MCAS rules take sparkle out of grad day
By Peter Gelzinis
Boston Herald Columnist
Sunday, June 4,
2006
Peter Gelzinis
Boston Herald Columnist
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Behind
a radiant smile and beneath her white cap and gown, one would never
know that Shannon McDermott’s heart was breaking yesterday.
Her
mother, Janet, proudly clicked off a blizzard of photos as Shannon’s
grandmother, Mary, smothered her in a ferocious embrace. They stood in
a home decked out for a graduation party with shiny balloons and
glittering signs that spelled out “Congratulations.”
And
they tried, if only for a little while yesterday morning, not to dwell
on the fact that when their beaming child returned home from Marshfield
High School’s graduation ceremonies, she would not come home carrying a
diploma.
For
most of her 18 years, Shannon McDermott has done a valiant job of
coping with, if not concealing, the chronic brain disorder that has
tormented her.
“Shannon
was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was 2,” Janet McDermott said, “and
throughout the rest of her life, all through school, she has kept
plugging. She’s been through hell, but she’s never complained, not
once.”
Three
major surgeries on Shannon’s brain have failed to pinpoint the trigger
of her seizures. Before doctors at Children’s Hospital implanted a
vagus nerve stimulator in her chest - a device which functions as a
kind of neurological pacemaker - Shannon’s body was wracked with as
many as 200 seizures a day.
Despite
all this and a daily menu of 17 anti-convulsant drugs, Shannon
McDermott managed to complete all the requirements the state says she
needed to graduate as a special-needs student with her class . . . save
one.
Sadly, it is the only one that really matters -
the MCAS.
Shannon
McDermott has taken the MCAS five times and failed it five times. She
can add, multiply and divide. She has taken classes in computer
graphics and 3-D design. She has sung and acted in school plays, worked
on the yearbook staff and joined the dance team. She is considered a
credit to her school.
But
she has not been able to process the concepts of algebra, geometry or
physics. Shannon has yet to formulate a plan for the future, but as her
mother said, “It’s not going to include any algebra, geometry or
physics.”
Shannon
and her parents sent Mitt Romney two impassioned letters detailing her
situation. He responded with eight lines that basically said: Thanks
for the letter, folks. And I’ll pass it on to the appropriate people.
What else was our pretty fraud of a governor
going to do?
Shannon
McDermott is not simply an MCAS tragedy. She is an MCAS nightmare. She
does not fit into any of the tidy fail-safe boxes that our state
education czar, David Driscoll, has supposedly constructed to answer
such cases.
I
wonder how logical the MCAS would look to David Driscoll after three
brain surgeries, 17 anti-convulsant drugs and what Shannon McDermott’s
physician calls “cortical dysplasia of the right frontal lobe.”
If
Shannon McDermott was able to make it to yesterday’s graduation coping
with such burdens, if she struggled through her disabilities to be
found worthy of a white cap and gown, why deny her a chance at a
future, by denying her a diploma?
“A
Certificate of Attainment is worthless,” said her father, Patrick, of
the paper Shannon received. “We had been looking at a vocational
program for special-needs students in the Berkshires, but without a
diploma everything is frozen.”
“We’ve
decided to make this day as special for Shannon as it can be,” added
her mother. “But when September comes and we’re still trying to come up
with a plan, that’s when I’m afraid this will really hit her. After all
she’s been through in her life and how far she’s been able to come, I
don’t understand how they can do something like this . . . not just to
our child, but to all the other Shannons out there. It’s not fair.” |
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