Posted on 12/17/2014 4:34:15 PM PST by Morgana
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two North Kansas City parents are outraged after they say their blind son’s cane was taken away from him at school by a bus driver.
Eight-year-old Dakota Nafzinger attends Gracemor Elementary School. Rachel Nafzinger said school staff took away her son’s cane as punishment for bad behavior on the bus and then gave him a swimming pool noodle to use as a substitute.
The school wouldn’t go on camera, but North Kansas City School District Spokeswoman Michelle Cronk confirmed taking away Dakota’s cane, calling it school property that was given to him when he enrolled. They said they took it away after he reportedly hit someone with it and wanted to prevent him from hurting himself or others.
His family said it was a way to humiliate him for misbehaving.
They say Dakota is like any other 8-year-old, only he was born without eyes — something in the medical world known as Bilateral Anopthalmia. Still, Dakota loves to sing, fish and swim — despite the extra work those activities require from someone who is blind.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox4kc.com ...
Insanity is spreading
Well, if he was truly hitting another kid with the can I can see taking it away, but only until he got off the bus.
Publik skools, insanity at it’s finest.
the blind punishing...the blind.
who do these jerks think they are??
using a cane to hit someone is not misbehaving ... it’s criminal assault ... unless it was in self defense.
8 yrs old
somehow, this old H. G. Wells story came to mind.
THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND
http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2157/
LOL, Man the Lifeboats!!!!!
THAT would indicate to me, the driver is just a little too paranoid and shouldn't be a driver.
PC has killed America
Same school would take away a paraplegic kid’s wheelchair if they caught him doing wheelies in the hall.
These are the days when the Onion is looking like sanity.
Depending on how long he has had the cane, he may have started relying on the sounds. A swimming noodle would not do the trick and shows very little understanding of blindness by school personnel. IOW, they took his eyes away. I doubt they would gouge out Johnny's eyes because he looked up a skirt, or cut off Johnny's arm because he hit someone.
That is not an excuse to allow Dakota to use the cane as a billy club,
The adults in charge should have been able to figure out an appropriate punishment.
You are kidding!! This school is nuts!
I’ve read the whole article and it seems to indicate this:
Dakota fidgets with his walking stick while riding on the bus. While doing so, he hit someone else, likely the person next to him.
It wasn’t intentional, that I can tell. For the safety of the students and to avoid lawsuits from other children’s parents if their kids were injured by the stick, they substituted the noodle. It was temporary. I don’t think they knew what else to do to try and get him to stop fidgeting with the stick. I don’t know if that is even possible. A blind kid sitting motionless on a bus with activity of other kids all around him, and he’s supposed to sit perfectly still because he has a long stick in his hand. Right.
I would have suggested they get him one of those fold up walking sticks. Maybe his parents could have gotten him a fold up walking stick.
But, they didn’t. They went with the noodle. The parents complained, the school met with the parents, the school gave the ‘cane’ (walking stick) back.
Everyone is happy now...... UNTIL IT PUTS SOME KID’S EYE OUT.
They should go with the fold up walking stick.
that is a sad commentary on the state of this country. . .
Blind kids need discipline too.
P.S. I know the article makes it seem like he ‘intentionally’ hit someone. Especially because they said they punished him for bad behavior. But I think the behavior is that he keeps waving around the stick.
After all, he could hit just as many people with the noodle as he could the walking stick, if he was intentionally striking other children. So giving him the noodle would not seem to solve anything in that case.
Anyway, that’s my opinion.
After all I’m sure when one eight yro slugs another one with his fist they cut his hand off for two weeks, it’s only fair they take away his eyes.
Nonsense. Do you even live in the same state as the school ?
I would suggest that everyone read the article at the link. If you read only the excerpt, you as missing all the details and the decent ending.
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