{"id":14717,"date":"2012-11-08T11:22:29","date_gmt":"2012-11-08T16:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=14717"},"modified":"2012-11-08T11:35:05","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T16:35:05","slug":"protestors-asking-for-hillsborough-resignations-after-deaths-of-two-students-with-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/11\/08\/protestors-asking-for-hillsborough-resignations-after-deaths-of-two-students-with-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Protestors Asking For Hillsborough Resignations After Deaths of Two Students With Disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Justice for Jennifer Caballero \/ Facebook<\/p>

A screenshot of the Justice for Jennifer Caballero Facebook page. Protestors are asking for the resignation of the Hillsborough schools superintendent and school board chairman.<\/p><\/div>\n

A group of parents is asking for the resignation of Hillsborough schools superintendent MaryEllen Elia and school board member Candy Olson following the deaths of two special needs students.<\/p>\n

A protest is planned for 4 p.m. today at the school board meeting.<\/p>\n

School board members are also questioning the district’s policies, the Tampa Bay Times<\/em> reports<\/a>, after a lawsuit was filed over the January death of 7-year-old Bella<\/a> Herrera.<\/p>\n

Herrera had a neuromuscular disorder and had trouble breathing while riding a school bus. She was unresponsive by the time she got to a hospital and died the next day.<\/p>\n

In October, 11-year-old Jennifer Caballero drowned in a retention pond<\/a> at Rogers Middle School in Riverview. Caballero had Down syndrome and slipped away from teachers and adult supervisors during a gym class.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Two Facebook pages<\/a> have been set up in response to the deaths<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hillsborough school board member Stacy White says he plans to ask Elia for a top-to-bottom review of the district’s exceptional student education program. From the Times:<\/p>\n

“I was intending to wait until our next business meeting to have what I call a robust conversation,” said board member Stacy White. “But clearly I will not be able to wait that long.”<\/p>\n

…White wants to go farther. He plans to ask superintendent MaryEllen Elia to examine the entire exceptional student education (ESE) system and consider changes in its leadership.<\/p>\n

“My expectation is that the superintendent will look at that department,” he said. If not, “then I will explore the idea of an outside investigation.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition, a special needs student drowned at a September back-to-school party<\/a> hosted by Pepin Academy, a Hillsborough County charter school.<\/p>\n

We’ve reported on the trouble students with disabilities have had enrolling in the school of their choice in Hillsborough County, whether a district school<\/a> or a charter school<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of parents is asking for the resignation of Hillsborough schools superintendent MaryEllen Elia and school board member Candy Olson following the deaths of two special needs students. A protest is planned for 4 p.m. today at the school board meeting. School board members are also questioning the district’s policies, the Tampa Bay Times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":14724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1047,636,1179,1100,1176],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14717"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14729,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14717\/revisions\/14729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}