Problem
The issue is that special needs children are being abused, neglected, bullied, and pushed through the system when they are not ready to move forward. Then when parents address these issues with the school staff they are not being taken seriously. Instead, they are being overlooked and made to feel as though they are over exaggerating situations. When they ask to retain their children they are being denied this right and being told their child is on track with their grade level. Then as far as a special needs child's behaviors they are consistently being used against the child. Especially when the child comes home with bruises or mark the school tells the parents it's from their self-abusive behaviors or their meltdowns during the school day. When in some cases that's not the case. On some occasions, it's actually the school staff that has abused the child. Our special needs children are also not being properly supervised either when they able to escape from school without being noticed. Then during the school IEP meeting, the parent feels like they are being ganged up on by school staff and officials. I say that because usually its one parent in a room full of staff and officials in the meeting. While all those people are discussing the child the parents' concerns are being dismissed at every turn but one or all the other people in the room.

Solution
This problem can be solved by enforcing the special education laws that are already in place in Kentucky. Taking the parents seriously when they discuss a concern, instead of dismissing their concern. Because no one knows a child better than an involved parent. Take bullying more serious in schools like the schools keep advertising they do. Put cameras in the special education classrooms so parents feel like their child is safe. As well as the teacher being held accountable for their actions with these children. Stop pushing special needs children through the system just because the school system feels like they are a waste of funds. which is exactly how parents of special needs children feel when they know their child isn't on grade level but the school system continues to pass them through every grade. This issues alone shows that the Daviess County school system is failing our children drastically. These children deserve the same effort and opportunities as anyone else in the school.

Personal story
Hi, my name is Erica Percy,
This is going to be a long explanation as to why I’m doing this Petition, but please read until the end. This is mine and my sons experience with the school system at Daviess County Public Schools. I want you all to Fully understand that I’m doing this petition to take a stand for all abused, neglected, and mistreated special needs child. But also, for every parent that has left IEP meetings in tears because the school system is failing their child. For the parents who have stayed up late crying and hurting for their child because they just don’t know what else they can do to help their child more than they already are. Not to mention they themselves have been mistreated, verbally and emotionally abused and bullied by the school system. So please read this in full and sign this petition to help parents and children like Aaron and myself take a stand for a better education for our children who can’t speak up for themselves!
I am doing this petition for my son Aaron. He has been in an EBD unit setting at school since he was in kindergarten. We've struggled with many different issues in the Daviess County Public School System since then. When he started Kindergarten, he went to East View Elementary School at this school he wasn’t in an EBD setting yet. So, needless to say that school was awful for my son. The Principal at East View was so awful and judgmental. After they seen that Aaron had some behavior issues, they said they didn’t have the proper setting for a childlike Aaron. I expressed my concerns with the principal about Aaron having more wrong with him the just ADHD. I told her I thought he had some form of autism. But she looked at me and stated that she knew what autism looked like and that Aaron didn't have it. she bluntly told me that there was nothing wrong with him that he was just a bad kid. After that, they suspended my child for basically being a 5-year-old boy. they said he made other kids in his class uncomfortable when he acted like his pencil was a toy gun, and when he threw his shoes. After all this, he was not allowed back to East View and was transferred to Highland Elementary. Highland went well for about a year and a half. Then I started getting phone calls every day to come to pick up my child for having meltdowns. When he was switched to this school it was supposed to be a better fit for his needs. When he was 7 years old, he was diagnosed with Autism, but the school situation didn't get any better. I was being called so often I couldn't keep a job or even stay in college. This school setting was literally no better for Aarons needs. When he was in 4th grade the 4 teachers in his classroom of 7 students, literally let him beat his head so hard on a desk that I got a call from the school nurse saying that his pupils were none reactive and that I needed to take him to the E.R. So, I took him to the E.R. and they said he hit his head so hard he gave himself a concussion. He's come home so many times with countless bruises and marks. Some from the teachers administering holds on my son, that they are supposedly trained to do. On top of all this mess, I've been asking the school system to hold Aaron back every year since 1st grade because he's behind academically. But they have continuously refused and made me feel as if I was overreacting about his academic delay. They've actually told me that I just didn't want him to grow up and used that as an excuse for him not to be retained. So, I've let them bully me into pushing my child to the next grade every year. He went onto College View against my concerns. He attended College View from August-October 2016. In those 3 months, he was abused, neglected, and the school staff discriminated against me. The entire school staff tried to blame Aarons marks on his self-injurious behaviors. But I wasn’t buying it, because when Aaron did have self-injurious behaviors it was always to his face or arms. But these marks were on his legs. But the school was trying to cover their asses because the person that left the marks on my child was my uncles’ brother who worked at the school as a pass coach. He told my uncle to apologize to me because it was an accident. So, he admitted to leaving marks on my son, when the school still denied it happening. Then another issue was when I went to pick Aaron up form school for an appointment. When I got there, they said Aaron was having a meltdown, when I got back to the room there was 4 staff members back there with my child. I knew something was wrong when I seen Aaron in the seclusion room rocking back and forth (which he never does). I asked him what was wrong, and he said his head hurt I asked him why and he said they jerked his hoodie off of him because they said it was a danger to him. He said that they jerked if off so hard his head hit the concrete floor. So, I felt his head and sure enough he had a goose egg on his head. The dean of students at College view is the one who done that. She’s also the one who had consistently discriminated against me because the other school staff told her how old I was which I was 26 at the time. After that she consistently made smart or rude comments to me about my age and how she didn’t think I was adequate enough to be a mother to my children, because I was her sons age. But the day this incident happened she made another comment about how Aaron was acting out due to his medicine being wrong or not high enough. Even though I had already told her that it was wrong that Aaron had been doing 100x better on this medication compared to his previous meds. But of course, she argued with me because she thought she knew better since he thought I was just a baby (which she had commented a few times previously). Well I snapped on her this time, because not only did she leave a knot on my child’s head, but she was insinuating that I wasn’t caring for my child properly. When I snapped on her she jerked my son from me, pushed me back and had the staff remove Aaron from the room screaming and crying for me. She then locked me in the classroom and refused to let me leave. By this point my blood was boiling, so I called my mom to come to the school to get me. When she realized I was on the phone with my mom she looked at me dead serious and said is that your mother let me talk to her! As if I was one of her students at the school instead of a mother. Needless to say, after all of this my son didn’t return to college view. He was transferred once again to another school Burns Middle School. At first this school was an answered prayer for Aaron and me. Aaron done so well for the first 6 months or so. Then issues started to occur again. The issue wasn’t horrible at first, but they escalated quickly. Before the end of his 6th grade year he was suspended for hitting a teacher (yes, it’s wrong but it’s just part of his meltdowns not to mention at that time Aaron was 80 lbs. and 4.5 ft tall). When he returned to school instead of the school keeping a close eye on him because hes a runner, they just let him go off down the hallway unsupervised to the bathroom. At this point the classroom of 6 or 7 students had 4 fulltime staff members. The classroom had 1 teacher and 3 assistances. But somehow my son was able to walk out the front doors at Burns Middle school unnoticed and was gone a good 20 or 30 minutes before anyone noticed he was gone. By time they noticed he was gone and started looking for him he had been spotted crossing Fredica street. I actually got a phone call from Daviess County Sheriff’s Office saying they had my child before I got a call from the school stating he was even missing. But once again nothing was done to the school as it would've been to a parent. Now he's in his 8th-grade year and he is still struggling with academics but of course, they are still denying that he's behind. His academic delay is starting to cause behavior issues in school again because he can't even write a simple sentence structure correctly or do basic multiplication. So, he gets frustrated and shuts down. Well, his reading teacher is his EBD teacher’s wife, so when he shuts down in her class and refuses to work his EBD teacher is hateful to him and makes him redo his work for her class. This year his teacher has also been pushing and pushing more responsibility on him, so they can push him onto high school next year. Now mind you every year Aarons been in school his teachers have basically done everything for him and now just this year they are expecting him to do it all on his own. But he shuts down and has melt downs almost daily again because the teachers are consistently making him redo his work saying he's doing it wrong. Well, I told his teachers that if they would've retained him like I've been asking he may not be having these issues. But of course, I was argued with and told he on track again. Then I told hid teacher that I don’t know why they are pushing him too hard to do everything on his own when it’s never been this way until this year, His response was he has to be ready for high school. I stated that Aaron wouldn’t be going to high school next year that I was refusing to let him go on when he wasn't ready. His teacher then started yelling at me saying that I couldn't retain him because he's not failing any classes. I said yes, I can I'm his mother and I've been asking yalls to retain him every year he's been here and yalls have refused. Then he proceeded to yell at me stating that if I retained him, he couldn't repeat his 8th grade year at Burns Middle School. I said yes, he could, hes like no he would have to go back to his home school which is college view. I told him he can’t go back to college view because he was transferred out of college view for a reason. Then his teacher came back at me with yes, he can the only reason he was transferred out was that you just didn't like his teacher there. He said well she no longer works there so he will go back to college view to repeat his 8th-grade year. I said that was not even close to the reason he left there.