If a student develops a learning disability after being accepted, does the school still owe him the attention and education it promised? An elite school, a boy's suicide and a question of blame:
On Feb. 3, 2021, the school informed his mother by email that, “despite recent progress,” he could not return for ninth grade.
For Ellis’ family, the suit also keeps him present in their lives and provides shape to their grieving process, as they seek meaning in his death and their own pain. For Roger Gural and Lariviere, the school’s focus on the arts made it an appealing choice for their two sons. Lariviere is an artist; Gural, the son of one of New York’s major real estate developers, ran the lavishly praised Arcade Bakery in TriBeCa until rheumatoid arthritis drove him to close it in 2019. A giant loom dominates the family’s otherwise spare living room.
The school recommended a neuropsychological evaluation and suggested an evaluator, who found that he had a high IQ and good reading comprehension but that he had trouble retrieving letters and numbers when writing, Gural said. “They spend so much time saying, ‘We’re about, Each child has their own path to reach their own potential, no two experiences are the same,’” he said. “She should’ve said, ‘Here’s our plan for your son to succeed.’ Instead, it was just, ‘Find a new school.’”
The school ultimately allowed Ellis to return for fourth grade. When Lariviere told an administrator that Saint Ann’s should inform parents that it sometimes asked students to leave, she said she was told, “‘We can’t do that because the parents would be stressing out their kids.’ And I said, ‘I wouldn’t have applied to the school if I knew that this happened.’”
“You’re just hit with waves of uncontrollable convulsions of pain,” he said recently at his kitchen table in Red Hook. “There’s a tremendous amount of guilt and regret. There’s levels of stress that are so far above what you’ve ever experienced in your life. There’s layers upon layers of the experience that, if you were only dealing with one of them, would be completely overwhelming, and you’ve got 50 layers.
Lariviere was frustrated that a school that had been very supportive when Ellis came out as gay in fifth grade could not accommodate his learning differences, even with the family paying for tutors and learning specialists. “Why is his neurodiversity beyond the pale?” she asked. “I was apoplectic,” he said. “Because it did not contextualize in any way what the issues were in my son’s suicide. And it says the school is being proactive to deal with this mental health crisis. Here they are, presenting information about my son’s death in the most flattering way possible. Totally dishonest.”
Without commenting on Ellis’ family’s lawsuit, Lars Mehlum, a professor of psychiatry and suicidology at the University of Oslo, said that the impulse to assign responsibility for a loved one’s suicide is a common part of the grieving process. Gural fixed on messages from the school, like one from Tompkins: “[W]e believe that differences in aptitude — in one child preternatural dexterity on the violin, in another precocious ability to decode a novel, in a third the ability to create marvels with a brush and canvas — make for the richest possible learning environment.
Argentina Últimas Noticias, Argentina Titulares
Similar News:También puedes leer noticias similares a ésta que hemos recopilado de otras fuentes de noticias.
Indigenous students fight tribal regalia bansIndigenous high school seniors defy school bans, wearing regalia to honor their culture at graduations.
Leer más »
Ancestral Connections: Political elite’s ties to slavery revealed - New York Amsterdam NewsRecent research conducted by Reuters has shed light on the genealogies of America’s political elite, revealing that a significant portion of members of Congress, living presidents, Supreme Court justices, and governors are direct descendants of ancestors who enslaved Black people.
Leer más »
Elite Marathoner Pushes Son to a Guinness World Record in the MileNeely Gracey runs 5:24 and takes 33 seconds off the previous record.
Leer más »
Goldman adds a utility stock to its list of elite picks for clientsAs the third quarter and second half kick off, Goldman Sachs is adding a new utility stock to its high-conviction stock list.
Leer más »