Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 10, 1995 TAG: 9502100117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Joseph and Roxana Hartmann received national attention last year for challenging a Loudoun County educational plan that would have moved their son from his third-grade class to a special-education program.
The Hartmanns said the program would prevent their son from learning positive behavioral habits from his nondisabled peers - such as closing the door behind him, raising his hand, standing in line.
The school system said the boy was too disruptive and interfered with his classmates' progress.
Still, Mark Hartmann, 9, needs an education. So while the Hartmanns appeal a court decision in the Loudoun school system's favor, Roxana Hartmann has brought her son to Montgomery County, which has a school system with a nationally recognized inclusion program.
Enter legal battle No. 2.
Montgomery County says Roxana Hartmann and her son, who are renting a one-bedroom apartment, are not legal residents of the county. In January, the county School Board asked a Montgomery County Circuit Court to issue a temporary injunction to prevent Roxana Hartmann from enrolling Mark in any county school.
``If you haven't established residency here, you can't attend school here,'' School Superintendent Herman Bartlett said. ``We're dealing with a residency question and nothing else. We're asking the judge to rule on residency, and that's all.''
Roxana Hartmann disagrees. ``We've been targeted because we have an appeals process in another county,'' she said.
Roxana Hartmann said she and her husband have separated so he can stay with their 10-year-old daughter, who attends a private school in Northern Virginia, keep his job with the State Department and maintain the new house they recently bought.
Roxana Hartmann is in Blacksburg caring for Mark.
``I plan to give my son an education,'' she said Wednesday. ``I don't mind to make the sacrifice ... but the whole issue has been emotionally draining.''
Jamie Ruppmann, an education advocate and consultant who works with severely disabled children, said the legal action taken against the Hartmanns has been unusual.
``That's why it's getting national attention,'' Ruppmann said. ``It's unusual for a school system to file action against a family; and to do it so quickly makes it even harder to understand. This is clearly about discrimination.''
The additional legal action, taken by Montgomery County, ``is incredible, unbelievable,'' she said.
Ruppmann, like the Hartmanns, believes the case on appeal in Loudoun County is Montgomery County's motive in pushing for the injunction against the Hartmanns.
``It should make no difference whatsoever to Montgomery County schools in accepting Mark,'' Ruppmann said, ``but it means a lot to Loudoun County.''
Educators from Illinois have testified that Mark was successful in their inclusion programs before the family moved to Virginia; and if he is successful in Montgomery County, Ruppmann said, ``it blows [Loudoun County's] case.''
Bartlett said those accusations are ``just malarkey.''
Debbie Mattens, whose 8-year-old son, Anthony, once attended third grade with Mark in Loudoun County, said she has sympathy for the family but is glad the boy is gone.
``I feel like [Roxana Hartmann] should have given the county a chance,'' Mattens said of Loudoun's offer to send Mark to the special-education program. ``A lot of people looked at it as institutionalizing him, but it is a very good program.''
Mattens, who volunteers in her son's class once a week, said she remembers only one time when Mark was not disruptive in class. Other volunteers and school staff have said Mark would rarely stay seated, didn't interact with the children and cried a lot.
``My son's [performance] suffered from Mark's presence in the classroom,'' Mattens said, ``Since he's left, now we're back on more of a regular routine. I honestly believe Mark was not being helped by being in that classroom.''
Hartmann, who said her son was damaged by the year and a half he spent in Loudoun County schools, wants to put those memories behind her and is pinning her hopes on Montgomery County.
``Right now, we know that Loudoun County cannot adequately educate our son, and we know Montgomery County can,'' said Hartmann, a native of Costa Rica. ``I wanted to come to Blacksburg with Mark, find a job and put him in a school where he can be accepted.
``I would be able to get up in the morning knowing there are people who accept him as he is.''
by CNB