Why do I have to go Mama Bear to get things done?

NO! No no no no no no no! I don't want to!!! Waaah! You can't make me! I said Noooooooooooooooooooo!

Ok, deep breath in aaaaaand out. One. Two. Three. Four. Happy place, happy place.

Do you know one of those people that like to argue? The ones that thrive on a nice healthy debate. The ones that change sides if you agree with them just so they can keep arguing. I am NOT that person. I loathe confrontation in any way, shape or form. I avoid it all possible costs. I try to stick my head in the sand and hope the problem goes away in order to avoid having to confront someone.

But, if you mess with my son, the kid gloves need to get replaced with boxing ones.

When J first got started with the Special Education Department at age 3, several friends offered to give me the numbers of advocates and lawyers in case I should need them to ensure J got the services he needed. I couldn't really foresee a need to be THAT confrontational. We all seemed to be on the same page with what services he needed. Well, at least I thought the services they were offering were a good fit. We had no idea what was going on with J and what options were available, but I was naïve enough to believe it wouldn't come to that.

We haven't gotten to that point by a long shot, but I am still perturbed that for the second time in two years, J is getting shortchanged because another parent is more vocal than I am. Last year, some parent complained about "something" and started to make waves, so they took the aide that was working with J and switched her to another school to work with this student. And now it is happening again.

I read an article about a young woman that had recently graduated from high school that had the same aide for her entire school career - 13 years!! J barely made it 13 school days before his aide was being sent to work with another student while a different aide came to work with him. A different aide each day.

I tried to calm down for a few hours after the teacher told me. Then I fired off a scathing e-mail to the person in charge. OK, it was scathing for me. Most people reading it (*cough*my husband*cough*) would say I was far too accommodating. I understand they are following the IEP and providing an aide for 2 ½ hours a day. No where does it say it will be the same aide every day.

But common sense from anyone spending any amount of time in the school system, especially with children on the Autism spectrum, should dictate that consistency is in every one's best interest. Mrs. Anna is assigned to class A and Mrs. Betty to class B. Mrs. Anna is sick, so the PTBs move Mrs. Betty to class A and get a sub for class B. Huh?!?

Well, at least this time I let it be known that I am not happy about it. Hopefully, I have squeaked loudly enough to make sure we get the oil this time.