The president of the Bonner County School District's parent-teacher organization has accused district officials of medieval thinking when they removed an emotionally impaired child from an elementary school while civic leaders met there.
"I feel like we've gone back to the Dark Ages and are trying to cover this thing up," said Beth Dean. "How can they remove a child for a day to impress community leaders but say it's OK every other day to leave the child in a school with 160 other kids?"The impaired fifth-grader, who is known to scream obscenities and bang his fists on the desk and wall, was moved from Hope Elementary School to Northside Elementary while a "Leadership Sandpoint" class sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce met at Hope.
Curriculum director Susan Zoller said a group of counselors and teachers made the decision to move the boy to another school for the day, a decision Dean said was made simply to avoid embarrassing the civic group.
"The team decided it was more appropriate the boy not be at school that day," Zoller said.
The boy has been attending the school for five years and has an aide that works solely with him, but Dean contended the district's care for impaired pupils is inadequate.
School Board Chairman Al Jacobson and other school administrators had no immediate comment, but parents have been expressing concern about the program for emotionally impaired children, Jacobson acknowledged.