ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 6, 1996 TAG: 9612060015
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Also ran in December 7, 1996 Metro edition.
A federal judge has ruled in favor of a Loudoun County couple who brought their autistic son to school in Montgomery County when their hometown school system refused to keep him in a regular classroom.
In a 27-page decision that began with the phrase "A mind is a terrible thing to waste," U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema wrote that the Northern Virginia school system failed to make every effort to include Mark Hartmann in a regular second-grade class.
The battle has brought national attention to the issue of mainstreaming special education students, and may have a dramatic impact on how school systems educate disabled students. Brinkema said the Loudoun school system violated federal laws that require schools to keep disabled pupils interacting with regular children as much as possible.
She ruled that Mark, now a fifth-grader at Kipps Elementary School in Blacksburg, should be allowed to return to Loudoun County and his parents should be compensated for attorney's fees over the two-year battle.
Ever since Loudoun County decided to move Mark from a regular classroom to a special-education class, Mark's family has been separated. Roxana Hartmann has lived in Blacksburg for the last 18 months so Mark could be in a regular class, a program often called inclusion. Her husband, Joseph, and their daughter have continued to live in their Loudoun County home.
Most Fridays, she and Mark drive the approximately 230 miles to their other home in Northern Virginia.
Still, Hartmann said she isn't anxious about returning. She said she wants to make sure her home county provides the same opportunities Montgomery County has for her son.
"Loudoun County does not do inclusion, Loudoun County does dumping," she said. "I've tasted inclusion and it tasted good. ... They can appeal this case, but I'm ready to take it to the Supreme Court if I have to."
A spokeswoman from the Loudoun County school system wouldn't comment on what she described as a continuing case. Gerald Rugel, the Hartmanns' attorney, said he was sending a proposal for Mark's return to the Loudoun County School Board today, and expected a response next week.
Brinkema stressed that her decision had nothing to do with whether inclusion is a better way to educate disabled students.
"The answer for Mark does not necessarily mean that the same answer would be appropriate for all other autistic children," she wrote.
Still, Rugel said he's received several inquiries from parents in neighboring Fairfax County who are trying to push for inclusion in their school system.
Walking down the halls of Kipps, along with the regular bouncing elementary school pupils, one can see children in wheelchairs, others walking with crutches, and still more who are blind, deaf or mentally disabled. It's a scene common to any school in Montgomery County, a school system that has received national recognition for its inclusion program.
Hartmann now calls the brightly colored, nearly new school home. She's grown close with people there and in the Blacksburg community, many of whom brought furniture to their sparse one-room apartment near the school.
She received more help after being diagnosed with breast cancer last year. After months of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, Hartmann said she is feeling good.
"It is such a relief to get up in the morning and take Mark to school and know he is safe and with people who respect him," she said.
She has not always felt such a warm reception, though. When she first moved to Blacksburg in early 1995, Montgomery County tried to keep Mark out of school on the basis that he was not a county resident. A Circuit Court judge ruled against the school system and Mark finished third grade at Kipps.
Autism does not necessarily mean a person is retarded; some autistics possess special abilities in music, art, math or other pursuits. But learning abilities are often difficult to determine, because autistic people often cannot communicate verbally, interact socially or control motor skills well.
Susan Snyder, a special education aide who works with Mark part of the school day, smiles when she talks of his improvements academically and socially. She said he's learned to communicate with a small typewriter-like instrument that speaks the words he types in. He's also learned to interact with other students, learning their names and even doing an occasional "high-five" with them.
Fifth-grade teacher Trevor Ruble said his class has learned to adapt to Mark and the other disabled students. Mark does occasionally yell out or kick his feet against his chair, but Ruble said outbursts were commonplace in a room full of 10-year-olds.
"The best thing I see about inclusion is that the kids start accepting disabled ones," he said. "If you were to come into my class, you wouldn't even notice."
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot). 1995 file. Mark Hartman. color.by CNB