Two Children. One Family. Years of Harm. Still Awaiting Accountability

What happens when the schools you trust to protect your children become the places they fear—and your repeated requests for help do not bring the protection or services they need?

My name is Tabitha H. Wilson. I am the mother of an autistic son and a daughter who endured years of bullying. I moved to Howard County, Maryland, in 2010 because I believed its respected school system would give my children the education, opportunities, and support they needed to thrive. Instead, I spent years fighting for their safety, their educational services, and their dignity.

In March 2024, I uprooted my family and moved nearly 1,500 miles away. That move created significant financial hardship, but I could no longer accept what my children were experiencing.

No parent should have to choose between protecting a child and securing that child’s education.

In Special Education Gone Wrong, I share our experiences, along with emails, recorded meetings, and state investigation findings. My son’s story and my daughter’s story are equally important. Both had potential, dreams, and futures worth protecting. Both needed adults entrusted with their education to respond when things went wrong.

My Son: Progress Interrupted, Safety Questioned, Services Still Outstanding

My son did not begin speaking until around age seven. Every new word, every classroom accomplishment, and every step toward independence mattered. He was making meaningful progress—participating in class, answering questions, and developing his reading and communication skills.

During the 2015–2016 school year, I discovered that his nonpublic school had moved him from his established classroom into a classroom with only one other student, without informing me. As I noticed troubling changes in his behavior, I asked questions but initially received assurances that nothing had changed.

After his teacher left and the other student was removed, my son was left in a classroom without a teacher or classmates, accompanied only by his one-to-one support person. I asked Howard County’s special education department to intervene. I was told my concerns would be addressed at his upcoming annual review. His behavior continued to escalate. Shortly before that review, he experienced his first hospitalization for aggressive behavior.

Over approximately three and a half years, my son spent 944 days hospitalized, not including additional time waiting in emergency rooms for a bed. During that period, I continued advocating for education and appropriate support.

Later, while attending an out-of-state placement at Bancroft in New Jersey, my son reported that a staff member had attempted to choke him. I describe that report, conflicting accounts, and my efforts to obtain answers in the video. My son was afraid to return, and I raised serious concerns about his safety and the oversight of his placement.

At an August 2023 meeting involving Bill Barnes and other district officials, I learned that a decision to maintain that placement had already been made in a separate meeting without my participation. I had been asking about alternatives while that decision remained unknown to me.

I needed a safe educational option for my son. Instead, I was told my options were to return him to the placement he feared or to pursue due process.

I also discovered that his school had not been provided access to his IEP for over a year. The Maryland State Department of Education findings I discuss in the video identified multiple violations, including failures involving access to his IEP, appropriate psychological and counseling services, and a required reevaluation.

Even after those findings, I continued encountering delays in placement, corrective action, and compensatory services.

As of October 2026, my son still has not received all the compensatory service hours he was entitled to.

Those hours represented education and support he missed. They matter to his communication, his skills, his independence, and his future. Moving away did not resolve that outstanding obligation.

My Daughter: Bullying, Lost Support, and a Future Shaken

My daughter entered middle school excited about making friends and finding her place. She was outgoing, confident, and earned honor-roll recognition.

Then I watched her become withdrawn. She stopped talking enthusiastically about school and friends. Eventually, she told her grandmother and me that she was being bullied and was afraid to return to school.

I met with school leadership, reported my concerns, and followed the bullying-reporting process. Despite assurances that the situation was being addressed, the bullying continued. Her depression deepened, and she was hospitalized for suicidal thoughts.

At one point, both of my children were hospitalized at the same time, just down the hall from each other.

In the series, I recount an incident in which my daughter reported being struck on the back of her neck by another student. The principal initially described it to me as “middle school girl drama.” I later learned that another student had recorded the incident. According to my account, the principal acknowledged deleting that recording to prevent it from appearing on social media. I needed the seriousness of what my daughter experienced to be recognized and addressed.

Following another hospitalization, my daughter was accused of making a threat, which she denied. The accusation led to crisis intervention and police escorting her out of school in front of her peers. Before placing her in the police car, the officer put her in handcuffs where other students could see. She later underwent an assessment and was cleared to return to school, but the humiliation and emotional distress made returning even more difficult.

A transfer intended to provide emotional and behavioral support did not end the bullying. My daughter increasingly sought refuge in the bathroom or nurse’s office to avoid students she feared.

Then I discovered that she had been removed from all her classes for ten school days, including the reading instruction she needed, and placed in the student services office without a teacher or classmates. I had not been informed.

When I asked why she had not told me sooner, she explained that she felt she was always blamed and did not believe telling me would make a difference.

No child should become so discouraged that she believes being excluded from her own education no longer matters.

I intervened, and she returned to class. But I watched her struggle to regain lost ground and confidence. At a later meeting, a staff member challenged claims that my daughter had received services, stating that those services had not been provided. I describe that painful meeting in the video.

My daughter eventually attended a nonpublic program and later returned to a local public high school through dual enrollment. Before that return took place, I emphasized that counseling, social and emotional support, and her educational accommodations needed to be in place. She wanted a fresh start. She became a varsity cheerleader and was excited to experience high school life.

But bullying recurred. She experienced another assault and sustained a concussion, interrupting her participation in cheerleading. I requested additional support and agreed to a functional behavioral assessment to help identify what she needed.

I later discovered that the assessment had not been completed as expected. When I requested her educational records to prepare for college, I also learned that her public high school did not have her IEP on file for two school years. Teachers I contacted were unaware that she had an IEP. She was being reported for leaving class while staff lacked information about an accommodation intended to allow her to step away when overwhelmed.

The state investigation findings I discuss identified violations involving access to her IEP and the delay in completing the behavioral assessment. However, the investigation addressed the 2022–2023 school year rather than the full two-year period I raised.

My daughter graduated and was accepted into the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. She still wanted a future beyond everything she had endured. But approximately two weeks into a summer bridge program, she experienced a mental health crisis, and I was called to bring her home. I requested counseling support from Howard County. That request was denied.

I also describe receiving a proposed settlement agreement after asking about her compensatory-service balance. The proposal offered college funding alongside broad release and confidentiality terms. To me, that did not answer the central questions: What support had my daughter missed, what harm remained unaddressed, and how would the district make things right?

Her experience deserves the same attention as her brother’s. The loss was not limited to classroom hours. I watched her confidence, sense of belonging, academic readiness, and trust in adults suffer.

Why I Am Asking You to Sign

I brought concerns about both children to school administrators, special education leadership, district officials, the Board of Education, and state and federal offices. I also raised both children’s experiences directly with Bill Barnes. My concerns about his response and his involvement in my son’s placement decisions are explained in the series.

State findings identified violations, yet my family is still waiting for meaningful accountability and a complete remedy.

This petition calls for:

The resignation of Bill Barnes and leadership that earns families’ trust through transparent decisions, effective responses, and accountability.
Delivery of all outstanding compensatory services owed to my son, with a written accounting of remaining hours and a workable plan for providing them.
An accurate and independent review of the handling of both children’s cases, including safety concerns, bullying reports, placement decisions, missing educational supports, and responses to state findings.
A meaningful review of my daughter’s unresolved service and remedy concerns, including the educational and emotional support she missed.
Enforceable safeguards for students and families: timely access to IEPs, delivery of required services, appropriate responses to bullying and reported abuse, parent participation, protection from retaliation for raising concerns, and real accountability of staff and county officials.
Public reporting on corrective action, so families can see whether promised changes are actually carried out.

Hear Our Story. Stand With Us.

The attached is the full video that brings both children’s experiences together. You can also watch Special Education Gone Wrong on YouTube in shorter episodes. The second half tells my daughter’s bullying story; please do not overlook her.

This video is lengthy; however, it includes some details regarding my son's report of an alleged physical assault incident that was unintentionally left out of the shorter episodes. You do not have to watch the full-length video before signing. This petition explains why I am asking for accountability; the video and series provide the fuller history and documented records to support my request. I am speaking out for my children and for families who feel unheard, exhausted, or are simply afraid to speak up. A school district’s reputation means little to a child who feels unsafe or a parent who cannot secure the services that their child needs.

Please sign and share this petition. Help bring attention to both stories, secure outstanding services, and demand change that protects the students who come next.  Your signature takes a stand so these negative experiences are harder to overlook; it will strengthen the call for answers, accountability, and change.

 Every child’s safety matters. Every child’s education matters. Every child’s future deserves to be taken seriously.

                                                                                                                                          BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION!