I Feel Like Crud :(

Ive been up all night so if I ramble well I cant help it , lets see the town still wont give on the parking issue and my kids disabilities. The school is limiting how we contact them and when which is against the law (IDEA) this kills me teachers scream about lack of parental involvement and we get punished for being "Too involved" HAHAHAHA ......groan , they are threatening to lower the kids personal care attendants hours.... my son is loosing ground for the first time in his devlopment ie lost ability to spell his name and operate the door , his doctor refused to refer him to a specialist he said its the schools responsability....my foot! so I walked out and in 1 hour had all the kids transferred to a new doctor which means a flurry of appointments , fax machine on over load to this agency and that , Im trying to get the local humane society website up and both designers are MIA.....The Vet hit me with oh yeah the cat needs more boosters , well yano it would be nice if it said that in the little reminder area of the print outs so we could budget for all this stuff we have spent so much on the cat this month ( jan 6 - Feb 6 ) .and Gary and I had a whopper of a fight brought on I think by the stress level . oh yeah my ex is coming this weekend and I supervise the visitation oh joy I almost forgot about it

so all in all I feel like crud

Crud Crud Crud Crud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry things aren't going so well. I understand how hard it can be to cope with disability especially when the local authority are doing all they can to make things worse. In the sixteen years my brother was alive the only thing the local council did for my family was install a shower that had no hot water two months after they did it and installed a ramp which my parents had to modify because it was so dangerous. All I can suggest is keep at them. Let the local press know what's going on, tell all your friends and embarrass the local authority in to doing the right thing (it's sad that this is often the way to get results these days).

I hope things get better, keeping my fingers crossed for you

I agree with Jeepers - I am so sorry that you have to go through so much hell. Did you have any luck with the Americans with Disabilities Act?
Is there a free legal service in your area that can help you?
Going to the local tv news channel is a good idea.
It really burns me up when people think they can get away with failing to comply with laws that are in place for people with disabilities - believe me, I know how it feels, I am deaf and I have had discrimination issues happen.
I can't believe that the doctor won't listen to you - that is so wrong, I hope you find someone better that will actually listen to you.
I wish I could help you out.

Another thought - have you ever thought about ACLU? here

We finally heard back from the disability law project RE the town and the parking , they said where our landlord doesnt have the space available for extra parking it IS the towns responsability . The lawyer is going to send a formal request to the town if they dont respond or reject it we go to court.





1 down 99 things to go

I am glad that one thing is out of the way.

If you need any help with anything like researching, finding out laws, etc just PM me and I can help you in any way I can.

a hug for you

Originally posted by Kiwideus
I am glad that one thing is out of the way.

If you need any help with anything like researching, finding out laws, etc just PM me and I can help you in any way I can.

a hug for you

Click to expand...

Thank you , you dont realize how much the offer means

Dana, I am glad to know that everything is fine.

Now, I do not know nothing about such laws, but my mom is a guidance counselor and she knows a lot about them, specially the federal ones. If you need to research them, feel free to PM or email me and I will gladly ask her about them

For anyone whos interested , here the letter to the editor of the local paper , I just emailed it to him



To The Editor,

My name is Dana DeMerchant. My family and I have been a resident of Main Street for a
year and a half.
I am writing this letter on behalf of my children who have disabilities. The recent
re-instatement of the two hour parking ban has raised some serious issues for my children,
the children are part of a Vermont state program that provides Personal Care Attendants
(PCA's) my 10 yr old gets 30 hours a week, my 6 and a half yr old gets 30 hours a week and
my 5 yr old gets 25 hours a week, with the parking ban in place it eliminates my
children's ability to come and go from their home. When the fliers went up about the
re-instatement we contacted the police asking if there was some sort of exception we could
get for the PCA's they said there was none and that the PCA's would have to park on
Factory street or Valley Street both locations are beyond my children's ability to walk so
we contacted the town manager who has yet to personally respond to us, we contacted a
member of the board of selectman Mary Helen Hawthorn , who was opposed to an exception for
the PCA's because then everyone will want an exception, we then contacted our town meeting
representative Mr. Clint Martin who was very kind, he called the town manager personally
and relayed a message to us that the town manager was opposed to any exceptions. Mr.
Martin also put us in contact with Love Joy tools who has extended kindness to us by
allowing the PCA's to park in their lot but this is also terrain that my children can not
navigate. I grew up in a town where my grandfather was the director of veterans affairs
and because of this I know how to navigate town government, I also know exceptions can be
made. It makes us wonder if the reason no one will help us is because when ever we say our
address we get replies like "Oh that place" I think people who stereotype us based on a
perceived socioeconomic background would be surprised to say the least. All we were asking
for was an exception for one car six hours a day. I have never seen such unwillingness to
bend to help disabled children, in my life.
I am appealing to members of the community at large to please support our efforts. My
family and I are hoping the rigidness displayed by the town government isn't how residents
of Springfield are. These children are upstanding members of this community, between them
they have won the good citizenship award two school years running, they have been credited
with more good behavior awards can one can count, everyone who meets them comments that
they are the most polite children they have ever met, these are good kids who have issues,
who need a hand from their community, to function in ways most of us take for granted. It
is our belief that a society is judged on how it treats the weakest among us, we also
think its true that elected officials are to be judged at election time based on the same
criteria.

Thank you for your time ,

Dana DeMerchant on behalf of
Kristopher
Megan and Erin

Dana , Good letter! I hope things are getting better for you! I'm always here if you need to chat, [email protected] or you can PM me. I don't really have an afdvice for you but wish you calming thoughts!! (((HUGS)))

That's a good letter you've written there.

I cannot believe the situation myself. I hope it gets things moving for you.

Your letter is great.... I hope they take notice.

Dana, thats a nice letter you wrote. Polite but to the point. Well done on your children, I certainly hope you get some better response than you have had up to now. Trouble is, like most cases, the towns people would probably agree with you and help in any way they could but they simply dont know these issues are there. You have brought this to their attention and hopefully things will get moving.
Good luck