March 11, 2000
Dear Editor:
The American Society for Ethics in Education
(ASEE) would like to thank all of the fine members of the community who
attended our first presentation on the need to increase access to the
music education program for children in the Saddleback Valley Unified
School District. As ASEE has noted previously, there appears to be
widespread denial of access to Saddleback Valley USD’s already
existing (but minimal) program: this denial appears to especially affect
those students who have been identified with special needs and/or
learning disabilities. In light of all of the current research regarding
the important role that a comprehensive education in music plays in
brain development, this is nothing less than a moral outrage. A recent
article in the Los Angeles Times (Scientists Map Pattern of
Growth in Young Brains, March 8, 2000, front page) states that,
"educators have long known that intellectual abilities in language,
music, and mathematics must be developed before puberty." Of
considerable note is the research being conducted by neurologist, Dr.
Gordon Shaw from the University of California, Irvine. In his recent
book, "Keeping Mozart in Mind" (Academic Press, copyright
2000), Dr. Shaw notes that his research has "shown that
disadvantaged second graders can rapidly learn ratios and proportional
math using S.T.A.R. [a specially developed computer program] but that
piano training gives an additional significant boost over children in a
control group. This is a big deal!" (Shaw, pg. 15. Emphasis
was not added.)
Closer scrutiny of the music education program
within the Saddleback Valley Unified School District provides something
that is very disturbing. Another recent article in the Los Angeles
Times, Creative Music Starts in Schools (March 6, 2000, pg.
F3) notes that, "As our economy booms and school budgets slowly
recover from the effects of serious budget cuts that began years ago,
music education is making a comeback. But for the majority of schools,
these programs are incomplete and poorly funded. Once a week lessons
taught by music teachers who have no classrooms and are forced to drag
their supplies from class to class on portable carts are, to paraphrase
Emerson, ‘an apology for the real thing.’" Unfortunately, this
statement describes the "music program" that currently exists
within the Saddleback Valley Unified School District.
Getting back to the issue of denying access to
portions of the already minimal program offered by SVUSD to students
with learning disabilities, it is known that Susan Navarro-Sims,
principal of Cielo Vista Elementary School (a "California
Distinguished School") has sent out notices (form letters) to
parents of students at her school on at least three occasions. In one
such case, it is known that a student, who had just been identified by
the school’s psychologist, Ms. Suzanne Nielsen, as exhibiting signs of
ADD. Ms. Neilsen stated that "psychometrically, [the student] did
present as a child with a likely attention disorder...Clinical
observation during testing and in the classroom as was well as scores on
behavior rating scales supports the impression of attention disorder
[ADD]." (This information is being used, by ASEE, with the
permission of the child’s parents.) Furthermore, it is also known that
this child would NOT been have tested by the school, had the parent not
insisted upon such testing in the first place. Further extensive
evaluation by the child’s doctors confirmed the diagnosis of ADD. Just
one week after the school had noted this child’s apparent learning
disorder, Ms. Navarro Sims issued her first letter (April 12, 1999)
stating that the child had been declared ineligible "to participate
in extracurricular activities (chorus, instrumental music, after school
performances)." When Ms. Navarro-Sims then sent this letter a
second time (November 29, 1999), the parent of the above student filed a
complaint against Ms. Navarro-Sims and the SBVUSD with the United States
Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR). SBVUSD then
claimed that they had found "an error" in the form letter they
were using.
Other atrocities suffered at the hands of
SBVUSD administrators and teachers on this student include:
1. Ms. Navarro-Sims, disclosed, WITHOUT
parental permission, confidential information from the student’s
file to an outside agency (in direct violation of the California
Education Code).
2. In December of 1999, this child was
moved to the BACK of the classroom - which, as any competent
educator should know, is the absolute worse possible place for an
ADD child to sit. It wasn’t until SBVUSD learned of the complaint
file with OCR, that the child was finally moved to the front of the
class.
3. It has just been learned that this child’s
teacher, apparently, has a habit of answering personal phone calls,
on her cell phone, during classroom instruction time.
As some of these (and other) problems appear to
be widespread within SBVUSD, the ASEE is now seeking parents of other
children within the Saddleback Valley USD to come forward and possibly
join in a class-action lawsuit against SBVUSD. Many of these issues will
be discussed at the next public information meeting now being planned by
ASEE. For further information, please visit ASEE’s web site at:
http://www.edethics.org to examine this, and other educational horrors.
Respectfully,
***************, Executive Director
American Society for Ethics In Education
(Mr. ************** has served as President of the
California Music Educators Association - Southern Section, on the
National Board of Trustees of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association
[the largest general music education association in the nation], and has
been an instructor for the Institute on the Study of the Multiple
Intelligences, at the University of California, Riverside since 1991.)
