Firstly, cowardly and unprincipled school districts hit hardest where the families have the least educational and financial resources to protect their children's rights.

They adjudge any members of an historiclaly oppressed or low-income group (or just naively trusting parents of any racial or religious background) as easy targets for the violation of education rights. Generally, school districts write quick and dirty assessments of children in order to shift the funding burdens for the education onto non-education state agencies, or else to use them as cash cows to draw down extra monies from the government(s) for their "alternative" programs.

Because of the way special education law is written, the first thing they lie about is the so-called IQ. So, if a child has a 140 to 160 IQ, they may have it written down as 90 or 100. If a child is given a culturally biased test, then it makes it easier to finagle a score in the retarded range.

According to the way the law is interpreted--- which is incorrect but convenient for these school districts all over the country--- they go by a so-called "two-year discrepancy between IQ and academic performance." The trick is to give the child nothing that will make him want to come to school--- social success, social or emotional stability, academic success, enrichment activities, field trips, etc.---Then when he is "truant" because of this child abuse, it is easy for the school districts to funnel the kid into the delinquency system where his "placement" is paid for by another state agency and often the bill is sent to the parents, welfare support payments reduced, and so forth.

So the first thing the African-American community needs is a board of experts in disability assessment that is not taking payouts from school districts; also needed are attorneys specializing in special education law; thirdly, a special fund to pay expert witness fees and to advance the costs of outside assessment. Until the community has these experts, the problem of mislabelling children and destroying their lives will continue unchecked.

Lastly, the U.S. Dept. of Education and all 50 states are not enforcing the laws because of politization of these agencies, with the incentive of shifting funding burdens for these children's educations onto departments of social services and departments of correction.

The burden of discrimination against Afro-Americans is also experienced by children in other groups---double discrimination-- and there should be a rainbow coalition to put an end to the vicious cycle of discrimination-delinquency- unemployment-drug addiction---and discrimination-induced mental illness.

Suzanne Gorenfeld - Volunteer advocate