title:  Trump’s Attorney General Pick Thinks Kids With Disabilities Are Dragging Public Schools Down
text: Yes, you read the title correctly. Trump s pick for attorney general has seriously said that children with disabilities attending public schools are the problem with America s education system.In May 2000, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), gave a speech about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act on the floor of the Senate. He argued that one of the main reasons public schools in America are failing miserably at educating our children is because kids with disabilities have been mainstreamed. We have created a complex system of federal regulations and laws that have created lawsuit after lawsuit, special treatment for certain children, and that are a big factor in accelerating the decline in civility and discipline in classrooms all over America. I say that very sincerely,  Sessions said.Sessions insisted that he had received letters from teachers all over the country who said they weren t allowed to properly discipline troubled or disruptive students because of the Disabilities Education Act. We have children we cannot control because of this federal law,  he said.As the Huffington Post explains: The law, which passed in 1975, was enacted to protect children with disabilities from the school administrators that Sessions cited. It required schools to grant students with disabilities an education in a general classroom when possible, and encouraged the parents of those children to be more intimately involved in their education. The legislation, which has been reformed various times since, is credited with providing millions of children with mainstream public school access and support. Sessions could care less that education advocates, even from his own state, have made it clear that the only way they have been abe to get fair treatment for disabled students is through federal regulations and the threat of lawsuits.According to Candace Aylor, a veteran parent advocate and appointee to Texas  health commission s Behavioral Health Advisory Committee, Session s arguments are not only nauseating, they are heartless and misguided. If he doesn t recognize the need for schools to be required to provide a free and appropriate public education to all students regardless of disability what kind of society does he intend for us to live in?  she said.  What should we do? Should we put them in asylums again? How far back in history should we go? Are they not worthy? Are they defective in his mind? It isn t likely that Trump gives a hoot that his choice for attorney general thinks we should keep children with disabilities hidden in a back room and not waste our precious time educating them. After all, Trump himself thinks it is perfectly acceptable to mock people with disabilities.Featured image via Active For Life