The List That Shouldn't Exist

The IEP meeting that I requested to discuss accommodations which could be made to ensure Ashley no longer gets injured at school was held this week. I am not quite ready to write about the entire meeting, but I did want to show you something that I shared at the meeting.

I wanted to make sure that the IEP team members understood that the most current injury to Ashley's arm was ANOTHER example of the injuries that Ash has sustained at school - not the ONLY injury. I felt it was important to put into perspective the sum of injuries at school and then contrast that to the sum of injuries outside of school. So I presented this list of all the significant injuries Ashley has had since starting school at age 3. I did not include the fingertip bruises that have become commonplace from adults trying to move or reposition Ashley. Here is the list:

Significant injuries sustained by Ashley Nickerson during her school years from Preschool to Eleventh grade
Prepared October 24, 2012
Preschool:

While walking the school hallway with the principal, Ashley fell up a flight of steps. It was believed she broke her nose. The rescue squad was called and she was transported to the hospital emergency room. Fortunately her nose was not broken, but badly bruised. She had two black eyes for several weeks.

Kindergarten:

Ashley tripped in the classroom on the edge of a rug which had been placed over the classroom carpet. She fell into the edge of a table. Again she was transported to the ER. The doctor suspected she might have broken her eye socket bone (good eye) and immediately ordered a cat scan. Again thankfully, the bone was not broken, but she was badly bruised and again had a black eye.

First grade:

Ashley tripped while walking in the school hallway with her aide. She required two stitches in her upper lip as a result of the fall.

Second grade:

Ashley broke her two front teeth while riding the bus to school. She had to have both teeth capped as a result. Although I requested a copy of the video tape from the bus, my request was denied.

Three months after Ashley initially broke her two front teeth on the bus, she broke one of them again, also on the bus. Again, I was refused access to the videotape.

Third grade:

Ashley arrived home from school without her G-tube. I was told by the teacher and school administration that it absolutely could not have happened at school. Ashley had to be taken to the ER to have a new tube inserted. The next day, the original G-tube was found on the school playground.

Seventh grade:

I received a call from school that Ashley’s G-tube was found in her shirt (pulled out of her stoma). Again she was transported from school to the ER in an ambulance. The tube had been out all day and as a result the stoma had begun to close. The doctor was required to perform outpatient surgery to get it re-inserted.

2012 ESY Services:

Ashley arrived home with an abrasion about the size of an egg on the inside upper part of her right arm. It was bleeding slightly and blood had stained the shirt she was wearing. No note or phone call was received from school telling me what had happened. I purposely did not send a note the next day asking what had happened, but I did receive a phone call later that morning telling me that Ashley had just scraped her arm on the slide. I responded that the injury was present the prior day, and the only response was ‘oh’.

Eleventh grade:

Ashley’s arm was injured. The injury required two visits to the pediatrician, one to an orthopedist, one set of xrays, and a second attempt at xrays. According to school, “The investigators were unable to ascertain how the injury was sustained or what caused it. “