JACKSON-MILTON School is sued for handicap access

The girl can't attend the middle school because it's not wheelchair-accessible.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jackson-Milton School District officials say they will make the district's middle school building accessible to the handicapped, but they just need more time.
A local lawyer says the changes should have been made already.
"This is a matter of someone dropping the ball," said Atty. David J. Betras, who filed a lawsuit against the school district Monday in U.S. District Court.
The suit was filed on behalf of Felicia Reed, a sixth-grade Jackson-Milton pupil, and her mother, Ann Reed, of North Jackson. Felicia has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair most of the time.
The suit says Felicia can't attend the same school as her classmates because the district has failed to make the building wheelchair-accessible.
Purpose of lawsuit
The suit seeks at least $250,000 in damages and a court order forcing the district to accommodate the girl's needs. It says the district is in violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
Betras said the girl should be in the district's middle school because that's where the sixth-grade classes are housed. She's instead had to remain in the elementary school building, which is equipped with elevators, wheelchair ramps and other handicap-accessible equipment.
With fifth-graders
Ann Reed said that her daughter was given sixth-grade books only recently and that a special education teacher spends about two hours a day giving her sixth-grade work.
"The rest of the time she sits in a classroom with fifth-graders and does pretty much nothing," she said.
Betras said the district has known for years that Felicia would eventually be moving up to the middle school, which is connected to the high school on Mahoning Avenue, but "has done nothing to accommodate this child."
Superintendent Warne Palmer said the district has contacted an architect and is making plans to add wheelchair ramps at the middle school.
"We fully intend to comply with the law," Palmer said. "We will do everything we can to make the building accessible to her."
Palmer said Ann Reed told district officials last year that the family was moving to another state, so the district did not see a need to immediately go ahead with wheelchair ramps at the middle school.
"Like most school districts, the Jackson-Milton School District was waiting to spend taxpayer dollars on making the building ADA compliant until there was a student progressing through the district who needed accessibility," he said.
Change of plans
Palmer said Ann Reed told district officials two months ago that her plans had changed and she was remaining in the district.
"And then she wanted these changes made immediately," he said. "We'll work with her. We just need more time."
Betras said the district asked the family to send Felicia to Frank Ohl Middle School in Austintown, which is handicap accessible, but the family refused.
"All she wants is to be treated like anybody else," Betras said. "She just wants to be in the same school with her friends."
bjackson@vindy.com