Three years after Jerry Clark’s grandmother began lobbying lawmakers to protect other families from the tragedy her family faced, state legislators approved a revised version of her bill.
Mary Clark, Jerry’s grandmother, is waiting for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to enact the legislation, which would require schools to notify parents of their right to refer their child for a special education evaluation. This was the third
legislative session the law was introduced.
“Under the law, schools are mandated to seek out and identify students with emotional difficulties,” Clark said. “Schools have our students six to eight hours a day; they’re there to see the signs.”
Jerry Clark was 17 years old when he committed suicide by hanging himself on April 27, 2010, shortly after Voorheesville High School administrators suspended him for six weeks. He was on prescribed antidepressants and mood stabilizers at the time. There is also a history of mental illness in the family, according to Mary Clark.
Jerry fell asleep several times in class, broke the school’s dress code and acted out in other ways before being suspended. Mary Clark claims simply disciplining children suffering from mental illness will not stop their misbehavior, which has deeper roots.
Clark believes Jerry was pushed over the edge after being kicked off the school’s wrestling team, which he excelled in and enjoyed.
Clark said she and other family members families were not aware they could refer Jerry to be evaluated by the district’s Committee on Special Education before he was suspended.
“There is a great disconnect between the schools and the parents,” Clark said. “The schools know that they have this duty, but the parents don’t get the information.”
Voorheesville Superintendent of Schools Teresa Thayer Snyder has said the Clarks were made aware of the committee.
Snyder said every student is held to the same standards.
“I do feel the school is misrepresented in terms of discipline,” Snyder said. “Every child in the school, whether they have an (Individualized Education Program) or not, is still held to the same standard.”
Snyder also said schools are “not in the business” to make a medical diagnosis.
“Mental health facilities … they deal with the medical side of mental health,” she said. “Schools don’t identify people with mental illnesses. We don’t have the capacity. … Our job is to provide the educational service.”
Harvey Weisenberg, who sponsored the bill in the Assembly, said he believes parents are not well informed about referring their child to a district’s Committee on Special Education.
“Parents and others have the right to directly refer a student to the CSE for evaluation, yet parents are the only ones not informed of this right in any meaningful manner,” Weisenberg, D-Long Beach, said in a statement. “While we all recognize and value the importance of parental involvement in a child’s education, this is, unfortunately, one example of how our laws do not always support that principle.”
The New York State Council of School Superintendents spoke against an earlier version of the law, which would have required a parent or guardian of a student being suspended to be given information on the Committee on Special Education referral process prior to the hearing.
Any student facing suspension for more than five days must receive a hearing under the current law.
Robert Lowry Jr., spokesman for the state Council of School Superintendents, said the group did not take a position on the revised bill.
“With the original bill, there were concerns it could be abused,” Lowry said, “that it could delay districts from dealing with truly dangerous students and conceivably also complicate the handling of special education cases.”
Lowry said the amended bill was “not a problem.”
Clark said it’s “wonderful” the bill passed the legislature and said “there were special forces at work” to get it passed.
“I’ve cried a lot of tears,” she said. “I’ve been down to the Capitol, and I’ve just sat there in offices and waited for somebody to walk by that will listen to me.”
Snyder said she is leery of how much effect the law will have on better informing parents.
“I don’t remember what was on my kid’s kindergarten registration packet,” she said.
She also believes the law is redundant, because schools already have a high identification rate of children for special education.