<p><a href=“Educators demanded lavish gifts, parents say”>Educators demanded lavish gifts, parents say;
<p>Can you post pertinent paragraphs? LATimes requires a log-in, and I am too lazy.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Using the link that I posted, I had access to the article without needing to login. Well here is part of the article from LATimes.com:</p>
<p>O.C. couple say they paid tens of thousands for ‘free education’
They were forced to shell out jewelry and designer goods to get proper care for their autistic son, according to a claim they filed.
By Ashley Powers, Times Staff Writer
November 17, 2006 </p>
<p>To get proper schooling for their severely autistic son, an Irvine couple say they were forced to shower employees at his elementary school with diamond jewelry, Coach bags, Chanel perfume and other lavish gifts worth a total of $100,000, according to a legal claim filed this month. </p>
<p>Thomas Lin, a pediatrician, and his wife, Liya, a homemaker, also bought and furnished a condo that a teacher’s newlywed daughter and husband lived in rent-free for a year before moving out with the furniture, according to the claim filed Nov. 2 against the Irvine Unified School District and the Orange County Department of Education. </p>
<p>“It was a nightmare for a long time,” said Liya Lin, who, on her attorney’s advice, declined to comment further. </p>
<p>County Supt. of Education William M. Habermehl said he was told the Lins were not pressured to give gifts in exchange for educating their now 7-year-old son, who could not speak and was not toilet-trained, but said county education officials had launched an investigation…</p>
<p>Some of the more than $100,000 in gifts that Thomas and Liya Lin say they gave educators who worked with their autistic son at Canyon View Elementary School in Irvine:</p>
<p>• A furnished condominium, rent-free for a year, for a child</p>
<p>of a teacher.</p>
<p>• $2,800 2-carat diamond ring…</p>
<p>That is most bizarre. Wow.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting that NEM. When I tried to open your link, I got the log-in page.</p>
<p>This is just ABSURD. I have a hard time believing it. This story really pushes my BS meter, because I always like to beleive in the altruism of teachers. I hope someone gets to the bottom of this, because it sure is dispicable.</p>
<p>Bizarre and highly, highly unusual, I’d think. This sort of thing goes on in many parts of the world, much less here. Maybe I’m being naive - but could this have been a major cultural misunderstanding?</p>
<p>I think that there may have been a cultural misunderstanding, but I think that the teachers should have refused these gifts, and at length explained the right of a free appropriate education for their son. I don’t think that items with such a high pricetag are little tokens of the parents’ gratitude.</p>
<p>BTW, I have never heard of such a situation in education before reading this article.</p>
<p>Our school district has a policy that limits gifts to teachers to $50 per family per year. I was on the school board at the time and asked why the policy was needed. I was told that some parents had been known to give gifts worth hundreds oF $$ to teachers and, whatever the motivation, it can seem like a bribe. I know I’m so grateful to some of my kids that I’d LIKE to give them expensive presents, so I’m glad there’s a limit.</p>
<p>Hard to believe that there are thieves and embezzlers in education? Does the sun come up every day? </p>
<p>Well, this is as hard to believe as stories about school officials ROUTINELY stealing thousands if not millions of dollars from their districts under the complacent and usually cooperating eyes of union leaders. Googling words such as school thefts or school embezzlement provides quite an insight into the behavior of “trusted” educators and the abject state in accountability of about every school system in the nation. </p>
<p>The saddest part is that when the thieves are caught they are simply asked to resign and move to another district because it cost the district less to offer a payoff than face a lowering of their bonds. Then they simply repeat the process!</p>
<p>Only a few get caught and only when they get a bit … too greedy:</p>
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<p>What is hardest for ME to believe about this case is that two intelligent parents would succumb to this for as long as they did…I can’t believe that even with their being immigrants, they did not at some point realize how bizarre this was.</p>
<p>Having worked in a nearby district of the Orange County public schools as a speech-language specialist, I find this story incredible. The degree to which the article describes the “extortion” would make it practically impossible for this not to have been detected. There would have had to have been a well orchestrated plan to keep such behavior under the radar. From the description of this child he would be considered “high profile” meaning that special ed staff would be very careful to cross their “t’s” and dot their “i’s” where legal issues are concerned. Students with Autism are particularly the focus of abundant lawsuits and as such, are kept under a microscope by lawsuit-weary administrators. Students in special ed have IEP meetings which must be attended by an adminstrator, teachers, case carrier, therapists, psychologist, paraprofessionals, and with autistic students, there is usually someone from an autism advocacy group present. Of course parents attend. Notes are taken and signed by parents. The educational plan, including specialized and individual therapies is documented and signed off by all present, including parents. Progress benchmarks are required. This is a legal document. Also, parents of special ed students, tend to have a network of communication where they compare and discuss what is going on with students. While public schools often bend rules to meet the regulations, I find it hard to believe that extortion to this degree could occur and not be known in the community. Irvine is not the type of community where these types of illegal activities could not be kept quiet for long.</p>
<p>“Irvine is not the type of community where these types of illegal activities could not be kept quiet for long.”</p>
<p>That is the usual refrain that taxpayers have to hear in about every case. “How could it happen … here!” The problem is that theft and embezzlement occurs in the poorest communities as well as in the toniest ones. The sad reality is that our system of checks and balances does not work very well in the education sector, and that corruption, extortion, and theft are rarely discovered, short of someone rattling on others. </p>
<p>And, albeit not being yesterday’s news, illegal activity has happened in the OC’s Shangri-La school districts. Fur coats anyone?</p>
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<p>One of my best friends is a teacher in Irvine Unified. I’ll call her and ask her what the buzz is on the teacher telegraph.</p>
<p>While embezzlement is not that uncommon (and hardly particular to school district settings as Xiggi would have us believe) the allegations in this complaint are a qualitatively different type of misconduct, if true. Frankly, my BS meter is twitching, too. My guess is that there’s a kernel of truth and a lot of exaggeration - and not unlikely an unspoken agenda - behind the complaint.</p>
<p>xiggi: I totally agree with you about embezzlement. It ioccurs in lot of industries where huge amounts of money moves thru a variety of “budgets” and systems and somehow disappears without anyone noticing. However, this situation is different. We have parents being extorted to give expensive gifts to a host of staff. That these parents never mentioned this to another parent, teacher or autism advocate, given the $$$$ amounts involved, sees preposterous. That the staff would conspire to this degree gives them credit for “skills” I doubt they have!!! I will be quite surprised if the allegations turn out to be accurate.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I’ve been a hobbyist urban folklore fan for about 10 years. After a while you can sort of spot things that make a good story – frequently out of proportion to their truth value. This story is just way too perfect for my taste. I smell an ax-grinding rat.</p>
<p>On the other hand… every word could be true, but I’d give the odds as 5 to 2 against.</p>
<p>blucroo, You may be right, but why would parents with so much on their plate already want to fabricate a story that will lead to ill will? They have a child who is evaluated, and taught by these individuals. It would seem counterproductive to me. </p>
<p>I do wonder how many people evaluate what is going on in schools. I don’t doubt the paperwork was in order, but there still may have been faculty that were taking advantage of these parents (who are adults, and should be responsible for their behavior).</p>
<p>Rick, You might be right.</p>
<p>As a teacher, I’m simply floored.</p>
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<p>kluge: I suspect you are right. I don’t always have a good BS meter, but this story just goes against everything I have experienced in working on a special ed team. While I am certainly an advocate for educating special needs students in the public schools, I have lived thru situations that would shock most parents. The law requires special ed students to rec a “free and appropriate education” There are parents (and attorneys) who choose to interpret this statute in ways that actually “extort” from the school districts.</p>
<p>THIS IS NOT THE NORM, BUT SITUATIONS THAT I DESCRIBE BELOW DO HAPPEN IN EVERY PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT OUT THERE. PLEASE DON’T THINK I AM PAINTING MOST PARENTS OF SPECIAL ED STUDENTS WITH THE SAME PAINT BRUSH…THE CONTRARY IS TRUE. I AM JUST SHARING AN EXAMPLE OF UNSPOKEN AGENDAS…</p>
<p>An example: severely behaviorally impaired student can not be safely managed in a public school setting, due to violent outbursts. IEP team agrees and parents concur that student needs a residential setting and the best school is in Montana or Wyoming… (can’t quite recall). Public schools are mandated to pick up the tab for the program and the transportation for the student, and so they comply. (This of course takes huge and valuable resources away from other students, but is required by law and only remimbursed at about 40 cents on the dollar). Parents demand that they are provided airfare and accomodations at nearby town (ski resort community is closest…so they demand this location) for 1 week every 3 monts so they can visit their child. They threaten lawsuit if not accomodated. Typically, there have been problems with the student’s school program in the past, so parents feel they have the amo and the attorney to win a lawsuit. School district goes ahead and meets the demands…to appease parents. </p>
<p>So, yes, there are problems in the schools … but special ed can be a hornet’s nest on both sides…</p>