Court permits autistic teenager to join in graduation
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Peoples Academy senior Todd Geraci receives a standing ovation after crossing the stage at graduation Thursday night. JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR/TIMES ARGUS |
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By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: June 19, 2009
It took a court injunction, but an 18-year-old student with autism was able to attend the People's Academy graduation in Morrisville Thursday night with all his classmates.
The supervisory union that oversees the school had decided that Todd Geraci could not participate in graduation because he had not completed all aspects of his schooling, as required under district rules.
As a student with autism, Geraci is eligible for assistance under state and federal rules until he turns 22, or until he completes high school. Geraci had completed his academic work but had not completed work in his individual education program, which includes social and other goals.
Julie Sullivan, Todd Geraci's mother, felt that was unfair and sought legal help to allow her son to join the ceremony.
"Todd has gone to school with his classmates for nine years," she said. "We were faced with relinquishing his rights and we found that just unacceptable."
With the assistance of Matthew Bryant, an attorney with the disability law project of Vermont Legal Aid, Geraci's parents won a court injunction forcing the school to allow him at the graduation Thursday night. He did not receive a diploma since he has not finished all the requirements.
"We are very excited for him to have this chance," Julie Sullivan said.
But the ruling comes with potential problems, said Tracy Wrend, the superintendent of Lamoille South Supervisory Union.
"We want kids to be successful, we want them to meet high standards," Wrend said. The ruling may have "increased the likelihood that high school students will assume they don't have to meet high standards and can participate in the ceremony as well."
Thursday afternoon she talked to the family of another student who was considering filing with the court demanding that their child – who was not disabled – also be allowed to participate in the graduation ceremony despite not completing the academic work, Wrend said. In the end that injunction was apparently not filed by the time the court closed Thursday afternoon.
"Graduation at People's Academy is not a feel-good exercise," Wrend said. "It is the formal recognition that students have met the high standards set for them. We want our graduation ceremonies ... to have meaning."
But Bryant, the legal aid lawyer who represented Todd Geraci, disagreed.
"Todd has completed all of his general education requirements," Bryant said.
"It created that very difficult excruciating choice," he added. "That choice seemed untenable, it just did not seem right."
Many of his fellow students supported Geraci's case, with a petition and in the courtroom in which he won the right to go to the graduation, Bryant said.
"The courtroom was packed," he said.
Despite the support from his fellow students, the school had a legitimate concern about allowing students to attend graduation who have not completed their courses of study, including those disabled students with individual education plans, said Robert Luce, the attorney for the school district.
"This district is very concerned that high standards and expectations be upheld for both disabled and non-disabled students," Luce said. In fact, school districts that allow students to go to graduation ceremonies before they have completed their courses of study find they are less likely to return to school, Luce said.
"On balance they are less likely to return to complete their requirements," he said. "We really believe in the requirements we set for graduation."
However, to require that her son either graduate with a later class, or give up the assistance offered to him to continue learning the skills he needs to live alone is unfair, Sullivan said.
"When you go to school side by side with someone with a disability there is a lot of tolerance and patience and helpfulness that went along with those students' journey along a path with my son," she said. "We felt really strongly it would be a loss to our son and a loss to the students he went to school with."
"You can't hold onto some traditional value that has long been outdated," she concluded.
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