Girl To Supreme Court Over Service Dog
- Lisa Vaught *photo courtesy Stacy Fry
- Oct 24, 2015
- 2 min read
Ehlena received 'Wonder' as a gift from many folks who wanted her to have a helper to pick up things when she dropped them, help her to walk, help her balance when she went to the bathroom. Ehlena was just 5 years old. Wonder did all those things and more. But when it was time to go to school in a district of Detroit, called Napoleon, all the school would do was put up barriers and ridiculous demands for her and Wonder to fulfill before they could go to school as a team. Eventually, it got so bad, her parents took her out of school, and home-schooled her for a awhile.
In a different district, Montgomery, they had no issue with Wonder, and Ehlena and Wonder continued on their path of learning. The Frys had had a bit of a win when the School District found that Ehlena had indeed been the recipient of discrimination. Her family however, did not want her to return to that hostle environment.
The Fry's wound up suing and the decision was based on a little known slip in the law, allowing the judge to kick a decision down the road, and recommend that the Frys had to exhaust an unknown number of administrative hearings till a decision could be made. The Fry's decided to take it to the supreme court.
The lawyer representing the school district, Tim Mullins, seems to think that the supreme court won't even hear it. That is beyond sad.
As the ACLU lawyer stated:
"To force a child to choose to between her independence and her education is not only illegal — it is heartless," said Michael Steinberg, legal director at the ACLU in Michigan.
Stacy Fry's mother said Friday:
"It's important to set a precedent so other children's lives are not disrupted while school officials drag their feet and refuse to provide them their right to a service dog or other accommodation,"
In the meantime, Ehlena's strength has improved enough that she no longer needs Wonder to accompany her to school. I wonder if Ehlena had been able to take her service dog with her all this time if her strength and independence would be even further along. We will never know. We'll have to wonder.
http://wowway.net/news/read/article/the_associated_press-girl_with_service_dog_wants_us_supreme_court_to_ta-ap
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Let's Pray They Are Sucessful
Later,
LV, JT & FX
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