LOST
BOY
stood out: One man said that
Walker-Jones Elementary School
had served his son well, but
didn’t go into specifics. But when
Greg and Maya inquired there, it
had no spots left for Max.
In January 2011, Max began
preschool at Patterson Elementary School. Greg and Maya say his
teacher was stellar, but records
show that the school was not
providing the services required
by Max’s IEP. Once, instead of
taking him to his required occupational therapy, Maya says the
school sent him to a Martin Luther King Day assembly.
After a few months, the school
made it clear that it didn’t have
proper staffing to meet Max’s IEP.
So he transferred into Bridges
Public Charter School, a school
a few miles from his house that
specializes in integrating children
with disabilities. Once again, the
teacher was beloved.
Then, a few months later, a
slot opened at Walker-Jones, the
public school Greg and Maya had
heard was outstanding. And besides, the charter school went
only through first grade. They
had mixed feelings about leaving
Bridges, because they felt they
were treated well there, that the
HUFFINGTON
01.12.14
staff truly cared about their desires and concerns. But by fall
2011, Max transferred to WalkerJones. The move filled his parents with hope.
There were early signs of
trouble. During the parents’ first
meeting with the school, it became clear that Walker-Jones
didn’t even know Max had au-
“[We’ve] taken on a
dangerous amount
of debt ... We can’t
afford private school.”
tism. The school ultimately
placed him in a classroom with
Stephanie Aduso, another teacher whom the family loved.
What they didn’t know, though,
was that the class was intended
for high-functioning children with
autism, who could keep up with
the general curriculum. Nobody
examined Max and told his parents
that he would not be a good fit for
this classroom. Aduso, the teacher,
figured this out immediately.
According to internal emails
provided to HuffPost, early in
the school year, on Oct. 24, Aduso wrote to her school’s special
education team expressing her
concerns. “The way our pro-