Title 6 Complaint | Page 65

Another voter explained the harm when: “Teachers are forced to deal with negative teaching methods by the Governor and then they can’t says anything and parents can’t say anything, it is like being on a plantation. The teacher’s job is a lot more harder and teachers are being harmed along with the parents and kids…. If we wanted a horrible community we could create that for ourselves. We didn’t need the Governor to come in and demolish everywhere and make people run.”138 The fear of retaliation and lack of having a voice meld together into a general sense of unhappiness and hopelessness which a college student, who is filing a complaint to express his perception of civil, human & voting rights talks about: “…disabled students receive no assistance in the classroom and in the neighborhood people are talking about the lack of services at the school the Governor created. Since Governor Snyder, neighborhoods, even good ones live in constant fear. In University District, a Federal Judge was attacked at his house. That never happened before Snyder. Not enough voters to turn him out, because he closed (all of the) schools and voters….can’t (find) the polls, (which were located at the schools).”142 DISPARITY OF NOT HAVING A VOICE OR METHOD OF REDRESS The Governor allows white school districts a method of redress through a School Board which can take parent and community concerns without retaliation. Minority communities feel they are limited in their opportunity to address their concerns. Regardless of the political power and activity of the parents, the disabled students benefited from having their parents advocate for their unique circumstances and volunteer to assist the school to provide for their special needs. Having special needs parents active in the school also has the potential to save money. Pushing parents away and giving them limited ways to address concerns has hurt students and the community and caused stress, failure to follow the IEP, failure to use parental volunteers as resources and perceptions of inferiority. Currently, and theoretically, the Board can appeal a decision of the Emergency Manager to the Emergency Loan Board. However, 1) Joyce Zarrieff, the secretary the Emergency Manager appointed to serve the Board has (had trouble) forwarding Board communications to the Emergency Loan Board in the appropriate formats. 2) The Emergency Manager has refused to provide the Board any money to hire consultants needed to review those decisions (about contracts) the Emergency Manager allows them to discuss. The result is that the Emergency Manager is not allowing any communication which he doesn’t want to hear from special needs parents, cultural heroes like Tuskegee Airmen, community leaders, teachers, or even 63