Parents target Brentwood special needs director

Advocacy group has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the school district

A local special needs advocacy group has sent a cease-anddesist letter to the Brentwood Union School District alleging the director of special education slanders them and discourages parents from seeking their counsel.

On Sunday, a local Antioch-based special needs advocacy group known as Partners in Education Advocacy sent a cease-and-desist letter to school board trustees, saying that Jeff Weiss, the district’s special needs director, is retaliating against them and dissuading parents from seeking their help in navigating educational issues.

“It was quite a strongly worded letter and I’m sorry to hear that they are feeling this way,” Weiss said. “I seek to try to work with everyone in the community and I’m trying to be as transparent as possible with stakeholders, but obviously I’m not doing as good of a job with this particular group.”

The letter is one of the latest salvos in a long-running battle between advocates and parents of special needs children and BUSD.

The group includes members of the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee, some of whom resigned in protest in March of last year over what they said were discriminatory and exclusionary bylaws.

In particular, the group points to minutes of a Jan. 11 Special Education Parent Advisory Committee meeting in which director Weiss states that “staff in Brentwood has PTSD” from parents bringing paid advocates to meetings concerning their child’s special needs program.

Weiss differentiated from bringing paid and non-paid advocates and said, “it is going to be hard to say that SEPAC is a neutral, helpful force if the staff does not see it that way.”

The group outlines a number of other instances in which members say Weiss slandered the district and discouraged parents from seeking their support.

“(Parents) have enough difficulty with raising a child with special needs and dealing with all the other agencies 24/7,” said Adrienne “Cookie” Guinn of Partners in Education Advocacy, which sent the letter on Sunday. “I want him to stop intimidating parents… I don’t expect (the district) to come out and openly support advocates, but I do expect them to support parents in special education.”

Guinn, a grandmother of a special needs child, said she has been advocating for special needs issues for free for decades. Only recently did she open up Parents in Education Advocacy with partner Tiffany Herron-Lumpkin after parents sought them out for advice and counsel with their own child’s Individualized Education Plan, which outlines the special education a child receives.

“Advocacy for anyone that’s vulnerable is a federally protected right,” Herron-Lumpkin said.

Weiss denies having slandered anyone or discouraged them from seeking assistance from advocates.

“I work to give parents knowledge about the special ed process,” Weiss said. “I encourage them to get informed and I’ve not specifically mentioned people or slandered them. I have encouraged them to get involved with our district directly.”

Marie Fajardo of the Law Offices of Nicole Hodge Amey was among the board members who resigned from SEPAC last year and collectively sent the cease-and-desist letter with Guinn and Herron-Lumpkin.

“There’s been a long history of trying to rebuild trust (between parents and administrators)” Fajardo said. “As we continue to try for that, it’s difficult for the advocates and parents that are advocating for their children when it’s met with resistance from the school district administrators.”

The district has been beset by lawsuits in the past decade. The district paid $10 million in settlements for 11 special needs students who suffered mental and physical abuse at the hands of Dina Holder, a former teacher and convicted child abuser. After her arrest and conviction, Holder was quietly transferred to another district school and parents were never notified.

In October 2017, the district settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a female student who was blackmailed into sexual acts by a 14-year-old boy. The next month, the family brought a second lawsuit against the district, alleging that the district knew of the boy’s behavior and then deleted emails to cover up policy violations and racist statements made by school officials.

The district denied the allegation and has continued to maintain that it has learned from its past mistakes.