the Bitch in the house

I would like to lodge a formal complaint. As I know that my local law enforcement agency has a hand in the details of my complaint, I cannot address the matter to them. You see in my state of residence, the newly-seated governor has decided to slash the education budget (see prior post) rather than worry about whether or not our children can read. It appears that the proletariat here is so damn dumb that there has been very little outcry from parents of the very children whose education is already ranked near 50 out of all the 50 states. I mention all of this in relation to my complaint, merely as a backdrop for my frustration. The portion of the budget that has remained secure – even benefited – in these times of fiscal crisis is the law enforcement dole. The prison system is largely run by corporate magnates or notoriously by the pink panty’d sheriff himself. While I am doing battle with school districts and teachers to provide the minimum of educational efforts on behalf of my children (and usually all the other kids in their classes), my local government is filling the coffers of mostly the police and border patrol.

When I say that I am doing battle, I mean that today alone I spent 2 hours at my son’s high school to ensure that he has the barest of federal standards minimum of support for his special needs. Because he is also smart as hell, he goes to a speciallysmartypants campus and they just do not have the budget to serve his IEP needs. In fact, to try to avoid the whole Individualized Education Plan federal requirements, the local sped ed coordinator “mistakenly” dropped the adhd medical/psychological (as opposed to merely psychological or therapeutic) diagnosis from his electronic file thereby negating any real need for his IEP services… even though this kid is still in treatment and takes a fairly good-sized daily dose of medication to control the symptoms of his adhd that his teachers were begging (and I mean BEGGING) me to increase as he grew 6 inches before our very eyes this last fall. Oh and it was no small fete that the “mistake” was even discovered… when I pointed out the error I was assured that the “mistake” would be corrected, after I signed off on the paperwork (otherwise known as a binding contract) that provided my acquiescence to the school’s failings in providing the much needed educational supports that (oh by the way) are federally mandated and which I did not sign and finally had to point out the illegal status of our IEP status to get a return phone call about the issue at all! To get this meeting today – or even at all – required a 3 hour meeting in December for which both my husband and I were in attendance, armed with the laws and mandates regarding student standards and the comparable failings of the school district to provide even basic education, not to mention gifted and/or special education as my kid needs. In fact, he isn’t normal – he’s either wicked smart or kinda retarded, nowhere in his IQ does he fall in the ‘normal’ range. You can just imagine the kind of curriculum a normal student gets in a 50 outa 50 state… now imagine that kid needs a higher level of curriculum coupled with the help of the shortbus teachers. If you can imagine any of that – then try being in my shoes and discussing such matters with sped ed ‘specialists’ who have no intentions of trying to problem-solve or even discuss the federal mandates.

Those of you who know me, understand that I am no slouch as far as these matters are concerned. Which is even how I got the 3 hour meeting in the first place, how I got an additional 2 hour meeting for today, and how I left this afternoon with a scheduled meeting in another 6 weeks.

So it was in this frame of mind that I answered the phone this afternoon when it rang. On the other end was a nice volunteer who asked for me by name (sort of… mispronouncing the one syllable moniker I use) to say that he was with the Fraternal Order of Police. At which point I cut him off and said politely that we donate to many worthy causes and we would appreciate being taken off their call list. As I was about to hang up, the volunteer spoke up a little more loudly to say that it was in my best interests that I listen to him. My best interests? My best interests! What is this? A fucking shakedown by the local police?!

In fact that is exactly what it is was, because I repeated my polite little spiel, a little less than politely and he was yelling into the phone at me that I would regret not giving the police, who “protect me,” support (ie., money). At which point I stopped my little rant immediately and reminded the volunteer that such statements were threatening and actually were a form of harrassment. So ya heard it here first, if my house is robbed or burned down or somehow destroyed in some way at some soonish future date, I think we can safely say, I was warned by the local fraternal order of police that if I did not “support” their cause I would incur such events to myself or my home.

Like I felt safe in this policestateenvironment before I was treated to this lovely piece of emotional blackmail.