Welcome to FIRST GRADE!!
BOY and GIRL are 6 years old!!!
As you read through First grade - take note of how many times the IEP team explains to mom that once you accept the placement to GNETS you are stuck there and you can't go back to your regular school if it isn't working out.
Pay careful attention to how many times they tell me that it is in fact NOT a school at all and there are NO EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES in a day. THE IEP "TEAM" NEVER TELLS THIS TO THE MOTHER. As you read through, ask yourself why they don't tell me that.
That means at GNETS the captives (technically - they can't go back to their home school if it's not a good fit and the family is not offered to tour the facility or audit the environment and program before accepting their "team decided" placement.) spend their days in therapy and behavioral modification programs. These modification programs don't focus on getting to the root of the problem - they just focus on modifying behavior. So the trigger is never removed. You just have to modify your behavior while all of the adults around you continue to trigger you.
You will read more about this below but for now - I know what I just said makes a lot of people upset. Let me put it to you differently: When these professionals interact with your child all day long, they simply mark how many times a behavior occurs but they record no situational data at all. And, because there's no situational data, you have no idea what was going on at the time. You only know if the child was triggered or not triggered that day and whether or not the rewards and punishments are having any impact. In my daughter's case, she CHOSE THE REWARDS that she would be working toward and then when she earned them she refused them. SO yeah, that's a system that works well.
The ultimate problem is there is no root cause analysis by any of these professionals to get to the source of the behavior and since the focus is NOT on figuring out why the child is behaving the way they are and modifying the environment or removing the trigger - the next obvious tactic - the only method they have left - is to modify the child with rewards and punishments in an often unfair environment.
AUGUST, 2023
August 10th, 2023
August 29th, 2023
This is regressive behavior. She didn't do this in kindergarten. She was responsible to and did pack her things.
August 31th, 2023
This is regressive behavior.
SEPTEMBER
September 11th, 2023
GIRL was getting 100% in her
classes just 4 short months ago.
8:55 PM
They go to bed every day at 7pm religiously. Bedtime and naptime have been rigidly fixed.
This is anxiety.
Also let's examine, "trying to get me to move from in front of the classroom door."
Positioning yourself in front of the classroom door during times of trauma driven anxiety and panic is an escalation. It causes more anxiety. The frightened and traumatized child feels trapped which in turn elicits more aggressive behaviors. Any living thing that is trapped, panics. That's simple logic.
She should have stayed at Vickery Mill. She should have been compassionately transferred back to Vickery Mill on September 28th.
10:23 PM
September 12th, 2023
6:14 AM
6:12 PM
Every day I'm reading about my daughter's continuing deterioration.
Her home zone school is not good for her.
7:28 PM
SHE WAS DOING 2nd GRADE MATH
Her desire to learn in a school environment was completely destroyed after this experience.
All kids want to learn things and see experiments and participate as part of a group. After January, that drive was completely gone. She has no core group of friends, and she has no experience of being successful in a school environment outside of Vickery Mill.
September 13th, 2023
September 14th, 2023
Twins have a heightened sense of empathy for one another.
September 15th, 2023
5:06 PM
9:50 PM
September 18th, 2023
September 21th, 2023
September 23th, 2023
The THINK SHEET is coming home. She is so absolutely traumatized by these reports. I am so traumatized by these reports. We all are.
September 27th, 2023
Her behaviors are escalating. SHE ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT DO THIS AT HOME.
Also, "wanting to be first in line" is twin anxiety. First is best, first gets more attention.
Every narrative is the same. GIRL did this and GIRL did that. They describe it as if she's just been possessed and snaps. We never get any situation background about what was going on. There's nothing to correlate here. Just GIRL has behavioral problems. This is the reason that "overall, her behaviors are inconsistent." They aren't looking for the triggers. They're just recording her when she gets triggered.
Meanwhile, she never does any of these things at home or anywhere else.
MOM. Tell me something good about me.
September 28th, 2023
7:26 AM
Children that have been traumatized are hyper vigillent and recognize patterns of behavior. If she thinks that you think she's bad - she knows that's the only way that she's going to get attention
It is for this same reason that often when meeting a new group of authority figures, she will throw out a "not exactly the best joke for school but not completely inappropriate" joke. She'll say the word "hell" for example. She wants to know if you are going to yell at her in front of everyone or if you are going to not embarrass her and tell her privately. It's a predictable test. This is a trauma response. The truth is that HELL isn not rrrreeeeaaaallllllyyyy a bad word. It's just not the most appropriate for school. And if you call her out for that in front of everyone in a chastising way, she knows who you are.
It's a predictable test. That means that the adults around her can be alerted to look for these signs of test of your character. If you can identify them, and not react when you recognize thats what she's doing by actively learning the signs of this kind of authority testing behavior, and talk to her about it privately after - you will gain her trust. The fear of authority figure (that was instilled in her in pre-k) will be gone, and she will be your best student. In every instance where she is shamed in front of her peers, her behavior escalates. She knows you already think she's bad and that's the only way she's going to get attention and it's the same old routine. She verbalizes this exact scenario - "it was exactly the same as before" - in January of 2024. AFTER the GNETS recommendation, if you can believe this, I withdrew my consent for
7:56 AM
*****SEPTEMBER 28th, 2023*****
IT IS DAMAGING HER SELF ESTEEM.
SHE HAS GIVEN IT HER BEST AND WE CAN'T CONTINUE ALONG THIS PATH.
You can't imagine what this is like, having watched her flourish just 4 short months before this. This was so damaging for my mental health.
10:12AM
11:03 AM
1:33 PM
September 29, 2023
GIRL knows that this is how her teacher feels about her. People that have been mistreated are hypervigillant.
My whole family was traumatized by these reports for a year. My kids will immediately shut down and regress because of them. I am triggered beyond my ability to take them seriously - for my own mental health AND for my children's mental health. I HAVE to ignore them because these people believe that these reports are somehow in the best interest of my children despite how many times I say that they cause my children to regress because they were traumatized here. Stop doing this to them. In front of each other. Or in that building. Or at all. They're twins. You can not do this to them. Twins develop differently. When you give a behavior report to a twin to take home, it is not the same as giving it to a singleton. It doesn't just carry the weight of disappointing your parents, but it carries the additional weight of being the disappointing twin that day. It's actually even more of a scorn that they are the "disappointing" one and then therefore also the looser of that day. You can not do this to twins. It effects them more deeply and severely than singletons. It regresses them AND it effects both twins. One of them gets to be the "not disappointing" one for the day. But the "not disappointing" one is also traumatized by their counterpart being traumatized. [GIRL: I get deeply emotionally connected to people (her brother) when they're crying. Twins have a heightened sense of empathy for one another]. This fractures their sibling dynamic and sets them up to hate each other.
It probably wouldn't be so terrible if there were some form of balance - but my twins endured this for a whole year, in front of each other, in a completely imbalances way, when they were four years old. In the same building. We can not handle these. My whole family can not tolerate these.
October
October 5th, 2023
12:52 PM
October 4th, 2023
We start reading growth mindset cards every morning before leaving for school. I have to emotionally fortify them just to go to school.
October 5th, 2023
2:53 PM
October 6th, 2023
7:59 AM
8:12 AM
I'm a single mom of twins and I have them 98% of the time. Having tracking devices just felt comfortable. I took the kids to DISNEY in February of 23 and I FORGOT the jobits at home. THAT's how comfortable I am with them. Children that have severe behavioral disorders display their severe behaviors everywhere, for everyone. It's not selective. She has never done any of these things with me.
11:08 AM
1:34 PM
1:34 PM She peed in the classroom today. First she claimed that her stomach hurt and asked for the clinic to call me and they said no. Then she fake vomited to try and come home. Then she peed in her pants. This is trauma. She hasn't wet her pants, since pre-k. In the same building.
2:11 PM
Now I'm buying self-help books and practicing the techniques JUST TO GET MY KIDS TO BE ABLE TO TOLERATE SCHOOL. She should have been sent back to Vickery Mill. We didn't have to do any of this.
Imagine the level of arrogance it must take to refuse to even consider that your school is the problem.
3:30 PM
We didn't end up going on this field trip. Field trips are every kid's best favorite day. I was going to go with her. She didn't want to go. She begged me not to go. We stayed home. See my email from October 12th below.
October 10th, 2023
October 11th, 2023
October 12th, 2023
Do you remember in pre-k, "she goes to the safe space and will only come out for preferred activities"? Now she doesn't even want to go on field trips - the most preferred of all school activities. That's how traumatized she is at this point. "How much longer until Thanksgiving break, Mommy?" (I told her that tksgvg break would be when she gets out of RNE.)
October 12th, 2023
October 12th, 2023
In this email, I am referring to the phone conversation that I had with Pridgen on September 28th. Do you want to know what "our chat last week about the current plan in place" was?
The plan that we discussed and I was talked into was to evaluate her because then she could go into VM "in a program" and have supports and transportation instead of just going in with no supports. My intention was to withdraw her myself and just go rent an apartment in the VM area and register her. I trusted these people. I trusted the discussion we had, and I trusted them when they said that having her go into VM with supports was a good idea. EVEN THOUGH AFTER K SHE WAS PLACED IN REGULAR FIRST GRADE. NO IEP REQUIRED.
October 13th, 2023
Just TEN SHORT DAYS LATER - my daughter was panicking all day long. The whole day. From 8 am until 2 pm when my phone rang. She had been crying, hyperventilating, trying to elope repeatedly, on the floor encircled by adults and screaming that she wants to go home.
I sent her back to school on October 13th. By this time, I have sent multiple emails saying that my daughter says she's sick every day and is telling me she has panic attacks in school. She had already refused to go on a field trip - even with me there because that's how bad it was for her to even participate with anything related to school. I say here, call me if she starts having a bad day BECAUSE I DON'T WANT HER TO EXPERIENCE ANY MORE TRAUMA.
October 16th, 2023
Read this a few times. How sad is this. She was not telling me she was sick FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE SCHOOL STARTED. She thought she was getting out of there and going back to VM.
October 18th, 2023
5:07 PM
Please take note of how many successful 1:1 sessions that girl has with McCrory. McCrory would later tell the IEP team that she didn't think that girl would be sucessful with 1:1 para support.
6:38 PM
We've been working so hard at home - MOSTLY TO KEEP UP MORALE. Can you imagine this? Just to go to school.
October 20th, 2023
9:44 PM
October 22, 2023
"BUT THEN, KNOWING YOUR KIDS, THEY MIGHT BE TALKING ABOUT INFORMATION TRANSMISSION..."
"THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT INFORMATION TRANSMISSION!!!"
October 23th, 2023
12:01 PM
At 12:01 PM, while sending me this email about questionnaires like nothing was going on, my daughter was actively having a panic attack and crying and screaming and rolling on the floor and trying to run away from these people (as she has been doing since pre-K).
At 2 PM, my phone rings and I'm a nervous wreck because every time the phone rings and it's school, I am afraid. My heart races and my chest pounds until they say, everything is ok - we're just calling because...
On this day, I picked up the phone and the person on the other end said, "You have to come pick her up. We can't put her on the bus like this." I said "what do you mean you can't put her on the bus like this? Like what?" They said, "I can't explain anymore, just get here."
When I walked in she was surrounded by administrators on the floor screaming and trying to get away from them. When I asked them, "HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON!!!" They said, "since about 8 o clock this morning." I died. My six year old was crying and screaming intermittently throughout the day, for the whole day, for six hours, while she was having panic attacks and screaming for her mother and saying she wanted to go home. When I asked them, "WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL ME!!!" They said - because the GNETS PEOPLE WERE HERE TODAY.
So they held my daughter, all day - THE WHOLE DAY while she was screaming and trying to escape from them and panicking and asking for her mother, because the GNETS people were there.
If it were any other day of thee week, they would have called me long before six hours because they know that keeping her there in that condition is wrong. They have an email from me saying, call me if she starts having a bad day. They did it anyway so that she could be evaluated by the GNETS people. How do I know what I'm saying is right - That on any other day of the week, they would have called me because they know that holding her there in that condition is wrong? Go to October 30th.
Can anyone guess WHY she had a panic attack on October 23rd? BECAUSE the GNETS people were there to evaluate her. What time did the GNETS people show up that day? What time did my daughter become aware that she was being evaluated by them? She was being evaluated - not by just the regular people at school - and not just by the regular special ed team - but by two strangers that came specifically just to evaluate her for special special ed - in front of her friends and the administrators that she actually likes and just really wants for them to hold her in high regard and not treat her like she has a behavior disorder, they way she remembers in kindergarten, and her brother. AGAIN. She's the bad one. AGAIN. In front of all of the same kids from pre-k, AGAIN. She absolutely could not handle it. On September 28th, GIRL said, "I just want to go back to MY school with MY friends". And here she is, being humiliated in front of everyone again - the very same people she asked to be away from on September 28th. She likes these children, but she was humiliated in front of a lot of them for a whole year and her brother never got in trouble. He was favored and protected, and equally traumatized.
And nobody can see this. 16 professionals couldn't see this. None of them were twin specialists. Mother has 15 sets of twins in the last 5 generations in her family. TWINS RUN IN FAMILIES.
October 25th, 2023
October 27th, 2023
She just wants praise and she wants to be liked and she doesn't want to worry about if her brother is better than she is or is she's in trouble.
October 30th, 2023
GIRL had ANOTHER FULL ON PANICK ATTACK ON THIS DAY.
They called me to come get her at 11:26 AM.
They didn't force her to stay for the whole day and then call me at 2 PM because they "can't put her on the bus like this".
Because they know that forcing her to stay there while she's hysterical and begging and screaming and crying for her mother - AND NOT, AT VERY MINIMUM, CALLING ME TO LET ME KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON is dead wrong. She's 6.
Do you think that if my child were any of their own children, they would feel OK about their child having a hysterical screaming crying panic attack all day long while TWO STRANGERS evaluate her and no one from school calls until the child is so far gone that the child can't even be put on the bus?
Like, while this was going on all day long, not one of them thought - Damn, if this were my SIX YEAR OLD and nobody called me, I'd be upset. Should we call this child's mother? No - They let it go on for SIX HOURS before they called me because they couldn't put her on a bus in the condition she was in. BECAUSE THE GNETS PEOPLE WERE THERE.
Do you think if I had been asked, "Hey MOM, is it ok to keep her here in this condition for SIX HOURS so we can have TWO COMPLETE STRANGERS evaluate her?", I would have said, "Yes, go for it! Call me when she's so upset that you can't even put her on the school bus home and I'll come get her! Thanks for asking!"
How many emails did I send saying - she's telling me she's having panic attacks in school? They knew that keeping her there in that condition was wrong. Do you think that if they had called me at 8:10 AM on the 23rd to tell me what was going on, I would have left her there all day? ABSOLUTELY NOT. THEY KNOW THAT I WOULD HAVE COME AND GOTTEN HER AND THAT'S WHY THEY DIDN'T CALL ME. For a six year old, this is psychological terror. To be screaming for your mother, and hyperventilating and crying and trying to run away, and begging to go home - and none of the adults around you are helping you get to your mother - and you're 6 - and there are two strangers there evaluating you - and this goes on FOR SIX HOURS. This is terror. This is not why I signed a consent to evaluate my daughter.
My child was terrorized for six hours. Shortly after this (you'll read about it below), she started having nightmares. She would wake up screaming and telling me there was "a knife with long arms and legs chasing her!" and she was having "seven thoughts of death and I can't go to school mommy!"
For me, as a parent, this is terror. These people can do whatever they want.
November 1st, 2023
GIRL is doing AMAZING work with McCrory and failing Fetherston's class.
November 2nd, 2022
November 3rd, 2022
November 13rd, 2022
6:47 AM
And also, she's in her own personal hell so in her little mind, there's no way that it's fair for her to have to stay there if he's not even there. No way.
GIRL GETS SUSPENDED.
INSTEAD OF CALLING ME BEFORE IT GOT OUT OF CONTROL LIKE I ASKED (because they literally call me for everything else), they escalated her and suspended her.
Roswell North does not listen to me. At all.
A complete and very logical explanation of this entire behavior chart with substantial evidence is provided January 26th, 2024 below
5:00 PM
5:01 PM
Novemeber 14th, 2023
PLACEMENT DECISION WILL SUDDENLY NOW NOT BE MADE TOMORROW
The very next day, the meeting that we have been patiently waiting for for 6 weeks, is cancelled and we are now waiting for the GNETS people. It's like they did this to her on purpose. Here's what happened: I emailed and said - be hypervigilant, today there will be an episode. Instead of being hypervigilant and calling me, they escalated her into a panic attack (this is documented in the lEP meeting minutes. Amanda McCrory agrees that even though the techniques they use are not technically considered escalation techniques, when they are used with GIRL they in fact, escalate her), and then they called the GNETS people.
RIGHT HERE - THIS IS WHEN IT WAS DECIDED THAT GNETS WAS THE RIGHT PROGRAM FOR MY DAUGHTER. This decision was made right here and it was never a team decision. (OPEN RECORDS REQUEST PENDING)
See what GEORGIA Equity Ed says about GNETS
CLICK HERE --> https://thearc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/GNETS-Overview_3-15-21.pdf
The school system should not even be allowed to recommend GNETS. HOw can anyone say that this is in the best interest of any child?
10:36 PM
Novemebr 15th, 2023
6:59 AM
They're suddenly considering additional eligibility categories to the extreme detriment of BOTH my daughter's and son's mental health and EDUCATION. My daughter has now lost being educated in pre-K AND 1st grade at RNE.
7: 37 PM
Educational Opportunites at GNETS - ZERO!
DISABLED Students who spend the majority of the day in general academic environments have 68% of their day filled with educational opportunities. The remaining percent counts as lunch, recess, counseling, etc. MY DAUGHTER HAS NO DISABILITY!!! SHE'S TRAUMATIZED. THEY WERE GOING TO SEND HER TO JAIL SCHOOL AFTER FIRST TRAUMATIZING HER FOR ONE WHOLE YEAR AT 4 YEARS OLD AND THEN SEVERELY TRAUMATIZING HER FOR 3 MONTHS.
STUDENTS IN A GNETS PROGRAM HAVE 0% OPPORTUNITIES FOR EDUCATION IN A DAY.
MY DAUGHTER HAS THE RIGHT TO A FREE AND FAIR EDUCATION. THERE ARE ZERO PERCENT EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES IN A DAY AT GNETS. I still can't make the math make sense. How is a school able to recommend a place that has NO educational opportunities in a day and call it education?
Her right to a free and fair education was taken away from her at Roswell North, first in pre-K and then by this IEP team because she can barely be educated in a classroom after what happened to her in first grade.
Novemeber 16th, 2023
8:01 AM
This is when I begin to realize that I've been bamboozled. I've been hoodwinked. I continued to send her to school for all of October because I thought we were evaluating her for educational supports at Vickery Mill. I agreed to force my daughter to go to a place that was making her ill every day because I believed that we were evaluating her for educational supports at Vickery Mill. That's not what was happening at all. THE GNETS PEOPLE WERE EVALUATING HER IN OCTOBER. That's it.
Also, do you see how she never answers the question - "what happens if Sweet Apple is not working out?"
Please take note that - the part about not being about to matriculate back to the public school system until the child meets all of their goals IS NEVER MENTIONED ONE TIME. How can this possible be a team decision? The team members don't even tell the mom all of the details. That's a manipulation. When you withhold information that a person needs to make an informed decision, it's manipulation.
This wasn't a team decision. 16 people ganged-up on me. It was a gang-up - not a team acting in the best interest of my daughter.
9:13 AM
Email is offering me a modified schedule, acknowledging that the current environment is having an increasingly deleterious effect on GIRL's ability to self-regulate, much less be educated. Please note the change in tone when compared to January, 2024.
This part kills me: "Given the more recent behaviors" - Those which were elicited from her (all after September 28th) by holding her in her own personal hell and by the exact techniques used at RNE (like standing in front of the door, causing her to feel trapped and eliciting an fight or flight response).
So, given those more recent behaviors that we elicited from her while she is in her own personal hell, we're going to put her in GNETS.
This is not what I consented to. I agreed to send her back to school after September 28th, even after letting the school know that I would happily withdraw her, and rent a second apartment in the VM area and register her there myself - no problem, because I was talked into it being a better option for my daughter. On October 13th, I specifically tell them, call me if she starts having a bad day. This is MY six year old. And just because I consented to have her evaluated for services doesn't know give you the right to completely ignore my request for you to call me if she starts having a bad day. In order for me to give an informed consent as to what that process would entail, I needed to understand that because I have now consented to have her evaluated, you get to hold her there for 6 hours while she's kicking and screaming and begging for her mother. I was infuriated after October 23rd. I made it clear that I didn't want her to be allowed to get to level orange. "If you never let her get to level orange, she will never get to level orange." I never would have subjected her to additional trauma if that's what I thought I was consenting to. I WAS THE ONE WHO SAID - "SHE MUST GO BACK RIGHT NOW." Go to September 28th emails. I was talked in to allowing them to evaluate her. I kept her there with the understanding that they would call me if it started to go south - BECAUSE I WOULD HAVE TAKEN HER OUT OF THERE.
That didn't happen. On October 23rd, she was held there for six hours panicking and crying and screaming and spinning around on the floor and hitting people to get away from them in a fight or flight driven panic - and no one called me.
The same thing happens on October 30th and this time they call me - while she's already actively panicking and writhing around on the floor. What is going on here? I sit by my phone with my heart in my throat all day because I'm a nervous wreck. They know that. What I don't understand is - as you read through the incident reports on these days, ask yourself how many opportunities they had to call me. For six hours, not one person thought, "this really isn't right. This kid is completely traumatized. This can't be normal. Has anyone called her mom?" What gives them the right to believe that I would want my daughter, MY SIX YEAR OLD to be subject to that? For an evaluation that she clearly didn't need, knowing full well that I would have just unenrolled her and registered her there myself. THEY ALL KNEW THAT.
I want to know the school's standard operating procedure for handling a child that's inconsolable. At what point in the crisis response process do they call the mother? WHY ARE THEY ALLOWED TO ALLOW A CHILD TO GET SO UNCONSOLABLE TO THE POINT THAT SHE PANICS AND THEN THEY IMPLEMENT A CRISIS RESPONSE PROTOCOL WITHOUT CALLING A SIX YEAR OLD'S MOTHER LONG BEFORE THAT EVEN BECOMES NECESSARY? I want to understand why they are allowed to do this to my child and expect that I should manage the long term repercussions of this alone?
I DON'T KNOW ANYONE THAT WOULD BE OK WITH THIS. How is it possible that a child is allowed to escalate that far before you will call their parent? THEY KNEW I WAS SITTING BY MY PHONE. October 13 email - call me if anything happens. I was so upset. When I picked up my daughter we just walked to the car. I knew that wasn't going to stop. And I knew they were triggering the hell out of her. I "recognized patterns" all the way way way back in September - before the 28th. BEFORE GIRL asked to go back to VM.
On November 13th, I was done with them. They weren't getting it at all. And I realize they don't believe anything I'm saying. When I picked my daughter up and was told the she was suspended - I was in disbelief. I said, "what do you mean you suspended her!?" And I was given a recital of the policy. I asked why they didn't call me before it even got to that level? When you read the accounts of October 23, 30 and November 11th, ask yourself how many opportunities, among all of the individuals that came in to contact with my daughter on those days, they had to call me before it got as far as it did? When you read the detailed accounts of those days - ask yourself at any point - what if they had just said, "GIRL would you like to call your mother? Would that help?" There is no empathy in this process, and no respect for the parents authority. They only cared about being able to evaluate her, and following their process which allows a six year old to go from normal aaaaaaaaallllllllllllll the way to unconsolable, panic into flight or flight behaviors, held for six hours in that condition, traumatize the mother by calling her and telling her that she should get here as quickly as she can because they can't put GIRL on the bus like this, and they can't give mother any more details than that-just get here, and get suspended. I never would do this to my own child. I wouldn't do this to anyone. None of the people that participated in this process would want this done to them or to their own children. I never would consent to allow anyone to do this to my child. I would have removed her, and they knew that.
WHAT GIVES THEM THE RIGHT TO DO THIS TO A SIX YEAR OLD WITH OUT CALLING THEIR PARENT. THE PARENT WHO WANTED TO JUST WITHDRAW HER ON SEPTEMBER 28th? They completely ignored me the entire time because they believe they knew better than I did. They didn't think that I was acting in the best interest of my own child. MY SIX YEAR OLD. And you know that's true because they used the results of their evaluation to determine her placement and recommended GNETS, which I was completely and totally against.
No team of 16 people who barely know your child should be allowed to make this life altering decision without agreement of the parent AND AT MINIMUM, the child's pediatrician. A decision like this one should be endorsed by a physician that knows the child. The parent should be offered a tour of the facility and invited to spend time observing what the environment would be like before even considering whether it might be right for their child because HOW COULD A PARENT MAKE THAT DECISION OTHERWISE??? Parent's only have an idea of what normal school is like and what normal special ed is like. WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT GENTS IS LIKE. How could this be a team decision?
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS TO US? I am completely traumatized. I'm terrorized. The amount of physical pain that I was in by the time of the January IEP meeting was unmanageable for the first time in my entire life. My life has been altered by this and my children's lives have been altered by this. I was truly ganged up on. Why were there 16 people at the January IEP meeting? There is no way that could ever be a productive meeting. 16 people - many of whom the mother has never met in person - or ever before this - are here to institutionalize your child- OVER A ZOOM CONFERENCE. AND THESE ARE THE SAME PEOPLE THAT HELD HER CRYING AT SCHOOL FOR SIX HOURS. I don't understand how this is legal. And they documented every minute of it. All six hours. And nobody called her mom. Their process, and making sure they could perform an evaluation THAT SHE DIDN'T EVEN NEED was more important than my child and my authority as a parent and my informed consent. This is not what I signed up for.
What part of the game is this? You don't need to know anything at all about what's morally right and wrong, and what is ethically right and wrong, or anything at all about school processes to know that it's not supposed to be like this.
And now we get to walk around with the marks of that trauma on our records. BOTH GIRL AND BOY's educational record are deeply marred by this.
I am happy to invite anyone to our FB and Instagram, that would like to see for themselves what we are like when we are not in school and what our lives were like before school.
November 29, 2023
December, 2023
December 5th, 2023
"He is very worried..." - His anxiety is through the roof. He had no bugs. His sister went home early. His scratching was very real. His itching was very real. It's a psychosomatic presentation of his anxiety related to his sibling having gone home early. His sibling has gone home and not him. He hates it there too. "How come she always gets to go home and I don't"? He is just as traumatized by everything that has happened to this point as she is.
Remember November 13th? BOY stayed home and GIRL didn't make it through the day? And I even warned about it before hand??? And she was still allowed to get all the way into panic behaviors and then suspended.
Now GIRL went home and BOY is not making it through the day. His anxiety over this is so high that he is demonstrating physiological manifestations of anxiety to the point where it is interfering with his ability to learn (THIS IS SO OBVIOUS). Imagine if they were just allowed to be happy, not knowing anything about one or the other at all during the day so that they could just function individually without the possibility or chance of ever being wrong or chastised in front of one another and constantly triggered into regression and trauma behaviors. These are little kids. This is torture for them.
January, 2024
January 3rd, 2024
The day before the meeting.
January 4th, 2024
January 5, 2024
January 7, 2024
12:13 PM
After this email, Dr. Billups says she never said GNETS was not good for girl and McCrory says that 1:1 para would not help her be successful.
We're they really acting in the best interest of the child or were they just retaliating against mommy's emails?
Were they ever really acting in the best interest of the child? (6 hours. They held her for 6 hours while she was screaming and crying and begging to go home and pleading for her mother. After this she began waking up with night terrors of a knife chasing her and insisting that she couldn't go to school.)
This is the reason that no IEP "team" should consist of 16 professionals that are trying to institutionalize your child, and the angry parent. Because you get mocked (scroll to January 9th, below) and ganged up on.
6:01 PM
January 8, 2024
10:05 AM
11:58 AM
Should this GIANT team be making decisions for my daughter?
Some of these people have met her once.
Does it stand to reason that it would have been in GIRL's best interest to already have reached out to the teacher for whom she performed so well with intervention, that the teacher recommended she be moved to gen ed? I understand this team cares very much about data gathering. Was there an attempt made to get additional details from that teacher BEFORE subjecting us to time, testing, and additional duress (which continues on) for a problem that was completely created by the same people who are now evaluating and diagnosing the problem and determining placement?
4:04 PM
For reference: We started the EFT tapping, I made Growth Mindset cards and we had a front door fishbowl of growth mindset cards. We each pulled a card before we left the house. I made bag tags with love and praise reminders, I started alternating days to go to lunch so that the kids would only have to have a few hours in the morning, lunch with me, and then a few hours until they come home. I had to tell my job that i had to leave everyday at 11 am to go to lunch with the kids.
January 9, 2024
7:36 AM
8:14 AM
9:49 AM
10:07 AM
10:28 AM
lice*
10:39 AM
12:46 PM
January 10, 2024
6:57 AM
January 11, 2024
10:16 AM
GIRL had three remote sessions with Amanda McRory. I was not in the room for any of the sessions. GIRL sat at the computer the entire time and did her work. She was focused, in fact, she was undistractable.
Ms. McCrory subsequently told the IEP team that she didn't think GIRL could be successful with 1-1 support. Please scroll up and see how many awesome days that GIRL has with McCrory.
She absolutely would be completely successful if she had someone whose sole purpose was to guide her through the day like a BFF so that she felt safe. SHE NEEDS SOMEONE WHO IS AUTOMATICALLY ON HER SIDE.
PLEASE SEE THE SUPPORTING NOTE FROM GIRL'S BBSTR. BBSTR was 18 years old. She gained GIRL's trust and I would allow her to take GIRL to the Wills Park Pool, in an UBER, BY THEMSELVES - and never worry one time. GIRL is safe when she knows and trusts that she has someone on her side.
GIRL literally needs to be protected in the classroom from any and all teacher criticism as well as the possibility of teacher criticism in front of her peers BECAUSE SHE SPENT A WHOLE YEAR BEING CRITICIZED AND SCRUTINIZED WHEN SHE WAS 4 years old, IN FRONT OF HER SIBLING, FOR THINGS LIKE NOT WEARING HER MASK AND NOT WANTING TO SIT IN THE GROUP WITH HER SIBLING DURING THE WORST SIBLING RIVALRY SHE HAD EVER KNOWN AND THE FIRST TIME SHE WAS EVER EXPOSED TO SUCH A THING.
She was actually singled out for "taking a long time to recover" as decided by someone with 6 years of experience. SCRUTINIZED AND CRITICIZED before she even started.
She needs that one-on-one support until her confidence is established because it was completely destroyed by the prolonged experiment that took place at RNE from OCTOBER - JANUARY and by the DREAM TEAM #16.
Her trust for teachers was first destroyed in pre-K.
She went to VM and regained trust for teachers and the school environment setting.
She was CONFIDENT at school for the first time. She was thriving. She would come home and tell me that she LOVED school frequently.
She returned to her own personal hell and then her trust for teachers and authority was severely broken AGAIN, AND THIS TIME she completely lost her new-found confidence for school; the confidence that SHE CULTIVATED AT VICKERY MILL WITH HER HARD WORK AND SUCCESSES. She's getting 68% on tests and even today, one year later (January 2025), her confidence is still not yet regained.
She has the right to a free and fair education.
She can barely be educated in a classroom anymore as a result of this experience from October to January.
This has been the most devastating experience of our lives.
This is a copy of a recorded session with Amanda McCrory.
Ms. McCrory stated to the IEP team that she didn't think GIRL could be successful with 1:1 support.
January 12, 2024
6:57 AM
10:15 AM
10:35 AM
Billups denies saying that GNETS is not appropriate for GIRL, 20 WHOLE MINUTES after I email the meeting minutes where Pridgen clearly heard it too.
Read carefully - Dr. Tolbert says she had just been crying... She was in the throws of panic all day long. For 6 hours. They got her to stop crying for a bit so they could evaluate her. This is how they justify that they did not evaluate her during a panic attack.
10:38 AM
January 13, 2024
BOY was given an invitation for a birthday party for GIRL. There was no separate invitation for him (it was an oversight). This is how I retrieved the invitation from his bag.
Now that GIRL has been recommended for GNETS and while this team just spent 4 months not listening to me at all (October - January) when I was telling them that GIRL and BOY were being affected by each other and their shared experience in the building, they're starting to get it. Amanda McCrory CALLED MY CELL PHONE while BOY was on the bus to let me know that there's a chance that he might be mad when he gets off the bus because he got an invitation for his sister and not him. What I'm saying is finally sinking in.
He was more mad then mad. He threw his bag down when he got off the bus and said he never wanted to go to school again. This is his experience at RNE as well. 2 of his 4 years have been awful. These are his memories. These are my memories, too.
January 15, 2024
January 17, 2024
I hand delivered a letter and revoked consent for Special Education Services and we will never participate in this process again. Under no circumstances should a team of 16 people, many of whom have only met GIRL once or twice, and evaluated her for educational program placement DURING A PANIC ATTACK, and have not listened to the mother ONCE, have this much control over our lives. It's terrible. I'm left holding the bag and picking up pieces every single time. I'm responsible after YOU damage her. I have to fix her after you break her AND I have to fight everyone's perception everywhere I go because "DISCIPLINE BEGINS AT HOME".
January 18, 2024
JANUARY 20, 2024
9:13 AM
9:20 AM
January 22, 2024
7:59 AM
10:05 AM
10:08 AM
10:17 AM
11:06 AM
The results of that testing were received after GIRL was withdrawn In January of 2024.
GIRL was diagnosed with unspecified anxiety disorder related to past negative experiences at school. She was recommended to GNETS.
Boy was diagnosed with depression and anxiety related to past negative experiences at school.
12:17 PM
12:28 PM
JANUARY 22nd, 2024
January 23, 2024
January 24, 2024
Email from administration night before GIRL returns to school
They can finally hear me. Do you remember on October 13th when I said, "if anything happens, just call me". At this point, I don't want them saying anything to her, especially in a crisis as every method they use is an escalation. "If you don't do this - I will make the problem bigger by getting you in trouble with someone even bigger than me!"
How did it take everything that transpired for a group of moms to recognize that they should just ask GIRL if she wants to call her mom instead of doing the coordinated dance that starts with a show of force and blocking the doors and ends in a crisis protocol. "Hey sweet GIRL, you look like you're getting upset. If you can't tell us, would you like to go call your mom and talk to her for a few minutes? Would that help?"
But every-time she became a little resistant, a coordinated dance was signaled. The adults all become alert! Step 1: GIRL gets resistant because something has triggered her. Step 2: Then one teacher moves in position between GIRL and front door, eagerly awaiting her next move and thus escalating GIRL into Step 3: in the coordinated dance where she struggles to get out the door that has just been blocked - because all trapped animals panic.
Instead of just recognizing that something has triggered her and she's escalating, and then asking GIRL if she'd like to call her mom - instead they kept her there for three full panic attacks that they escalated the GIRL into with the coordinated dance. (See reports).
January 25th, 2021
On October 5th, I sent an email to the team letting them know that I told GIRL that her stress illnesses were real. On 10/6, I get an email saying, "she peed in her pants because she was trying to come home". It was dismissed and she was sent right back to class. I JUST TOLD HER IT WAS REAL, STRESS RELATED, CONDITIONS.
January 25th, 2024
GIRL gets reprimanded in front of her brother and all of the kids in the FOUR first grade classes on the first day back. You would think the administration could have called a quick staff meeting and let everyone know not to reprimand her for little dumb things in front of everyone. That's only in about .....all of my emails.
Midnight email to the administration forwarding an email sent earlier to our family as well.
January 26th, 2024
THIS IS THE VERY FIRST TIME I BECOME AWARE THAT THEY HAVE HAD GYM TOGETHER ALL YEAR LONG. ALL YEAR LONG, THERE IS A PROBLEM ON GYM DAY AND I CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHY. AND ALL YEAR LONG, I'M TOLD THAT SHE'S IN SEPARATE CLASSES FROM HER BROTHER. ALL YEAR LONG - THEY HAD GYM - TOGETHER!!! TOGETHER!!!! I HAD NO IDEA.
I can't believe this. I sent a long, impassioned email about things I do to minimize the sibling rivalry that was created there, I told them all about my special plan for loading them on the bus, everything I've been talking about has been about keeping her away from her brother so they both can function. They have been together all year long.
And for GIRL's first day back - she had gym with her brother.
As you can imagine, this didn't work.
It's like they weren't even trying. BELIEF, ATTITUDE, BEHAVIOR correlation. They don't really buy into what I'm saying. There humoring me. "There are 25 other sets of twins in this building and they're all fine so..."
This was a good thing tho. This turned out to be the key to unlocking what actually happened this year.
Let's take a moment to revisit the behavior chart.
I withdraw GIRL from school.
JANUARY 26th, 2024
January 28th, 2024
Please take note of how many time I feel I have to explain to people that really, I am a good mom. My kids don't act the way they do because they don't get everything they want. They behave the way they do because they were traumatized previously by a teacher in that building.
February, 2024
February 1, 2024
Please go back to October and see how many good days in a row that GIRL had with 1:1 support as soon as she realized she was getting out of there. When the anxiety of the environment is alleviated by convincing GIRL she really is getting out of there, she can suddenly perform.
WHAT DID THE PEDIATRICIAN SAY?
After I withdrew GIRL from school in January, I brought her to the pediatrician and told her the story of how GIRL wakes up in the middle of the night, usually on a Saturday night but sometimes Sunday, crying about a nightmare with a knife that was chasing her with skinny arms and legs and she tells me that she can't go to school.
The pediatrician said (and I quote): "Hmmmm, that's what I like to call Sunday Evening Syndrome. Who is bullying her? Is anyone at school bullying her?"
We all know the answer, right? She was terrorized in October and November.
In pre-K, she would come home and tell me that her teacher was bullying her. She would tell me that her teacher punched her in the face. She would come home in first grade and tell me the same thing. Do I believe that anyone punched her in the face? No. But what I do think is that whatever they were doing to her was so bad to her, that she felt like she had been punched in the face. Her self esteem and her developing ego were being damaged.
February 1, 2024
February 8, 2024
February 12, 2024
February 27, 2024
February 28, 2024
MARCH, 2024
MARCH 4th, 2024
MARCH 25th, 2024
Even I'm tired of the escalations already. If you don't do this, I'll do something bad to you in front of everyone despite your current state of anxiety and trauma having just witnessed and experienced everything your sister just went through - and make you hate school even worse.
Please head over to the FAQ and check out the section called Impact on BOY. Fear of authority, fear of getting in trouble, acting out, etc.
Here it is in a nutshell. He said exactly what she said happened. But look at how he negatively interpets the situation. Go back to the FAQ.
MARCH 26th, 2024
MARCH 28th, 2024
April
April 19th, 2024
Two people have been working on my son to no avail. They never ask me how they might get through to him. I get no situational background to understand why he's triggered (just, "we're working with him"). He's getting stressed to the point of needing a break and whatever they're doing isn't working - so can I just reinforce that he has to listen.
Please go to the email thread from 2nd grade (February, 2025) to see what the result is when the teacher gets feedback from AND LISTEN's TO THE MOTHER. Actually, you can see the result of getting feedback and listening to mom, all through kindergarten as well.
This has been the stand-out WORST experience of my life. Thankfully, they didn't give the sheet to him. It was only emailed to me. No parent should have to go through this.
April 22th, 2024
Go see how fast his 2nd grade teacher is able to get him to go back to work because she listened to me. (February 2025)
April 22th, 2024
April 25th, 2024
April 26th, 2024
He HAD TO POOP and he didn't know that poop could also be an emergency. He thought only peeing in your pants was an emergency. So when he had to poop and he was told no, he locked down. THE WAY HE WAS TAUGHT TO DO IN PRESCHOOL.
He would come home and tell me how much he missed Ms. Rosie. He literally cried at night for Ms. Rosie soooo many nights during 1st grade.
April 28th, 2024
MAY
MAY 6th 2024
She told him she was disappointed. This is the same thing that he witnessed happening to his sister all through pre-k. "I'm sorry I let you down when I got a straight face in school mommy." And now, after witnessing his sister's complete deterioration for the last 9 months, and the terror of October and November - we're telling him that we're disappointed in his behavior because he locked down because he's scared of teachers. Go check out the FAQ. My kids absolutely hate school. Check out their attendance record.
MAY 8th 2024
RESULTS OF PRIVATE PSYCHO-EDUCATIONAL TESTING
GIRL
Read it 30 times: Unspecified Anxiety Disorder (SCHOOL RELATED / PERFORMANCE ANXIETY).
It's important to note here that the testing was performed in mid March. I withdrew her from school end of January, after having not a great last day. It is well known that times of heightened anxiety exacerbate the symptoms of a mental health condition which means - if there were any mental health condition to be uncovered, this would have been a good time.
She was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder that is "school/performance related", and related to past negative experiences.
16 people unanimously voted to send GIRL to the most restrictive environment for a severe behavioral disorder that she doesn't have.
16 people unanimously voted to send my daughter to the most restrictive environment in a program that has been investigated by the DOJ multiple times, that has ZERO educational opportunities in a day, that has subjective criteria for exiting the program and no recourse if, once after you get there you realize that it's not a good environment - it's too bad.
You can not be matriculated back to your home school because the school has already determined that they do not have the resources to educate your child in their classroom. It's like an administrative expulsion that takes you out of the public school system completely and indefinitely.
16 professionals voted to send GIRL to the most restrictive environment for an anxiety disorder that was created at RNE, resulting in panic associated "fight or flight" behaviors that are not experienced in any other of the girl's usual environments before RNE nor did they exist while at VM in any environment at all. She NEVER had panic attacks there. NEVER. She was happy and had gained her school confidence with her hard work to get past the negative attention seeking behaviors that she learned at RNE and develop new, positive attention gathering behaviors.
After this first grade experience, GIRL can barely be educated in a classroom anymore. She should have been spared all of that trauma. She asked to leave RNE on September 28th, 2023. She had multiple panic attacks in school until 11/13 when I drew the line and said I'm sorry, I can't keep sending her back here like this.
My whole family is affected by this, in every facet of our lives. The children brought their behaviors home in pre-k, and then they were so amazing in K. It was just like it was before pre-k. Then they went to 1st grade and every member of my family is traumatized from our experience, including me. Much like every other parent - every time my phone rings - my heart is in my throat until they tell me what they're calling about.
Imagine getting calls twice or three times a week, and you panic every time because you keep sending your child to an environment that you know is making her sick and act out because you think you have to for some short period of time. Every email that comes in makes my stomach sink and I have to mentally prepare myself for what it might say. Every email.
The value of the evaluations conducted at RNE in October, November, and December 2023 is that they objectively measure and quantify the exact extent of duress GIRL experiences in that environment.
August 2024
From Board Bulletin for 8/7/2024 - Fulton County Schools is replacing the state-operated GNETS.
So, 7 short months after GNETS was recommended for my daughter, the county replaces the program. THAT's how bad it is. My daughter has no emotional or behavioral problem. She would have eroded away in that environment.
We visited RNE on the 28th of January, 2025 at 2:50 pm. We had a parent/teacher conference for BOY until about 3:15. At five thirty, GIRL came to me and said, "Mommy my back hurts me really badly." When I asked her why and when it started, she said "it started when we went into RNE. Like when I went to the bathroom." (I have video.) She went to the bathroom as soon as we got to the target classroom. We had not yet been there for even 5 minutes.
This is also the place that the girl would escape to frequently to get out of class during pre-K (RR means rest room) and also the place where she would go and make vomit sounds to try and come home during first grade.
Just one short year after my daughter was recommended for GNETS instead of Vickery Mill, the law was changed and now in fact kids CAN just choose where they want to go to school.
One of the reasons that the IEP team recommended GNETS over VM is that VM is where she wanted to go to school (I just want to go back to MY SCHOOL with MY FRIENDS) and kids don't just get to choose where they want to go to school. That's what they told me during the recorded meeting.
And because I was advocating so hard for her to go to VM (i.e. "get what she wanted"), it further substantiated the teams belief that she acts the way she does because the mother gives her everything she wants / doesn't discipline her / had no ides what is actually in the best interest of the child - as evidenced by their placement decision which was completely agains the mother's judgement. Despite all of the information presented to them, about her panic attacks in school BEFORE she was evaluated, the fact that I didn't even want to send her there after September 28th but I did because I thought the school was helping me in doing what was in GIRL's best interest, they chose GNETS.
You will see this theme (my daughter's behavior is related to my parenting or lack thereof) discussed repeatedly throughout the emails. I have to prove that I don't just give her everything she wants.
Imagine - last year, I was a bad mother for having damaged my daughter's behavior by giving her everything she wants as evidenced by how hard I advocated for her to go back to VM.
This year, I'm forward thinking in advocating for what was actually in the best interest of the child - for her to go to Vickery Mill.