First of all, no, this is not my real name of course. Alexei Udal is a pseudonym that I use for my writing.
Anyway, this goes back to high school. In my high schooll, the administration was genuinely understanding and did try to help out (I say "try" because they weren't very good at it... but they did the best they could). Same was generally true for the teachers.
Except for one.
We were all required to take a language course; I chose Japanese. I had an IEP but was enrolled in regular courses (this is called a Plan 504). There were a number of explicit accomodations listed on my IEP, and the scool was legally required to grant them.
When I told the Japanese teacher about this, she flat out refused. When I told her that it was a legal requirement, she accused me of lying. Later that day I went and printed out the relevant Washington state laws... but she didn't believe the rint-outs, saying that I could have just typed that up. This is when I went to get a school counselor... The counselor couldn't convince her either, so said counselor went and reported back to the administration. It could take months for a complaint to be processed though.
Luckily, my family had a lawyer. We informed her that we were prepared to file suit against the school district for the IEP violation, and since she would be held responsible for it she would likely lose her job. Her response? She'll "stand up for her rights" against all odds. If they fired her, she'd be a martyr!
It wasn't until she was told that she personally was going to be named as a defendant alongside the district as a whole that she finally relented. :roll:
I've got a story from Middle school which reaches similar heights of ridiculousness but it's not related to my life with Asperger's. Rather it has to do with one paranoid schizophrenic who managed to lie his way into the position of network administrator (a position that he was entirely unqualified for as it turned out) so that he could (in his own words, on the list of "enemies" found in his desk) "stop the communist threat at its source." :shock:
What is an IEP?
So you were allowed to take a language course and Japanese was offered at your school. The Japanese teacher did not want you in the class? Why? Is that what all the conflict was about?
"I've got a story from Middle school which reaches similar heights of ridiculousness but it's not related to my life with Asperger's. Rather it has to do with one paranoid schizophrenic who managed to lie his way into the position of network administrator (a position that he was entirely unqualified for as it turned out) so that he could (in his own words, on the list of "enemies" found in his desk) "stop the communist threat at its source."
This just sounds stupid to me. Many people are in administrative positions that they do not seem qualified for due to their lack of education credentials. What really matters if that they are doing their job and have experience relevant to the position. If they are doing their job and actually have the required experience (not just lying and saying they did) then their disability (having paranoid schizophrenia) or their political beliefs (communism) really have nothing at all to do with their job. They should not be fired for those reasons (disability, beliefs). You having autism might think about this before you are discriminated against yourself for having autism as I think might be the case with the Japanese teacher which you did not really explain too well.
What is an IEP?
So you were allowed to take a language course and Japanese was offered at your school. The Japanese teacher did not want you in the class? Why? Is that what all the conflict was about?
"I've got a story from Middle school which reaches similar heights of ridiculousness but it's not related to my life with Asperger's. Rather it has to do with one paranoid schizophrenic who managed to lie his way into the position of network administrator (a position that he was entirely unqualified for as it turned out) so that he could (in his own words, on the list of "enemies" found in his desk) "stop the communist threat at its source."
This just sounds stupid to me. Many people are in administrative positions that they do not seem qualified for due to their lack of education credentials. What really matters if that they are doing their job and have experience relevant to the position. If they are doing their job and actually have the required experience (not just lying and saying they did) then their disability (having paranoid schizophrenia) or their political beliefs (communism) really have nothing at all to do with their job. They should not be fired for those reasons (disability, beliefs). You having autism might think about this before you are discriminated against yourself for having autism as I think might be the case with the Japanese teacher which you did not really explain too well.
IEP = Indvidualized Education Program. Special education students hold an IEP and some students hold it without being in Sepcial Ed under the Plan 504 program. The IEP lists accomodations that the school has to grant for the subject's disability.
The Japanese teacher didn't like the idea of having to alter anything for me compared to the other students one bit, as it was in her words "unfair to the others."
In the case of the other story, the admin was honestly disqualified, having no prior experience and almost no training in IT - hardly netadmin material! They lied on ther resume to get the job. Eventually they were called on it, and fired. They never did clean out their office, and a list of "enemies" was found in their desk along with a manifesto. In short they believed that the modern school system was a form of communist indoctrination and it was their moral duty to sabotage it at any cost!
This person was letting their disability consume them.
If accomodations have to be made for you to attend the Japanese class and the teacher refused, she was wrong if she was going against the school board policies. But really the policies are just text on paper and not worth anything if they are not enforced. Plus they take years to get results when anyone takes them up in court.
You might as well pick another language course. Since the teacher will probably fail you anyway since most ET's are usually interested in revenge more than admitting they were wrong. Are you taking the Japanese class and are you being accomodated? You could learn Japanese from some tapes maybe.
If accomodations have to be made for you to attend the Japanese class and the teacher refused, she was wrong if she was going against the school board policies. But really the policies are just text on paper and not worth anything if they are not enforced. Plus they take years to get results when anyone takes them up in court.
You might as well pick another language course. Since the teacher will probably fail you anyway since most ET's are usually interested in revenge more than admitting they were wrong. Are you taking the Japanese class and are you being accomodated? You could learn Japanese from some tapes maybe.
No need to. I'm in college now. 
I did end up getting accomodations, and passed the course. As I mentioned she relented under the lawsuit threat. In Washington state the IEP is legally binding, not just district policy, failure to adhere to it not only opens them up to nasty civil liability but in some particular situations can lead to state criminal prosecution.
What makes this whole thing so ridiculous are two things in particular... firstly her assumption that she was being lied to about the legal issue, and second her openly stated willingness to sacrifice her job over the dispute, at least until she learned that her job wasn't the only thing at stake in it.
...But really the policies are just text on paper and not worth anything if they are not enforced. Plus they take years to get results when anyone takes them up in court....
That's my experience in relation to a physical disability. Legislation and policies aren't worth the paper they're written on.
We have IEPs in Australia too, but they are nothing like legal documents, the whole business of IEPs, at least in government primary schools, is quite informal, and it is often the teacher who initiates the IEP, not the student or the parents or any other agents. Over here IEPs are usually done to outline individualized classroom strategies devised by the teacher to deal with the learning difficulties of a particular student, but IEPs can also be done for gifted/smart kids who need extra or more demanding class work to do. Of course, not all extention strategies for smart and unusual kids in the classroom need to be described in IEPs. Teachers have done all kinds of wonderful things to accomodate and engage our slightly unusual kids without the need for documents. :smile: