said she requested a private school scholarship for her son because he couldn’t get the social-skills training or orderly, structured environment he needs at Lanier Elementary School.
“We wouldn’t be wanting to leave if our children were getting what they needed to get,” she said.
Amy Howard said she jumped at the chance to transfer her son to Town and Country School because in public school, she said, he was harassed daily, beaten by classmates with nunchucks — martial arts weapons — and even shoved against a wall once by a substitute teacher.
Now that he is in private school, “he doesn’t cry when he goes to school. He doesn’t tell us he wants to kill himself anymore,” she said.
Howard said she doesn’t know how she could afford to keep her son in private school if she doesn’t receive the scholarship money.
“Why, if you thought it was unconstitutional, why didn’t you tell all of these parents before we enrolled these kids in schools?” she asked.
Amanda Murrell commented on the legal advice the Tulsa and suburban school boards have each received on the issue from attorney Doug Mann, with the Tulsa law firm of Rosenstein, Fist and Ringold.
“This is about as clear as mud. You say you cannot sue them, but you sued over a charter school issue. Was that not the state?” Murrell asked. “I simply don’t believe these are the only choices available. You have your lemmings in Jenks, Broken Arrow and Union. Don’t ask Tulsa Public Schools to jump off the same cliff.”
Tulsa superintendent Keith Ballard helpfully informs us that, "philosophically, I do not agree with providing public dollars for private school tuition." Of course, philosophically, he is always free to quit his 21-grand-a-month job and try to get elected to the state legislature.
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