THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, October 9, 1995                TAG: 9510050019
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   46 lines

DISABLED STUDENTS ARE EXPELLED

Albert Shanker (``Focus,'' Sept. 25) attempts to lay the blame for much of what is troubling our schools at the feet of disabled children and their parents.

We are not the cause of the systemwide failures. Our children are in the vast minority of students in regular education classes and are not the cause of dangerous, antisocial or ``disruptive'' influences in the classroom.

It is a fallacy, perpetuated by Mr. Shanker and others, that disabled students displaying truly dangerous behavior cannot be punished or even expelled for that behavior. This is not the law, never has been and never will be.

However, students displaying some types of ``disruptive'' behavior caused by their disabilities can and do deserve some extra time, and creative thinking on how best to minimize those behaviors enough to allow participation in regular classes. This is their civil right and, may I add, an example of what makes American schools wonderful.

Only if their behavior cannot be mitigated after sincere attempts should those students be removed to separate classes. The fact that many children who previously were never allowed to set foot in regular classes have succeeded there should cause everyone to hesitate before counseling that separate classrooms are best.

Those of us who have children with mental retardation and are seeking inclusion of our children in regular classes are most certainly not asking one teacher to do everything for all students on every ``track'' in one classroom. We are asking for ways to include our children, utilizing special-education services to accommodate them with regular students.

To imply that we are asking schools to ``dumb down'' the curriculum in order for our children to ``keep up'' with the others does us an injustice.

To imply that my child does not deserve a place with the others because she is on a different track, to imply that she must somehow earn her way into a higher track in order to be educated with her peers, is to imply that she will never belong because she is on the slower track.

MARY WILT

Virginia Beach, Sept. 27, 1995 by CNB