Patterns
of Retaliation
Like the food triangle, patterns of retaliation
can be classified into three levels. Level I,
the most frequent, is low-level passive
activity, with the goal of delaying the process.
Level II is more overt; the goal is to scare
parents. Level III is the form of open hostility
and the goal is to punish parents. Level III
retaliation is rare, but costly, dramatic, and
damaging.
Level I - Delay. The goal at this level
of retaliation is to reduce parent effectiveness
by passive resistance, such as the introduction
of delays and obstacles in the many processes
involved in special education. There are
numerous ways officials can achieve this result.
One is simply playing dumb. This allows
officials to effectively ignore the law and
parent rights under the law. Another is
"forgetting" to do things. An official may
repeatedly forget to follow-up on a commitment,
such as getting back to parents with further
information, or fail to schedule further
meetings without several reminders. Being "away
from the phone," so often that parents give up
on some important issue is also effective.
Yet another technique is overly technical
interpretations of laws and regulations. Level I
does not appear hostile, but it can be extremely
effective.
Level II - Fear. Level II retaliation is
not hidden. At this stage officials may appear
to be openly frustrated and hostile. They will
state that they won't for example, allow parents
to observe a class, or won't permit certain
kinds of testing. The list of "can't do's" is
quite long. Most of it however, is bluff.
Level II retaliation is based on putting up a
tough front in an effort to scare parents and
reduce their advocacy. It is predicated on
parental ignorance of the law. While it can be
very effective, parents can break through this
barrier by learning more about special education
laws and regulations and simply insisting on
compliance. Once past the obstacles, parents
usually find that resistance is eliminated.
Level III - Punishment.
At this level,
retaliation can get ugly, with school officials
openly threatening and actively trying to punish
parents.
In this war-like state, school officials have a
variety of weapons to choose from. One is the
fair hearing (due process hearing) process.
Schools have vast financial resources to
transform hearings into major trial-like
proceedings. Since there is no accountability
to taxpayers for the large sums spent in such
legal adventures, officials have free rein to
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. (See
the
Hamilton County TN v. Zachary Deal case,
where the
school district spent at least 2.8
million dollars on attorneys' fees to fight
parents of a child with autism.)
Aiding and abetting this practice is a network
of attorneys who specialize in fighting parents.
These attorneys are organized into a
professional group which holds national
conferences and
training programs at the local level. School
officials are invited to attend these
conferences where they are tutored in the finer
points of "aggressive action," in the form of
strategies to be used before an IEP meeting or
at the pre-hearing conference of a due process
or fair hearing.
There have been recent reports of a menacing new
form of retaliation involving the fabrication of
child abuse charges against the target parent.
Such allegations can trigger an investigation by
Child Protective Services which has police-like
powers. Pending the outcome of their
investigation, they may choose to remove
children from the home.
Level III is so serious that most parents need
an attorney to protect themselves.
Note from Wrightslaw website:
"Retaliation: A Primer" and the "Retaliation
Triangle" were originally published in The
Observer, a newsletter published by the
Sacramento LDA (Spring 1998). We wrote a short
article,
The Enemies List, based on "Retaliation: A
Primer" that included links to the original
article on the Sacramento LDA site. In 2006, we
received several reports of broken links to the
original article. We discovered that the link to
the Sacramento LDA site was deactivated. Since
we saved the original article, we are posting it
on Wrightslaw. If the Sacramento LDA
organization creates a new site and/or posts the
article, we will be happy to remove this article
and create a link to the original.
Copyright ©
1998-2006, Peter W. D. Wright and Pamela Darr
Wright. All rights reserved.
Note: "Retaliation: A Primer" and the "Retaliation
Triangle" were originally published in The Observer, a
newsletter published by the Sacramento LDA (Spring 1998).
This link is no longer active. However, this article and
more information about retaliation for advocacy are
available
here (see
"Enemies List" Targets Parents).