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4 ! THE FIRST AMENDMENT: THE BROAD RIGHT TO EXPRESS AND RECEIVE INFORMATION AND IDEAS Without free speech no search for truth is possible, without free speech no discovery of truth is useful. . . . Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than a denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people. —Charles Bradlaugh The school administrator turned to the parents, smiled, and said, “I just want the best for your child.” They didn’t doubt it, but the problem was in the details. Debra was eleven; she had a cochlear implant, could hear sounds, and in a quiet environment, could distinguish language. She was of average intelligence and was at grade level in basic skill development. The school district had placed her in a special day class for deaf and hard of hearing students in which the students used both sign language and oral-aural language. The students ranged in age from six to fourteen, and their cognitive abilities varied widely. On any given day Debra might be sitting next to a six-year-old who communicated exclusively through sign language or a fourteen-year-old who had aural-oral skills but the cognitive abilities of a four-year-old. The program had a teacher qualified to work with deaf and hard of hearing students, a full-time but noncertified sign language interpreter, and a part-time speech pathologist who worked with Debra and her classmates , three hours a week, on recognizing spoken language and enhancing their ability to speak. This work was exhausting, and Debra made slow progress. The special day class was twenty-five miles from her home, and although school started at 8 a.m., she had to catch a bus at 6:30 a.m. School ended at 3 p.m., but Debra did not get home until 5:30 p.m. 44 The First Amendment / 45 “We appreciate your position here,” the parents said, “but our daughter is in the wrong program. How would you like it if your child was in a class where there were children five years older and five years younger? We want her to go to her neighborhood school just as her brother did, just as all her friends do.” The administrator responded, “If Debra attends Washington Elementary , she would need her own individual speech pathologist; do you think it is fair that every deaf child in our district have his or her own individual speech pathologist?” The parents replied, “We don’t know about that. Debra is a kid. She’s eleven years old, and she wants to go to school with her neighborhood friends. She wants to be in a class with other eleven-year-olds and not with fourteen-year-olds or six-year-olds. She wants to be in a place where she can better develop her oral and aural abilities.” “I am sorry, but we disagree here. I have a duty to Debra but also to other students, and it will cost this district an additional $55,000 to $70,000 a year just to hire a personal speech pathologist for Debra. It will then cost us many thousands of dollars to put rugs into her classrooms and add acoustical tiles. I can’t do that and not harm the other children in this district. And I won’t. She is doing well, and the law does give us some flexibility in placing her in the program she is currently in. I’m sorry, but if we have to go to a hearing on this one, and even to court, I am fully prepared to do so.” The administrator paused. She had been in a thousand IEP meetings , a hundred mediations, and dozens of due process hearings. She had worked with all kinds of children, had in fact been a speech therapist before she got her administrator’s credential. She was sure she understood deaf and hard of hearing children as well as she understood autistic and emotionally troubled kids. “She’ll never learn to function in a hearing world if her hand is held every day of her life. I know it’s hard, but Debra is a very strong young lady, and she will be better equipped to go out into the hearing world with the help she is getting in her special day class. In that regular class at Washington, she’ll slip further behind.” The administrator began to gather her papers, but...

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