and receive special education services.  Need I point out that one year of special education costs the district money.  So if Todd wanted to return and get more special education services, and a diploma after his IEP goals were finished, then he was not going to be able to march.

The issue was marching.  Not whether Todd was  getting his diploma.  The school said NO and it went to court.  The day before graduation.     Mikayla Geraci, Todd’s little sister (front row blond in a blue shirt) rallied and started a “let Todd walk” group on Facebook.  She let everyone know when the hearing was and a whole bunch of us went to the hearing.

The students also signed a petition to allow Todd to March. Todd has known many of these students since the 3d grade and to march with his classmates was a once and a lifetime opportunity.

Everybody seemed to understand that except for the school officials.

This is Wrend’s position:

“In Morristown, graduation is our most public and proudest acknowledgement of our mission. There are places where graduation may be primarily a ‘feel good exercise.’ That has not been the case at Peoples Academy. Every single one of the thousands of students who have walked across the stage at Peoples Academy’s graduation since Peoples Academy was founded in 1847 have met graduation requirements. We owe it to every single one of them — and to every student who will cross the stage in the future — to hold to that standard.”

She is right that is it the most public and proudest moment for Morristown and that it means something. Well last night it did.

Last night Todd walked and it publicly showed a community who understood and accepted Todd as a classmate.  They wanted him to march and the crowd stood and cheered.   The standard for all of is raised when we can understand that letting Todd march is more then a feel good moment.  Letting Todd march made a statement that Todd is more then his disability, Todd is a member of the class of 2009!

If you earn a diploma, you are given a diploma regardless of if you are marching in a graduation ceremony.  Marching is done as a group, not as an individual practice.  Todd will go on as an individual to work one year more than his classmates because of his Aspergers.  Allowing Todd to march with his classmates was a Reasonable Modification.  Kudos to Anthony and Julie, Todd’s parents for fighting for him and kudos to the judge that understood the underlying issue.

I am so very saddened and stunned that the superintendent didn’t get it.

March on little buddy, march on!

Barr Hill

When I was a little kid, we headed to Barr Hill on a regular basis.  The whole fam-damly packed up and went.

My grandfather proposed to my grandmother in 1921 up on Barr Hill.  He had borrowed his father’s model A or T, the one with the rumble seat, and Nana’s younger brother had hid in back.  When he was discovered, he was booted out and then threw rocks at the couple as they took off to Barr Hill.

At the base of Barr Hill is a farm.  The cows no longer graze at the top, it has become a nature reserve.  No cow pie baseball, our kids would find that completely gross and disgusting. (which it was, and  why we would take our wiffle bats up there to freak out our parents.)  We talked of snipe hunting, but not cow tipping. That is politically  wrong, wrong, wrong.  Truth is, none of us got close enough to a cow to tip one, plus they never stayed at the top of the hill at night.  We just all loved to brag about it as teens.   Barr Hill is a safe place for teens to learn about life without the parents.   The conversations went something like this..

” Alex what are you all doing tonight?” asks Nana.

“Oh, I think cookout at Barr Hill” I reply.

” That sounds nice deary, I will be at so-and so’s for dinner, then bridge (or cocktails, or dinner party or Craftsbury Chamber players.) Be home by 11:00.

“ok Nana” see you later.

This conversation has taken place by summer families around the lake for generations, much the same.

Barr Hill is directly behind Baker Hill where my grandparents build their summer home a bit later.   We would walk the path from Nana’s for cookout.   Across the way, there are a couple of fields in the distance.  At the top of those fields is the site of the house where we were as kids.  My stepfather David and his brother Phil bought the old farm in the 60’s.  125 acres at the top of West Hill.   Good times there as a kid.

We ran wild in the fields, barefoot and fancy free.  Always fun to see the land  from the pic-a-nic site.  New folks have torn down the old farmhouse and are building a HUGE modern house. You can actually see it the photo I posted.

Now Elizabeth makes her memories with friends Jessie and Lallie.    Doing what you do, hot dogs, smores, fire, blanket, good times.  we all laughed at silly things and enjoyed the night.

Doodle and Mom’s Journey

Doodle is heading up to Vermont tomorrow morning. She talked her father into letting her take the car and come solo.  This will be her first time driving up on the interstate by herself.   I got a bit worried when she called earlier and asked about an on-ramp in Monroe.

” Mum, you know when you leave the rest area and you are trying to get back on the highway, and you go right, then under the bridge, then there are two ramps on the left…. which one do I get on?”

She is talking about the interstate on and off ramps.  Take the one on the left and you go onto the interstate heading the wrong way, literally, heading south in the north bound lane.   Here goes my overactive, hyper-alarm. mom drive.   I imagine Doodle going the wrong way on the interstate and freaking out.

” Doodle, take the ramp on the right, look at the arrows, the signs, you will be fine.”

Cross your fingers and hold your breath.

But this is what happens.

It was just a couple of years ago that she was getting signed up for swimming lessons, and loosing a tooth or two, and going to Willey’s store by herself.  Now she is driving. By herself. On the interstate.  oh my.

Funny thing though, I am not feeling old.  I am actually at a point where I am feeling like life is just beginning again for me, much like Doodle heading out of child hood into her great unknown.

These past couple of weeks I have been struggling with a graduate course and had three major case studies to write.  I had a real mental block this week on one of them and for the first time really questioned my ability and desire to do graduate school at all.  Completely frustrated,but not over the material, I got really triggered by the professor of all things.  That hasn’t happened to me in decades.  I simply couldn’t stand his teaching style and felt like I didn’t want to give anything of myself, in the least.  This was all a manifestation of a bunch of other stuff happening, but the end result is that I had true writers block.

Like getting nervouse about heading the wrong way up the interstate.

So cross your fingers and hold your breath.  Face your fears and today I finished all of the case studies and have completed this class.

So excited to see Doodle tomorrow without this hanging over me.

Update:  She made it in on piece!

Shout out to the dreamers

Somebody got it right.  They watched cartoons on Saturday morning and dreamed ’bout funny little cars and personal scooters.  Someone watched Star Trek as a kid and thought communicators and came up with the cell phone.   Seems to me as kids we dreamed of fantastic worlds and fantastic things and now we have  lap tops, cell phones with computers and cameras in them, and mini-chips put into the brain to control epileptic seizures.  TENS pumps for pain and face transplants.

We can have a video breakfast with someone on the other side of the planet with ichat or skype. Which means that we can be transported to be in two places at the same time. Saturday morning cartoons and shows gave us all the inspiration.

What is getting me thinking this morning is that the price of gas went up again, $.44 cents this month, .03 cents over night.  However, the news is telling me that it is still $1.00 less then this time last year.   An implication that we should perhaps be glad? Well I am not. The price of gas goes up because of human greed

.Still Gas is at $2.44 or higher.  My guess is that it is going up and it would not surprise me if it goes up another buck over the course of the summer.

So here is a shout out to the kid in the back of the room that dreamed of transportation that was fueled by something other then gas.  I know your out there.  You have the brilliant idea, now it is the time to break it out.  Car companies are looking for you to go and save a dying industry.  We all gotta travel, so time to step up and see your dream come into reality.

Starting point

A couple of years back I took the girls to Nova Scotia.  I didn’t realize that this photo would be the one of the girls that I would see most often.  It has been my screen saver on my laptop for the past 2 years.  A simple reminder that my children are on their own journey.  I am simply the starting point.

Yesterday was the last day of class, but I still have 2 papers to hand in.  One was due yesterday, but I couldn’t pull it off in time and the other is due, post stamped by the 15th.  It was all I could do to will myself and stay in the class all day.    The week before I had class on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with a presentation on Saturday and a paper.  Got it in on time and paid for it with a lupus flair up. Mix up an equal portions of ‘not enough sleep’ with ’stress’ , shake well with sitting in a class for 7 hours-2 days straight and ta-da!  A fully done gimp.

I worked on class stuff over the week and prepared for class, got my first paper back on Wednesday and was having complete second thoughts about the class, the MPA program, grad school and my direction or lack of it seems.  Fatigue will do that.  Friday night I worked on the paper for 5 hours and decided to not pull a late night to finish it.  I got up at 5 and worked for another 2 hours, then got ready and left by 7:30 for class at 9:00.

I think I slept well, but I was weepy in the morning, tearing up over NPR stories on the way in.  My hips were hurting too.  Those are two clear signs of a flair up.  My reserve was low and I was emotionally frayed, the joint pain in the hips is an indication of lupus kicking in.  When a flair up is just starting up, I can get really bummed out. Unreasonably so, which is also a sign that I am heading into a flair.   So by the end of class I was whipped and ready to throw in the towel. I cried all the way home and had a good old pity party for myself.   I wondered why I had gotten myself into this, and feeling trapped with a low paying job and no hopes for a decent career, and no kids and no sheep in the pasture, blah blah blah.

Changing direction in your 40’s is a bit overwhelming.   What do I want to do when I grow up?   The kids are out of the house and so my daily identity is different then it was.  No kids schedules to manage, no games, no “what’s for dinner”.  The scary reality is that I am on my own here and when I am lupi, it is tough to move forward. I don’t need anyone feeling sorry for me, I have generated enough of that myself.

So I have a little pity party, then I find a friend a take a walk to put it into perspective.  By the 2nd mile my whining is done and Lili tells me to suck it up.

Emilie tells me   “down seven, get up eight.”

Lulu just says ” do it”

The girls, as always are my starting point.  They don’t know it yet, but they are.  shhh… don’t tell anyone, but I love them the most.