KETTERING — Southdale Elementary School in Kettering was scheduled to take a field trip to Carillon Park on December 13 but one student was left behind because of his disability.
The mother spoke with News Center 7′s Haley Kosik about how this is not the first time the school district has made her son feel like an outsider.
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“Everyday he’s reminded of his disability and that’s just going to be a fact of life for him,” said Queena Greene, the boy’s mother.
Declan Greene was born with spina bifida, causing paralysis in his legs. He’s now in third grade at Southdale Elementary School and was waiting to get on the bus for a field trip Tuesday.
“On the day of (the field trip), that didn’t quite happen,” she said. “We got a call from the school.”
“This is Emily Stiffler from Southdale,” a voicemail said. “Can you give me a call back when you get a chance? Thank you, bye.”
Kosik says when Queena called the school back, she was told Declan could not go on the field with the rest of his class because the bus taking them was not handicap accessible.
“What I have a problem with is you didn’t have a conscience about letting the rest of his class go and making him stay there and wait for 40 minutes to hopefully get another bus to get him there,” said Queena.
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Southdale Elementary School is just less than three miles away from the school district’s transportation department.
“There’s been nonstop issues with transportation with him from the time he started kindergarten there,” said Matthew Greene, Declan’s father. “There’s been promises made and there’s been let downs time and time again.”
Declan showed up an hour late to his field trip.
“You told him that he didn’t matter,” said Queena. “That the rest of his classmates were more important than him, and you made him cry and feel sad.”
Kosik reports the principal has apologized and assured Queena something like this would never happen again.
“So I respect that,” she said. “However, it was absolutely the wrong decision and regardless of apologies, it’s not the first time that something like this has happened.”
Declan’s father hopes this wakes people up.
“The fact these kids, whether they’re a physical disability of mental disability, they’re going through enough as it is to just take the time to think about if you were in their shoes or in our shoes,” he said.
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Kettering City Schools release a statement to News Center 7.
The Kettering Schools take pride in providing all of our students with opportunities for robust and relevant field trip experiences. A field trip was planned for one of our third-grade classes at Southdale Elementary School yesterday, December 13.
Unfortunately, there was a break in communication and the bus that was sent to the school to transport the students to Carillon Park was not equipped with a wheelchair lift that was needed to accommodate one of our students. Once this was brought to the attention of Southdale’s principal, our Transportation Department was contacted and a bus with a wheelchair lift was requested to be sent to Southdale. After a short delay, a bus was dispatched to Southdale and the student was transported to Carillon Park to join their peers on the field trip.
We apologize to the student and their family for this mistake on our part. We regret that the student’s trip to the park was delayed, but we made sure that the student was able to join their classmates as soon as possible for the field trip. We have taken measures to prevent this from happening in the future, and again, extend our apologies to the student and their family for the oversight that caused the issue yesterday.