Principal called police because our 9 year old rode his bike alone

[DVCcurious]

This may be long but I have to get it off my chest. I need to vent somewhere so I'm doing it here anonymously. I assume I'm not alone in fighting the school so maybe someone out there has advice.

Background (5 paragraphs long)
We live on Long Island New York in a good (rated 9) school district. Our son is 9 years old. He had delayed speech and we agreed to let the school district provide speech therapy to him in K-2 (2017-2020 school years). Prior to agreeing with the school we took our son to Mary Camarata (https://latetalkersconsulting.com/about/) who is one of the country's leading experts on late talking children. She did a number of tests with our son and the end result is that she told us our son has an IQ in the normal range, has normal learning speed, but processes information in a different manner. This processing difference is why he has language delay. She also performed and autism test (she is qualified to perform those tests) and she confirmed he is not autistic. She also told us to NOT allow the school to perform an IQ test because they are done verbally and our son was guaranteed to fail a verbal IQ test due to his speech delay. She also told us the school would push autism because that is the "en vogue" thing nowadays and that districts across the country are mislabeling boys (it's almost always boys) as special needs. However the school told us that in order to get speech therapy we had to consent to an IQ test and we also had to agree to other services which we didn't want (they told us it was "all or nothing" and at the time we believed he needed speech therapy). Stupidly we agreed to the extra services if they would label him as "speech delayed" and not "autistic" which is what they wanted to label him as (just like Mary predicted).

After the testing was done the school psychologist called us in and told us about our son. She informed us that our son has a 66 IQ. IQ ranges from 70-130 with "normal" falling between 85-115. Scores outside of 70-130 are rare. (https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-average-iq-2795284) My uncle has Down's syndrome so I've spent 40 years visiting him and being around people at his group home who have low IQs. Based on my experience with these people and experience with my son I know my son does not have a 66 IQ. I also work with math and statistics at my job every day (I work for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York) so I'm well aware of how to analyze statistics. I just told the psychologist that it's essentially impossible for my son to have a 66 IQ because that is more than 2 standard deviations from the mean and essentially there is a 2% probability of his IQ being that low. I told her that our expert (Mary Camarata) said our son would score very low due to the test being verbal in nature and our son having language delay. In the end we agreed to let the school provide Occupational and Speech therapy and an in-class aid for our son because we really wanted him to get speech therapy.

Fast forward to April 2020. Throughout the past 3 years the school had been trying to talk us into removing our son from a general education class and put him in a special education class. Once again at our annual special education meeting (we had to have these meetings for our son to continue speech therapy) they pushed for a change of placement. I recorded the call because of our poor experience with this group of people. It was 3 hours long and we said "no" to changing his placement 9 separate times during the call. Nine times. After the call we filed a Freedom of Information Act request to have all communication from district employees about our son (again we didn't trust these people). In June 2020 we got a giant document dump of hundreds of pages. One thing my wife found was a draft letter from the district to the parents informing us that they were changing our son's placement to a special education class for the 2020-2021 School year based on the fact that "all parties, including the parents, are in agreement". I immediately emailed the head of the special education department and informed her that we did not agree, that I had the call recorded as proof, and that we will NEVER agree to change his placement. I requested she change the letter so it would say the parents were not in agreement with the school's recommendation. She emailed back saying, essentially, "you did agree to it and I'm moving forward with this change of placement".

So we sued the school district. It's called a "due process complaint" when you file suit against a school district. In our complaint we included the email from me to her and her response dated June 10/11 and the letter dated June 12. Our argument was simple: on June 12 the district issued a change of placement letter stating that the parents were in agreement when they had full knowledge the parents were not in agreement. The proof of that was the emails on June 10/11. Now, according to the law, the school district is allowed to move a child without parental consent however they have to go through many hurdles and provide pages of explanation in their placement change letter. Our district didn't do that so this was a slam dunk case from a legal perspective. We had our hearing before the Administrative Law Judge in early July. We began, as petitioner, and our argument was simple: We had a recording where we said "no" to a change of placement 9 times. We received this letter on June 10 as part of our FOIA request and immediately emailed the head of special education to inform her of the error in her letter and requesting her to change it. At the time the letter was issued the district was aware we did not agree therefore this change of placement letter was invalid and we requested the court to direct the school to put our son back in a general education placement. We said that if the school wants to move him without parental consent they are required by law to provide rationale for their decision including recent cognitive and behavioral testing and submit those tests and their rationale for their decision in the placement change letter.

The school district's lawyer then had her turn. Her argument was also simple: who cares? Who cares what the parents think. The district believes removing our son from a general education program is in The Best Interests of The Child. She conceded the fact that they did not fill out the letter correctly but what's the big deal? They were moving forward with the placement change because we consented to the district providing services (speech therapy) and we can not consent to one thing and then deny the school from providing anything else they saw fit. And the judge sided with the school (the entire special education system is corrupt). The judge agreed that if we consented to ANY service provided by the district we were consenting to ANY decision the district wanted to make in regards to our son. So our only recourse was to revoke our consent to any services. We had the school district issue a new letter stating that our consent was revoked and our son was considered a general education student. Our son was to receive no IEP and no special education services. This was July 2020. We also requested and were granted a change in elementary school for our son (they are a mile apart so no big deal) because our relationship with the prior school was negative.

Current Problem
Yesterday was 60 degrees here in New York. Our son wanted to ride his bike after school. So of course we let him. At 4:15 I got a call from the principal saying he had my son at his school and my son was "injured". So we went to pick him up. My son had a scratch on his chest from a tree branch he got from climbing a tree. The principal told me he called the police who turned the case over to CPS. He said we were negligent parents because we allowed our 9 year old "special needs" child to ride his bike and climb trees while we weren't watching him. He said this "injury" was a direct result of our negligence. I kept my cool and just packed up my son's bike and went home. Last night we got a visit from the night-time CPS person on staff who took a picture of our son's chest. Monday they will send out the full-time CPS person to do the investigation.

Edit to add one other piece of information: In July when we revoked our consent we got a letter from the district stating that our son is considered a general education student. So we're going to submit that letter to CPS to counter the principal's argument that our son is special needs.

According to New York state law 9 year old children can ride their bike without parental supervision. Each day there are dozens of kids at the school riding their bike, playing on the playground equipment, playing basketball, etc. There are few, if any, parents around.

We've been fighting the school for 4 years. Even though we removed him from their special education program we are still getting harassed.

 

[Lewisc]

Obviously you need advice from whatever attorney you retain a lot more the advice from anonymous posters on internet board.

 

[DisneyMama811]

I really don't even know what to say other than as a fellow parent of a speech delayed child I'm sorry this is happening to you. How was the CPS worker with you?

 

[Makmak]

I think what the OP wants is to vent and get support, and from me she/he will have it. I am so sorry you are going through this. I am in higher Ed and I see how the schools jump to label students who have anything out of the ordinary going on. These labels impact their self esteem and self perception. Our local districts label kids and that label stays with them throughout their k-12 years. Many have arrived in my classes saying “I have XYZ, and so please let me know if my work is not up to standard” or some such thing. These students perform at the same levels or BEYOND what others are doing. But, because they talked late, took longer to read effectively etc in elementary they were told they have XYZ and so believe that they are somehow deficient. This upsets me to no end, as human development is widely variable. I have also been told that schools get funding associated with the labels so.....that’s a consideration.
Was the police-calling principal from the original school (not the one you switched to?). In any event the school likely has to report any injuries on property, like a child falling off a bike while playing. I do think they likely also seized the opportunity to do so since there is a “negative history” with the schools. Even if it’s the “new” school there’s a tightly knit relationship between most schools.
When CPS comes they will likely just review the standard living conditions etc. As you said you were within the law to allow your child to do that activity at his age. (And you are lucky bc some states state no age so parents must helicopter their kids until aga 18 but that’s another thread). I can tell you that very likely nothing will come of this. I have colleagues that work at hospitals and see really horrific situations and CPS does nothing. So, I highly doubt that anything will come of this though I imagine it feels highly intrusive and embarrassing, in addition to the horrible feeling that the school is exerting their power over your home. Hang in there, it sounds like you are actively promoting the success of your child and will just have to weather this. Keep your head up and as pp said call your lawyer!

 

[jo-jo]

Your story is unbelievable (like how could this happen, not that I don't believe you), scary and what has this world become.

I can't help, but I can listen. Vent away.

 

[Cinderella's Fella]

praying

 

[DVCcurious]

I really don't even know what to say other than as a fellow parent of a speech delayed child I'm sorry this is happening to you. How was the CPS worker with you?

The CPS person was great. He took a picture of my son's scratch, talked to my son and my daughter and asked us a few brief questions. I asked him if it is considered parental neglect to allow a 9 year old to ride their bike alone. He said he wouldn't make an official comment but personally he wouldn't allow his kid to ride their bike alone because of "drunk drivers" and "child molestors". I was just like "ok" after he said that but didn't argue with him.

 

[TwoMisfits]

The CPS person was great. He took a picture of my son, talked to my son and my daughter and asked us a few brief questions. I asked him if it is considered parental neglect to allow a 9 year old to ride their bike alone. He said he wouldn't make an official comment but personally he wouldn't allow his kid to ride their bike alone because of "drunk drivers" and "child molestors". I was just like "ok" after he said that but didn't argue with him.

Please don't talk to any more government officials without a lawyer present. You are in the system now, with the official CPS complaint. You want ALL talking now done by your lawyer, no matter how "friendly" the government official seems.

 

[DVCcurious]

The Principal who filed the complaint is the one at the new school we just moved to this year. But he is well aware that we filed a due process claim against the district and we revoked consent for special ed services. I had to meet with him in January and he told me he thought our son belonged in an Autism classroom. I told him he'd been checked for autism by an expert and he doesn't have it. Then the principal is like "well I'm not a health professional but I see kids with autism and your son displays many autistic signs".

We are not going to a lawyer. We already talked to several when we were having problems with the special ed department. The honest lawyers told us it was a waste of money competing against the school because the school always wins. They also warned us about these types of cases from the schools where they allege abuse to CPS and that the lawyer's advice was to be friendly and open with the CPS person and not hostile and CPS will usually just do a perfunctory investigation and then write off the case as unfounded. The lawyers told us if CPS tells us they are moving the case beyond the original scope or doing additional investigation to then get the attorney involved. But apparently CPS gets a lot of these claims and just plows through them.

The CPS case against us alleges negligence due to us allowing our 9 year old to ride his bike alone. And it alleges our son is special needs. We are going to counter that by stating the state law allows 9 year olds to ride their bike alone and that we have a letter from the school district itself stating our son is a general education student. We also have recent testing from a learning center performed in February (we get him outside tutoring and they do annual testing) that shows he is not learning disabled.

I am not concerned about CPS in the slightest. I'm concerned that the school will continue to target my son for harassment.

 

[DisneyMama811]

thankfully there is a difference between personal comfort and the actual law! and CPS will have to make their decision based on the law. you stated it's legal for you to let your 9yo bike ride alone so I really don't think they have a leg to stand on. I am thinking of you, if you're comfortable please let us know how this turns out

 

[TwoMisfits]

The Principal who filed the complaint is the one at the new school we just moved to this year. But he is well aware that we filed a due process claim against the district and we revoked consent for special ed services. I had to meet with him in January and he told me he thought our son belonged in an Autism classroom. I told him he'd been checked for autism by an expert and he doesn't have it. Then the principal is like "well I'm not a health professional but I see kids with autism and your son displays many autistic signs".

We are not going to a lawyer. We already talked to several when we were having problems with the special ed department. The honest lawyers told us it was a waste of money competing against the school because the school always wins. They also warned us about these types of cases from the schools where they allege abuse to CPS and that the lawyer's advice was to be friendly and open with the CPS person and not hostile and CPS will usually just do a perfunctory investigation and then write off the case as unfounded. The lawyers told us if CPS tells us they are moving the case beyond the original scope or doing additional investigation to then get the attorney involved. But apparently CPS gets a lot of these claims and just plows through them.

The CPS case against us alleges negligence due to us allowing our 9 year old to ride his bike alone. And it alleges our son is special needs. We are going to counter that by stating the state law allows 9 year olds to ride their bike alone and that we have a letter from the school district itself stating our son is a general education student. We also have recent testing from a learning center performed in February (we get him outside tutoring and they do annual testing) that shows he is not learning disabled.

I am not concerned about CPS in the slightest. I'm concerned that the school will continue to target my son for harassment.

At this point, all public schools in the district probably will...so I would look into private school or homeschooling if moving to a completely new district is out of the question.

 

[DVCcurious]

OP Here with an update.

When CPS came Friday at 7pm the CPS rep told us we MUST take our child to the doctor on Saturday and there would definitely, absolutely be a full-time CPS rep visiting us on Monday and they would need to come inside the house to do the home inspection (this guy just talked to us on our porch about 30 minutes). He was only a night-time CPS person and he would hand the case off to a normal CPS representative who would take over the complaint and investigation (something to that effect). He also read us a statement from the complainant (but he told us it was anonymous and didn't tell us it was the principal) that was very specific with information only a school employee (teacher, principal, special ed dept) would know or believe about our son. For example the statement read that our son has cognitive impairment that means he must be supervised constantly. That he performs poorly in school, that he is two years behind his peers and therefore is more like a 7 year old than a 9 year old, etc. You get the point (this is important for later).

Given our history with this district on Friday night I sent an email to the Superintendent and cc'd the principal. My email said "you may remember we are the ones who filed the complaint against your district last year. Thank you for granting our request to change schools. Up until today things have been really positive. However today the principal called the police on our son because he was riding his bike unsupervised and he got a scratch on his chest from climbing a tree. Now we have CPS investigating us. We checked with the police and it's not against the law for a 9 year old to ride a bicycle without supervision. Every day there are dozens of kids riding bikes and playing on the playground equipment at 4:00 at your school. How many of those kids parents has the principal called CPS and reported neglect? The harassment we have received from the district employees has gone too far. Please leave us and our son alone"

Saturday we took our son to the Dr. and the Dr. agreed that the scratch on his chest is due to normal activity climbing trees and he did not "fall" and injure himself.

At 11:30 today we got a response from the Superintendent. He said basically "Your claims are not correct. The principal did not call the police. Instead a "good samaritan" saw your son fall off of a tree at another park and it was a "good samaritan" who determined your son was alone and called police after asking your son for his name and address and your son was unable to provide this information. Later your son wound up at the school and a teacher saw him and took him inside to care for his injuries. The principal then called you and asked for you to come pick him up. I would think that rather than accusing the principal of harassment you'd be thanking him for his service to your son".

So they denied the principal called the police and they are now claiming that my son went to the school on his own when Friday they said he was brought to the school entry door by the 'Good Samaritan" who requested to talk to someone inside the school.

So I responded to his email and basically went point by point and said that the point either didn't make logical sense (why did the teacher who saw him playing outside bring him in to aid his injury? How could she possibly know there was a scratch on his chest?) or we were fine with it (our son refusing to give his name or address to a stranger is not a cause of concern, it's a smashing success that he listened to our "never talk to strangers" lectures) or were contradictory to what we were told Friday (the principal told us he called the police on Friday when we picked our son up from the school and now their story is that the principal never talked to the police and instead it was a "Good Samaritan"). I also mentioned that the statement given to CPS was very specific and couldn't possibly have been provided by the "Good Samaritan". And I mentioned the statement claimed our son is a special ed student which is contradictory to the letter we got this summer as part of our settlement to our due process complaint that said our son would be considered a general education student.

It's now 7:00. CPS never showed up today. The Superintendent did not respond to my second email (I'm not surprised by that).

Is it possible the full time CPS person would not have come today after we were told they absolutely definitely would be interviewing us? Maybe they think the visit Friday night was enough.

Is it possible after seeing that we were going to fight this the Superintendent told the principal to call CPS and drop the complaint? Maybe he asked the principal about the injury and the principal told him it was a minor scratch on his chest and they decided it was not enough to accuse us over (after our experience I find the idea they would give up attacking us far-fetched but it is possible).

Why would the Superintendent claim the "Good Samaritan" called the police when he must have known CPS read us a statement from an anonymous source that included specific information about our son's academic performance and cognitive abilities? Maybe he didn't realize CPS read us the statement Friday.

 

[DVCcurious]

OP again with a new update:

No CPS today either.

I got a response to my second email to the superintendent. In summary it says "there must be some misunderstanding. The principal never called the police or CPS. I'm sure he'd be happy to talk this over with you to clear up any issues you still have".

My they've come a full 180 since Friday afternoon.

 

[HopperFan]

The Principal who filed the complaint is the one at the new school we just moved to this year. But he is well aware that we filed a due process claim against the district and we revoked consent for special ed services. I had to meet with him in January and he told me he thought our son belonged in an Autism classroom. I told him he'd been checked for autism by an expert and he doesn't have it. Then the principal is like "well I'm not a health professional but I see kids with autism and your son displays many autistic signs".

The CPS case against us alleges negligence due to us allowing our 9 year old to ride his bike alone. And it alleges our son is special needs. We are going to counter that by stating the state law allows 9 year olds to ride their bike alone and that we have a letter from the school district itself stating our son is a general education student. We also have recent testing from a learning center performed in February (we get him outside tutoring and they do annual testing) that shows he is not learning disabled.

I am not concerned about CPS in the slightest. I'm concerned that the school will continue to target my son for harassment.

So thankful to be out of the school system now but over the years, while we had some great experiences we had many awful ones, with awful people, who lied and undermined my child at every turn.

In this quote you answered your own question and further comments from the superintendent verified it. Your child is already being targeted by the new school and you have some big decisions to make because it sounds like you and your son have been labeled by your entire district.

Principals can make or break an entire program at the school, and I've seen some really bad ones. Things for folks to note is that special ed can be lucrative for a school with all the additional funding they can receive. I've seen schools use the system and kids to bulk up the cash they receive. General population students being labeled just to get money. Your son would be an easy target due to the testing issue. My son failed every single standardized test they gave him - not because he didn't know the answer but because they would only use verbal response tests, which he couldn't do. My other son's typical class was given an extremely outdated test they all failed, come to find if the failure rate on a test was high enough the state provided funding for assistant teachers. They purposely structured them to fail.

I don't know how to help, but understand your frustration and concerns. Good luck!

 

[DLgal]

I am in no way defending the school district, but it seems to me that you are in some serious denial about your son and I hope, for his sake, that you come around to a place where you might be more accepting of the struggles he is facing and "allow" him to be accurately diagnosed so he can get the supports he needs. Pulling out from special education and changing schools isn't going to make him any less needy of that support.

And this is coming from a parent of 2 special needs teenagers, one of whom JUST got an official diagnosis of autism at almost 15 after YEARS of just being a "speech delay" kid. I have known he was autistic since he was around 5.

Every single IQ test done over the years by the school on my kids have had a verbal AND nonverbal component, to account for verbal disabilities. The composite score is a best guess, but isn't fully reliable. Regardless, an IQ test isn't meaningful on its own. If they are saying your son is 2 years behind his peers, academically, that is an issue that points to more going on than just speech delays. Speech delays are not necessarily associated with lower academic performance overall in the absence of another diagnosis.

There is also no such thing as an autism test. So, I would be suspect of that Mary lady and what she had to say about that. Autism is a spectrum disorder with many different manifestations, symptoms, and defining characteristics. It is a diagnosis made after examining MANY aspects of a person, interviewing parents and teachers, and determining whether there are deficits in COMMUNICATION, SOCIAL SKILLS, and EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING.

Any professional who advocates for "not labeling" a child or accuses autism of being an "en vogue" diagnosis should be swiftly disregarded.

 

[DeeBee3]

I have nothing to say other than if you can afford a non-public school, you probably should look into your options.

 

[Tigerlulu]

As a parent I’ve always asked myself what my line in the sand is for me to pull my kids out of public school.
I have a child who is very much like your son. (But my district denied him any further services when he turned 9, as his grades were too good and frankly they were doing their best to purge their special Ed rosters, for the life of me I still don’t understand why. He’s a senior now and has struggled every year since. Anyway.) I believe you have found my line. Harassment of that type that brings in cps like that? Nope. Home school until I can figure something else out. I’m really sorry this is happening. It’s horrible to have such crap happen to your child.

 

[Jmljasmine]

Further supports our many other reasons, personal and general, to homeschool or private school each of ours. Just wanted to let you know there is now a ton of help, advice, and materials readily available if you decide homeschooling may be for you. It's much easier then it use to be to do it well.

 

[starry_solo]

So, I don't work for CPS but have a lot of friends who do (in CA).

Certain individuals are mandated by law to report suspected abuse or neglect. School officials (at least in CA) are one of those individuals. Reporting party information is confidential and can never be disclosed. So, even if the reporting party (principal) told you that he reported it [which technically, he isn't because he reported it to police and police called in CPS], the CPS worker cannot tell you who the reporting party is. In CA, there are various types of referrals (immediate response [IR], 10-day referrals, etc.) and investigations need to be started within a certain period of time.

So, the nighttime CPS worker came, likely because it was an IR referral. Once it was determined your child wasn't in danger of dying or being badly hurt (that's pretty much the IR referral), it is likely that the referral was changed to a 10-day referral (or whatever your state requires). Since the first contact was already made, CPS can then take more time to gather materials, interview collaterals (other people, including the reporting party), etc. Then, CPS will come back to talk to you.

 

[ford91exploder]

OP Here with an update.

When CPS came Friday at 7pm the CPS rep told us we MUST take our child to the doctor on Saturday and there would definitely, absolutely be a full-time CPS rep visiting us on Monday and they would need to come inside the house to do the home inspection (this guy just talked to us on our porch about 30 minutes). He was only a night-time CPS person and he would hand the case off to a normal CPS representative who would take over the complaint and investigation (something to that effect). He also read us a statement from the complainant (but he told us it was anonymous and didn't tell us it was the principal) that was very specific with information only a school employee (teacher, principal, special ed dept) would know or believe about our son. For example the statement read that our son has cognitive impairment that means he must be supervised constantly. That he performs poorly in school, that he is two years behind his peers and therefore is more like a 7 year old than a 9 year old, etc. You get the point (this is important for later).

Given our history with this district on Friday night I sent an email to the Superintendent and cc'd the principal. My email said "you may remember we are the ones who filed the complaint against your district last year. Thank you for granting our request to change schools. Up until today things have been really positive. However today the principal called the police on our son because he was riding his bike unsupervised and he got a scratch on his chest from climbing a tree. Now we have CPS investigating us. We checked with the police and it's not against the law for a 9 year old to ride a bicycle without supervision. Every day there are dozens of kids riding bikes and playing on the playground equipment at 4:00 at your school. How many of those kids parents has the principal called CPS and reported neglect? The harassment we have received from the district employees has gone too far. Please leave us and our son alone"

Saturday we took our son to the Dr. and the Dr. agreed that the scratch on his chest is due to normal activity climbing trees and he did not "fall" and injure himself.

At 11:30 today we got a response from the Superintendent. He said basically "Your claims are not correct. The principal did not call the police. Instead a "good samaritan" saw your son fall off of a tree at another park and it was a "good samaritan" who determined your son was alone and called police after asking your son for his name and address and your son was unable to provide this information. Later your son wound up at the school and a teacher saw him and took him inside to care for his injuries. The principal then called you and asked for you to come pick him up. I would think that rather than accusing the principal of harassment you'd be thanking him for his service to your son".

So they denied the principal called the police and they are now claiming that my son went to the school on his own when Friday they said he was brought to the school entry door by the 'Good Samaritan" who requested to talk to someone inside the school.

So I responded to his email and basically went point by point and said that the point either didn't make logical sense (why did the teacher who saw him playing outside bring him in to aid his injury? How could she possibly know there was a scratch on his chest?) or we were fine with it (our son refusing to give his name or address to a stranger is not a cause of concern, it's a smashing success that he listened to our "never talk to strangers" lectures) or were contradictory to what we were told Friday (the principal told us he called the police on Friday when we picked our son up from the school and now their story is that the principal never talked to the police and instead it was a "Good Samaritan"). I also mentioned that the statement given to CPS was very specific and couldn't possibly have been provided by the "Good Samaritan". And I mentioned the statement claimed our son is a special ed student which is contradictory to the letter we got this summer as part of our settlement to our due process complaint that said our son would be considered a general education student.

It's now 7:00. CPS never showed up today. The Superintendent did not respond to my second email (I'm not surprised by that).

Is it possible the full time CPS person would not have come today after we were told they absolutely definitely would be interviewing us? Maybe they think the visit Friday night was enough.

Is it possible after seeing that we were going to fight this the Superintendent told the principal to call CPS and drop the complaint? Maybe he asked the principal about the injury and the principal told him it was a minor scratch on his chest and they decided it was not enough to accuse us over (after our experience I find the idea they would give up attacking us far-fetched but it is possible).

Why would the Superintendent claim the "Good Samaritan" called the police when he must have known CPS read us a statement from an anonymous source that included specific information about our son's academic performance and cognitive abilities? Maybe he didn't realize CPS read us the statement Friday.

The FIRST thing you need is a GOOD LAWYER, Once hired let the LAWYER speak for you and your son resist the temptation to speak to the authorities yourself.

Please don't take this the wrong way but by speaking to the school district you have probably given them enough ammunition for them to bring felony child endangerment charges against you. You need a GOOD LAWYER NOW!!!. Any answers going forward should be restricted to YES and NO only.

Harvey Silverglate has a book 'Three Felonies a Day' which details how the average american commits 3 federal felonies per day without even realizing it and of course being prosecuted for them. But if you become 'Annoying' to some official they will drop the hammer and you will be in a world of hurt.

Long ago I did a guardianship for a relative and it was a legal minefield, Fortunately family lawyer was very good and kept me/us out of trouble but I was constantly asking WHY i could not talk to people as a reasonable human. So I'm passing along what I learned.