Posted on 04/25/2015 11:08:43 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A 12-year-old Michigan girl who just made it through the biggest fight of her life has been dealt another blow.
In August 2012, Rose McGrath, of Battle Creek, was diagnosed with leukemia.
But last week, her family received a letter from her school that would turn her world upside down.
As CBS affiliate WWMT reports, the letter addressed concerns regarding Rose's attendance and academic performance, and stated that Rose had been dismissed from St. Joseph Middle School.
"I didn't do anything wrong, but they still got rid of me," Rose said.
screen-shot-2015-04-24-at-11-24-21-am.png Rose McGrath WWMT Rose has been with the Battle Creek Area Catholic Schools all her life, but attending school got difficult when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2012.
"Even though she's now done with her treatment you still have a very long recovery process because you've basically just put two and a half years of poison into your body. You're not recovering overnight," said Rose's mother, Barbara McGrath.
The McGraths say despite all of the obstacles, Rose was on track to pass her core classes.
Now, just shy of the end of the school year, they say she's been pulled from the one place where she felt normal.
"When I'm at home, I'm sick, I don't feel well; no one else does that. But when I'm at school I'm like everyone else," Rose said.
According to the letter from St. Joseph Middle School, Rose was dismissed because she could not meet academic or attendance standards.
Rose attended 32 full days this year.
The letter says the school tried to work with Rose and reduced her workload.
"These were extraordinary circumstances, but so many accommodations were made we felt eventually it became a point where we really had to help Rose, by being able to make sure that she was getting the assistance that she needed and to learn," said Father John Fleckenstein, with Battle Creek Area Catholic Schools.
But the McGraths say the school has failed their child.
"The accommodations which were made were woefully inadequate for a child with such a serious diagnosis," said Rose's father Tom McGrath.
"It's not like she's out at the mall having fun, she's in her bed, sick with nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain. She's not having fun, she's sick. She'd be at school if she could," Barbara said.
Father Fleckenstein says for privacy reasons, he could not talk about the situation in its entirety.
In the meantime, the McGraths say they have filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights, and the family is waiting to hear if any action will be taken.
I’m going to cut the parents some slack here.
I can’t imagine how having a child with a cancer diagnosis won’t make one c-r-a-z-y.
IIRC, tuition for private school is paid in advance of attendance; least it was in our case.
A private school does not have the same legal responsibilities that a PS has.
Exactly my point. They tend to do a better job of educating w/o all the indoctrination and they should not be destroyed by those with sensitive emotions who want the feel good "solution" as the person I originally posted to seems to want.
I look at this story as an attempt to undermine private/Christian schools and some here are taking the emotional bait.
What a stupid school... the girl had an illness, she was not playing hookey!!!
I've used Kolbe's materials to supplement my son's academics, and they're great.
These parents have enough to deal with, but why do situations like these have to devolve into finger pointing? Our nation suffers from a crisis in common sense.
I’m going to cut the parents some slack here.
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It must be difficult for parents. They probably kept hoping she would improve. The school has since said she could return to school. Most teachers would help out to help the student make up for lost time. (in my opinion)
If academic and attendance standards were truly not met, how we we hold that against the school? I think we can all sympathize with the girl's plight, and it was probably no fault on her part for missing so much time, but we cannot expect the school to relax their standards either.
Maintaining high standards and not caving into emotional or political pressures is respected in my book. I've never been an advocate of the "everybody gets a trophy" mentality.
But first, let's wait for the whole story.
When my son was 10, he was chronically ill and so I pulled him out and homeschooled him. There was NO WAY that he could’ve continued public school and actually gotten the information that he needed after missing so many days. He was welcomed back once he was well enough to attend. (That didn’t happen for a long time. Homeschooling worked for us)
To say that the girl is happy there and that ‘this is the only place she feels normal’ is stupid. School isn’t a social play group for children. It’s a place to learn. Kids who come in and out fall behind. It’s not fair to the sick kid to push them along. They miss a ton of material that goes beyond the worksheets and the book learning.
When I homeschooled, I didn’t allow my kids to move forward until they’d mastered the step they were on. I didn’t coddle them or hope that they’d pick up missed work down the road. Sometimes they leaped ahead, sometimes they crawled; but we knew right where they were.
Schools will bend over backwards to help a sick kid, but sometimes it’s too much. Let the kid take the rest of the year off, then come back fresh in the fall and repeat a year. It will be best for her in the long run.
I am sick of parents having so much compassion for their children that they handicap them and shield them from what the child actually needs to succeed.
When I grew up, homeschooling was never heard of. But I remember every year in high school and college, there would be a classmate that would be held back a year because of an illness or an accident. There was no dishonor and they were welcomed back by all. Usually the person who was held back ended up being more popular, because they now belonged to "two classes."
I agree with you. There seems to be be a lot of details missing here.
I agree also.
I could be wrong as I was only half paying attention, but the mother was interviewed by Fox the other morning and I thought I heard the mother also complaining that her daughter Rose was not allowed to attend and participate in after school sporting events – on days where she had either not come to school at all or had only attended partial days! If she is and too sick to attend school, why would she be then well enough to play and participate in sports? I too think there is a lot more to this story than what is being reported.
Barbara McGrath told The Associated Press St. Joseph Middle School officials informed her that Rose McGrath could return to the Battle Creek school but postponed a meeting to discuss concerns until later this week to allow for "a cooling off period." Barbara McGrath said that her daughter is attending Lakeview Middle School and that she can't say whether Rose will return to St. Joseph until she determines if issues can be resolved.
And what unresolved “issues” does she have at this point? The school relented under media pressure to allow her back in but now that isn’t good enough? Sure I feel much sympathy for a sick child battling cancer, but then again this is a private school and the school FWIU, tried as best as they could to accommodate her and her absences. But at the end of the day, they have no obligation to accommodate her if she is not able to meet their attendance and academic requirements.
"It sounds like they're not going to pass her anyway, even if she goes back," Barbara McGrath said of her 7th-grade daughter, who is in remission but still recovering from treatments for acute lymphoblastic leukemia diagnosed in 2012. "I don't see her being able to go back there and being successful."
And why should they pass her even if she goes back if she was/is not able to keep up and doesn’t meet the requirements of passing?
The school wrote in a letter addressed to Rose's father and provided to the AP by the family that officials worked with her but absences "hampered her academic performance." It adds that the 12-year-old had attended 32 full days this academic year out of 134 days as of April 13, but Barbara McGrath says that doesn't include "numerous" partial days.
The school also wrote that it has taken "significant adjustments to our standards" to help Rose, including reducing her workload and paring down assignments and tests…."Rose's attendance, coupled with her academic performance, do not qualify her for continued attendance at St. Joseph Middle School," the letter read. "We know Rose to be an intelligent and thoughtful child, and believe she would be well-suited to enroll in an academic setting more geared to homebound students, perhaps an online program as we have discussed in the past."
If she is too sick to attend school or attend on a regular basis, she would IMO be better suited to be enrolled in and participate in an online schooling program, a program where she would benefit from the “distance learning model”, be able to do school work and complete assignments on a more flexible schedule and interact with teachers and other students remotely, online, rather than her current school just sending her assignments and tests home to her.
FWIW, in late winter of 1961 my big brother after a ruptured appendix, contracted encephalitis and meningitis, he nearly, came very close to dying from it. He was in the hospital for 3 months and had to re-learn how to walk, talk and feed himself again, spent several more weeks at home recovering.
When he was finally well enough to start doing some school work from home, he was already seriously behind and his school, also a Catholic private school, made the decision with our parent’s agreement and support, to hold him back another year.
This was not done to “punish” him because of his illness, but to ensure he was able to catch up and not just be passed along thus putting him a further risk of failing.
I hope this young girl has many, many years of good health.
The points you and others have made in your posts are excellent.
But, I’m divided on this one...
My question is why did the school dismiss her? Why not just hold her back a year? Or maybe offer a summer school option? When I was growing up, our Catholic schools had summer school for students who needed to catch up. (And, actually, back then, our Catholic schools also had a demerit system: Even if you misbehaved too much, you weren’t dismissed; you just had to sit in detention through the summer.)
Also, in my Catholic school back then, there was a student fighting leukemia. I don’t know if he was ever held back, but he sure wasn’t dismissed. He wanted to be a priest when he grew up, but he passed away in the ninth grade.
I do think there’s more to this story. For example, maybe other options were offered but the family declined?
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And may God bless this little girl!
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A major malfunction here. I am assuming this is a private school and for some reason they do not honor what most states call (at least in Texas) a temporary Section 504-3c. Which gives accommodations to students with temporary or permanent disabilities.
My family has experience with this situation. My son was diagnosed with leukemia at age 10. He missed the last month of school but given he took all his exams and a nice visit with the public school principal we worked out his 4th grade completion. He went through chemo that summer which would continue through the next school year. Working with the principal again we enrolled him in the 504 program. His 4th grade teacher volunteered to exercise the 504 home tutoring program. She would meet him in his hospital room twice a week for instruction and the remaining days of the week based on his strength we (my wife mostly) followed the learning plans. He took the same tests as his peers in class, had the same projects but given more time on projects based on his condition. He did the entire 5th grade this way. He was able to reintegrate in a class for 6th grade but still missed a few weeks due to sickness from chemo.
Chemo patients, especially leukemia patients, are at high risk of contracting infections due to neutropenia. So being in large classrooms with loads of germs around is not healthy for them and could be life ending. That is why this young girl could not be in class for long periods of time.
Sounds like the school did not approach this with logic nor compassion. People can be like that when they do not look to others with love and compassion as Christ did for those who were sick. I was blessed 'the nice visit to the principals office' was not a shouting match. I started the conversation about the faith of our family and the principal cried and prayed with me a few others in the room. This was a public school to boot...but in Texas. I'm sure she could have been heartless like this private school was to the little girl in the article. I see from the picture in the posted article the girl has her hair back...wonderful. Looks like she was ready to get back on the horse and this school kicked her and her parents in the gut.
I won't forget any of the kids my son went to school with either. Every couple of weeks kids called him, wrote him letters and the entire class made him a welcome home banner when he got out of the hospital. They invited him to all school events and kept a desk available with school supplies and his name if he ever was well enough to come to school. Faith and compassion in action there.
A kid with leukemia and undergoing chemo should not be in school with loads of germs. Those germs could literally kill the kid. I'm sure there is more to the story and I agree the parents of a kid in such a situation must be in communication with the school constantly. I don't see from the article the parents were hands off. I will say this is the first time the parents experienced a child with cancer, but it was most likely not the first time the school or the priest was faced with this situation.
The parents are quoted she was making the grades to pass, yet the attendance issue is just plain stupid on the school's part. Given the treatments this girl gets she will burn her excused sick days within 4 months.
I wonder why the school did not offer the girl and family a home tutoring program to fit the child's chemo schedule and recovery? A Texas public school offered that for my son with no issues. He took the same exams, did the same projects, had the same homework assignments. They gave him a little more time to hand things in (within reason) given he was weak and sick from the treatments.
Now if the school told the parents that they 'strongly' suggested enrolling their child in another school, that the smaller Catholic school was not equipped to handle a sick child...then there's more to the story. But apparently, the school did take on this child in such a condition---cancer----child---Catholic church---What would Jesus Christ do?
Unfortunate that there was not better communication between school and home. She should not have reached this close to the end of the semester without the parents being fully aware of her status.
Your speculation. Parents with kids in such situations make everything involving the child their full time job. "Missing school" was inevitable and the school should know that. If you are unconvinced visit a children's hospital and follow a kid who just spent 4-5 hours getting an infusion and see what it does to them for two weeks following. If you do, you would be right there at the school calling them heartless frauds.
Spot on Bob! This is a professed 'Catholic' school to boot! My son had the same form of cancer and the public school (Texas ya know) was very supportive. He was able to do his assignments at home when he could not be in school and a teacher met him twice a week at home, or in the hospital or somewhere where there were not a colony of germs to make him even more sick.
Yes, the rest of the story is the student should have been on a home tutoring program where she comes to school when she can. She does her homework, projects and tests at home based on her medical condition and may get a few more days to hand in assignments. The kid has leukemia. That is a 3.5 year chemotherapy regimen for kids with ALL. During the first two years of that regimen most kids develop neutropenia a few days after their 4-5 hour infusions. Every 60-90 days they get a spinal tap where chemo is injected into their spine to the brain to ensure cancer cells are not 'hiding' there. The kid is 'toast' for about three weeks, feels better (but no hair) in another week or so and then back to the oncologist for 'rinse and repeat.' Then a few weeks later after the spinal tap the kid will have concentration problems as the chemo treatment of the brain degrades white matter. So the kid has to miss school again to get a CT scan of the brain to see if the damage is temporary or more long lasting. They do this to adjust the dosage.
Are you Roman Catholic? If so can you comment on what this Catholic school is doing?
I’m sure given the opportunity the parents would consider repeating the grade. That was a possibility with my son who had the same form of cancer. However, the school was great; teachers voluteered to work with him on their private time and he was a very good student before the cancer. He did well. He took all the same exams, projects and homework assignments. If you look up thread I laid out everything the school and students did for my son.
The academic standards can be argued. The attendance standards are just plain stupid. Did the priest want to do a funeral instead of dismissal? Kids with cancer on chemotherapy are prone to neutropenia. So yes there is more to the story indeed. Perhaps this school offered to work with the parents. Perhaps the parents viewed this as staying with their church and their own. Frankly, the parents are paying to send their daughter to a Catholic school. They should have some say in being offered a repeat of the year. They are paying for it. There are other Catholic schools willing to take their money.
The sad part is the girl and parents probably wanted to stay with the school to keep contact with the other students. Class sizes are small in Catholic schools and the girl probably has a lot of friends and had a support group there. Sad it had to end this way.
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