The Lion
A 19-year-old student is taking legal action against her Connecticut school district after she graduated high school unable to read, write or do math.
Aleysha Ortiz and her family moved to Connecticut from Puerto Rico to pursue the American dream. But now they’re disillusioned with the public school system.
“We heard Connecticut had the best education and things like that, which is one of the reasons we came to Hartford,” Ortiz told The Connecticut Mirror. “We came to get better opportunities.”
She attended public school from age 6 onward, eventually graduating as an honor roll student, despite not being able to read or write.
In addition to being an English Language Learner (ELL), Ortiz struggled with ADHD and a speech impediment.
Since she wasn’t taught basic skills, Ortiz was forced to survive school by using speech-to-text technology, calculators, and recording and listening back to classes.
“Since [my junior year], I told my case manager I want to learn how to write, and she’d tell me, ‘In college, they don’t do that. They go in there, record and leave. they do the same thing you do,’” Ortiz recalled. “I’d say ‘Yeah, but I still want to know how to write. It’s my right.’ I wanted to learn, but [I was told] there wasn’t time, and there weren’t teachers to sit down and teach me.”
According to an anonymous Hartford paraeducator, Ortiz’s experience is common.
“I think this happens a lot through Hartford schools,” said the source. “I don’t think a lot of kids in Hartford get their services. She’s not the only one. … Any school [in the district], you’ll find kids, even that are not in special ed, that don’t even know how to read and write – they just pass them over.”
Despite having some of the best-funded public schools in the nation – over $21,000 per student on average – Connecticut fails its special education and ELL students in shocking numbers…
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE…(readlion.com)
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