To the Editor: Cumberland Times-News
I am disappointed that no mention has ever been made of the special education population at Dennett Road Elementary School.
I do not know if everyone knows that Dennett Road is the special education center for the entire southern end of Garrett County.
At Dennett Road, there are two large classrooms, a kitchen area to teach life skills, safe Time Out area, a private changing area for children who require this type of assistance, sensory room, handicapped equipped playgrounds, and ample handicapped equipped bathroom stalls and facilities separated into “Girls’” and “Boys’” bathrooms to serve the large number of students taught at this school.
The consolidation plan calls for these students to be shoved into two cramped classrooms at Yough Glades with NO private changing area, NO sensory room, NO safe time out area, NO kitchen skills and safety teaching area, NO handicapped equipped playground, and ONE toilet and sink (NOT Handicapped Equipped) to be shared by BOTH boys and girls.
I am sure that the staff of Yough Glades have good intentions and are highly qualified teachers, but their school is poorly designed, and will not allow for the inclusion of these students in the regular education setting, as they are included at Dennett Road.
This large special education population deserves better than to be shoved into a corner of leftover space in a building that doesn’t provide enough room for a walker to fit in a bathroom or in classrooms.
I recall one mother saying, at the Garrett County Board of Education meeting at Southern High School, “Just because my daughter is non-verbal, does not mean that she will not feel humiliated being changed in front of other students/adults. It does not mean that she will not feel hurt because she is not able to be included in activities because her walker doesn’t fit into the areas that the other students can access.”
I have dealt with similar situations during my wife’s life-ending illness. She was in a wheelchair for approximately ten years. Not having access to stores, restrooms, parks, etc. that non-handicapped people could access was humiliating and depressing.
Is this the message we really want to send to the special education students and their families? I think not. Send the right message. Make the only right decision. Keep Dennett Road Elementary School open.
Darrell DeWitt
Oakland
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