Stop Hitting Our Kids: Response From the Department of Education
Rich La Belle, Executive Director
Family Network on Disabilities
Time to take stock: Where do we stand on the call for an immediate moratorium on the use of corporal punishment against students with disabilities? The answer is that we’ve made progress, but we need more advocacy, please. I received a response this afternoon from Bambi Lockman, Chief of the Bureau for Exceptional Education and Student Services (BEESS), on behalf of the Governor and Commissioner of Education. The text of the response is here: Response from Bambi Lockman.pdf (18.63 kb)
Ms. Lockman takes a very positive approach in her response and I appreciate her responding to our concerns. Among many points, she makes two important ones for where we go next: (1) Decisions on the use of corporal punishment are up to individual school districts; and (2) a decision on the moratorium is being taken under advisement by, I’m assuming, the Department of Education and the Governor.
So, we need to step up our advocacy efforts. Many, many thanks to those who have already written the Governor, the Commissioner, and local school districts. However, we need more, please. We need to impress upon the Governor and the Commissioner that this is an important issue that needs to be addressed now. We also need to make sure that the Superintendents and school boards in each of Florida’s 67 counties address this issue – now.
Here are the addresses for the Governor and Commissioner:
The Honorable Charlie Crist, Governor
State of Florida
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
charlie.crist@myflorida.com
The Honorable Dr. Eric Smith, Commissioner
Florida Department of Education
Turlington Building, Suite 1514
325 West Gaines Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399
commissioner@fldoe.org
Here’s the link to find the addresses for the Superintendents and school boards in your county: http://www.fldoe.org/schools/schoolmap/flash/district_list.asp
Copies of what you send would be helpful for us to be able to collect. Please send them to stophittingourkids@fndfl.org.
Here’s the link to the Cause page on Facebook – please invite as many people as possible to join (over 400 at this writing): http://apps.facebook.com/causes/341382/48640532?m=6fb2fd15
Here’s a link to keep up to date on the latest developments: http://fndfl.org/Blog/
We are making progress. We need to keep moving forward.
Working together, we can reach our simple goal – stop hitting our kids. Now.
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