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.
That is a good option. It lacks one thing...schoolmates...daily friends a peer support group. That is probably one of the considerations the parents and even the school thought about. I'm sure the school was very supportive in the beginning. But compassion in our cold world tapers off quickly. Leukemia in most cases is a 3.5 year ordeal of chemo treatments. After the first few months to the first year people who don't experience such stop contacting or lose interest or can't be bothered. You REALLY find out who loves your family, who cares and who seeks the Heart of Jesus Christ after that small time period. Not only schools, but family and friends. One lady in our neighborhood who is not family nor a close friend periodically 'just came by' to drop off a covered dish when she knew it was a busy chemo week. She knew getting home late after a full day of chemo for my son meant we did not think far enough ahead to cook that late. She kept this up until she knew my son was finished with chemo and on the road to full cure.
One of the reasons I commend Tired of Taxes for keeping the Cancer warrior ping list and prayer requests.
So this kid is in this for the long haul, not because she wants to but because she has to. She did not choose to get cancer. She did not 'get' leukemia due to a bad diet or a risky life style or something her parents did or didn't do. She was born with it in her 'gene pool.'
The ultimate test Christ gave us is how we treat children, sick, orphans, widow and lowly. The Catholic school has academic standards...I get that. How far off she was is not in the details. Was she offered to repeat? The attendance standards, however, were just plain stupid given the child's condition and risk of infection and possible death. The cure rate for blood cancers is very high 90-95%! But what actually can end the life of the kid more than the cancer is the risk of infection leading to life threatening complications. Personally my son faced two non-cancer sicknesses which made it touch and go there for a few late nights and doctor's preparing us for what parents never want to think about...Praise be to God, all in His Hands.
A full understanding of 'remission' in child leukemia is in order. Assuming this child had Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), she would be in remission within 2-3 weeks of initial intense chemotherapy. If not, her outlook would not be good. Given her age (over 9 years full cure chances decrease rapidly), her outlook is in the 50-50 or 70-30 category off the bat for a cure, unless her genetics test came back with promising information.
When a child is diagnosed with leukemia they go through intense chemotherapy in a hospital for an initial three weeks. After that another bone marrow sample is taken and the child is either in remission or not. They should be in remission. All that means is they cannot 'see' with the most modern diagnostic equipment cancer cells in the blood or marrow. But the doctors will tell you 'the cancer is still there we just can't see it.' This is the 'carpet bombing' or 'shock and awe' portion of the chemo. Even after this initial remission, the child then gets a week or two off to regain strength and allow their white cells to build up. At this point they are vulnerable to infections and many contract fevers and staph infections during this period. Then the child goes in the hospital for a week and more treatments. This cycle is repeated for about three months. This the 'ground war' of the treatment regimen. Then the kid goes in for twice weekly and eventually once a month treatments in an oncologist office. This is the 'counter insurgency' period of the treatments. This lasts for THREE years. In between these doctor's office visits for a 4-5 hour infusion, the kids are still weak and vulnerable to infections. Schools are full of germs.
God Bless you and your school!
It is obvious the school and parents came to some accord on how to proceed. The school should never have signed on to do this given they should have known the kid would never meet attendance standards given her treatments and condition. It is not like Catholic schools have never encountered students with cancer before. They should have (did they?) summer school or a time period like summer school to catch up or offer a repeat of the grade. The kid had cancer...she's not a kid who is struggling with English as a second language. Chemotherapy for over three years is serious business and the school should have known that.
The parents on the other hand, it was their first experience with a child with cancer. The school? The Catholic church schools in general? No. They knew what they were dealing with. They may have warned the parents of their limitations and standards or just thanked them for the tuition and a heavier envelop the next Sunday. Who knows but the school should not hold the kid to the attendance standard. That is just plain stupid. Any Priest or laymen doctor associated with the school could have told them the kid would be laid up quite often sick or at risk in public with neutropenia.
Kind of what I'm thinking - if she's back in the public school system, she'd be able to get an IEP, i.e., assistance tailored to her situation.
The parents are 'crazy'. They are paying for this abuse. Last I checked 'Catholic' school was not 'free.' I bet they were even throwing in the school or church pre-printed suggested donation envelopes each week. Why would people pay for such treatment?
I'm sure there are quite a few other parish schools somewhere nearby that might work with them a bit better given the child's life threatening illness. Maybe a heavier envelope (already preaddressed) in the offering basket may do the trick next time.
You are correct they don't. Yet people pay to go there for other reasons. One of which seems to be lacking. Full refund should come.
I look at this story as a sad testiment of a religious school who (1) knew they did not have the resources to take this on and (2) somehow agreed, in some manner, to do so. They took the money of parents with a kid who has a life threatening sickness, knew the kid would be out a lot given the treatment regimen, and said 'yes.' And the parents are paying for this...go figure.
This is not the case of some illegal immigrant kid who can't speak the language, does not have the money to attend and fails their courses. That is not the case. Catholic schools in poor neighborhoods already do that and subsidize that. The kid has cancer....You would think they would know she would have attendance issues and maybe need a couple of weeks after school ending to make up some assignments. The school is stupid for taking this on and the parents for paying for it.
Indeed...good post and advice. We had teachers falling over themselves offering their free time after work and weekends if my son needed help when he went through chemo. Public school with Christian principal and many Christian teachers. Texas though...things a bit more 'real' down here than other places.
Sam, everyone has a most valid point on academic standards. I went to Catholic college prep HS. High standards and they booted 30 students first year for not meeting academic standards. We did have a fellow student with cancer and his treatments seemed to last three of the 4 years there. Sometimes he showed up sometimes he didn’t. Did not understand why he missed so many days at school until my son was diagnosed with leukemia and we went through the school issues.
If I were to advise this school, based on the evidence given in the article (not much), I would advise allowing a few weeks after school is out for the child to meet the standards. If not met, summer school or repeat the year. The attendance issue is plain stupid as the school should have some knowledge of what a kid with leukemia goes through. Chemo for my son was 3.5 years! The first 1.5 of those years he was always sick or a high risk for infection. Thank God we had great support with his school and teachers.
Oh yes, he did great in his studies. Wife and I made sure:)
I agree with most of what you posted and respect your experience and opinion. For the girl in the article, if she has Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), then she will miss at least a year of school, the second year a few weeks every semester and the third year a few days a month. It looks as if she is in her first year of treatments which is the worst.
The home tutoring program with my son's school worked out fine. But that was only twice a week. The remainder of the teaching was done by my wife and me when I got home from work. He did the same assignments, tests and projects. His tests were timed and administered by a teacher on one of the two tutoring days. Basically it was home schooling lite. We did most of the 'fill in the blank' instruction in absence of the teacher. If he was sick or undergoing his chemo treatments during a scheduled test time, the school adjusted. We were VERY involved in every detail so the school was not taken by surprise my son would be three days late with a science project or delayed test. We sat down monthly with the school admin to evaluate progress and keep everyone, us and the school honest.
We did it this way because the school (although public) was supportive and staffed with good Christian people (Texas y'all). Supportive that the 5th grade teacher he had set up a desk for my son with his name on it, full of his supplies and text books. The school provided additional textbooks for home use. So it worked for us and it worked probably because both sides wanted to make it work, dedicated involvement and my son a very good student before even his diagnosis. Plus the kids in his class he was with most of them since K. They wrote him letters, drew pictures and welcome home banners when he got home from his various hospital visits.
I agree with the academic requirements. They must be met. Considerations of timelines for projects and tests based on treatments should be reviewed. If the kid has a 4-5 hour infusion and the next day a test, perhaps look at a day or two later. These situations are not one size fits all and the parents and school admin must be closely communicating.
The attendance standards are another matter. The school should have enough information to know a youth first year chemo regimen is inpatient intensive and high risks of infection due to neutropenia. That should have been 'hashed out' in conference and inked in an agreement.
The parents are paying for this education...interesting...It is also a Catholic school...You would think cooler heads would prevail.
Given the media coverage (her parents helped get) she is now better off in another school which can meet her situation. Plus, it costs good money to send kids to Catholic school today.
Tired of Taxes made a good point. What about summer school? If making accommodations goes against the schools standards then why even try? I mean the school had to know what the kid was up against. I guess they gave it try and wished for the best.
When I saw this story, I thought of you, Redleghunter, and hoped you would stop in to add your insight. :-)
As a cradle Catholic - who left for a long time but returned later to the Catholic Church - I’m really surprised by this story. I’ve never heard of a Catholic school dismissing a student after she had such a serious illness. It goes against everything the Catholic faith is about.
You mentioned in one of your above posts that homeschooling might not be the best option for children fighting cancer because they need friends around them. So, I did want to tell you about our local homeschool community: My own children always were homeschooled, and there’s a large, very supportive community of people out here in HomeSchool World. ;-) When one becomes ill, the whole community organizes quickly to support that person through prayer, fundraising, meals, and more.
The kids in our community know each other through cooperative classes and extracurricular activities. And, this year, a well-liked teenaged homeschooled student was diagnosed with cancer. I don’t want to give details on the public forum because it’s not my story to share. But, when this young man was diagnosed, the entire community rallied around him immediately: cooking and delivering dinners to the family; praying together for him; donating money; fundraising through the sale of t-shirts and other things with well wishes to him printed on them. The other night, we attended a benefit concert, with all the musical talents within our homeschool community performing to raise money for his family.
We’ve had so much tragedy within our community, though. There are many people living in difficult circumstances, but there’s a lot of support here. I wanted you and everyone to know that it can be a good option sometimes. I suppose, like everything, though, it sometimes depends on where you live and who you know.
Great info on the homeschooling community. I did not know how well organized some groups are.
I was raised Catholic and schooled Catholic. So same surprise here. Parish I grew up in was tight and closed ranks to support the elderly, widows, orphans and sick.
Maybe these Catholic schools are becoming too “corporate” in design now and not anchored to a specific parish. Thus losing the community aspect of the experience. My sister’s kids were in a parish school but it closed as well as a few others and they went to a consolidated Catholic school. Not the same as you have 5 parishes worth of kids in one big school now.
We had the option of an Army compassionate reassignment to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio at Brooke Army medical. That’s where my son spent most of the summer for his treatments. We decided to return to our civilian and military community based on a solid stream of support from fellow Christians, neighbors, friends and military unit. We also made new friends at the local Children’s hospital.
Reminds me...my son made friends with another kid with a rare form of leukemia at the hospital and at camp. We learned last month the kid had a relapse and now will undergo a bone marrow transplant. Please keep Patrick in your prayers.
God Bless you for what you do here.
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