Cameras in the Classroom. Fox 26 news Story on Mon 8-20 pm and Tues 8-20 am

[Guest guest]

My friends, as many of you know, I have been deeply involved with stories relating to special ed for the last 6 years. Next Monday night August 20th on the 9 pm newscast and on the Tuesday morning newscast August 21st an extended version of a story will be aired that has vital importance to many families that participate on this list serve. Greg Groogan will be reporting on the recent rash of abuse cases in the Houston area involving students in self-contained special ed classrooms in the greater Houston area. One of the most distasteful things that I do in my special education advocacy practice is to assist families in filing grievances and work with legal teams in developing cases involving abuse in the public schools for court. I have worked with several of the families featured in Greg's story. Most all of the abuse cases that I work on involve non verbal and or intellectually disabled students in self contained special ed classrooms. Things have gotten worse in my view due to the fact that school district's are frequently placing untrained new teachers in classrooms with students with severe behavior issues. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there will be dire consequences when you put a new teacher in that situation. The focus of the story will be to highlight the importance of placing video cameras in these classrooms to insure the safety of these children.

We are very fortunate that Greg and the management of Channel 26 have taken risks to air stories important to our population, that no other station in the country have taken. The media business is driven by ratings, so we need to let them know that we watched the story and appreciate their efforts. Emails, faxes and letters are the best way to let them know, as it quanitifies the number of folks that actually viewed the story. Phone calls are ok, but written communication is the best.

Greg Groogan's email- greg.groogan@...

Station address:

KRIV FOX 264261 Southwest FreewayHouston, TX 77027Main switchboard:

News RoomPhone: Fax:

After the story airs on Tuesday morning, it will be available for viewing on the Channel 26 web site at http://myfoxhouston.com Forward the link to the story to your friends in Houston, in other parts of Texas and the rest of the country. Ask that they also let the station know how much they appreciate the story. Finally, and equally as important, forward the link to your state representative and state senator. As this is an election year, send it to both candidates for the general election. We do this in the hopes that someone will sponsor legislation in the upcoming session in January to put cameras in the classroom.

We have a real opportunity to cause a change to protect our most precious commodity and our future, our children. Stand up and let your voice be heard.

Louis H. Geigerman, President

National ARD/IEP Advocates

http://narda.org

louis@...