Monday, April 26, 2010

The Broken Talker

A few weeks ago I go to school to get Ashley at the end of the day and discover a huge problem. Her para hands me her talker and tells me that Ashley smashed it to the ground thirty minutes earlier. I start to panic when I see the seven cracks across the screen and realize it is not working. This is literally been my biggest concern since we got it. It is a computer that costs over $7000. It is the only way she can communicate with us. I immediately grab my phone to call the company for a repair. They are in a different time zone and close earlier in the day. I knew they were close to closing time. The technician I usually work with was already gone for the day, so I talked to someone else. Thankfully, they had loaners available. I paid extra money to have it express mailed to me, but we were going to have to live through the next 48 hours without it. Now I know most people cannot relate to this, but this machine is a critical part of her life. I would liken it to putting tape over your child's mouth for two days and see how pleasant your life is. Except it is not the same because Ashley does not understand and she can't write us notes. I know we have only had it a little over a year, but she is very dependent on it. It has changed her life. Of course, we got her picture pointing book out and I bought her a communication app on her IPOD, but it was still very difficult. This was also when she was reacting so badly to the new medication. I know accidents happen but I had many concerns about this whole situation. First, this is a durable machine. I once dropped it on our garage floor and no damage occurred. So I really struggle with how it got broke. Second, noone called me and told me what happened. I found out when I got to the school. Now I know it was only thirty minutes, but that made the difference in my technician being gone for the day. The next day when I dropped Ashley off at school I asked about what happened again. They say Ashley was standing in line, perfectly happy, and suddenly dropped it onto a carpeted floor. Now I'm not trying to accuse anyone of lying or misrepresenting things, but I do not feel like I got the whole story. Maybe they do not even know the whole story. When I asked why they didn't call me immediately, I was told they didn't have my phone number. I have three children in that school, somebody has my phone number. The principal and coop representatives were very kind and understanding. But the people working with Ashley have taken no responsibility for the situation and just don't seem to get the gravity of it. The next day when I brought the loaner up to Ashley, I told the para that I didn't want Ashley to carry it anymore because we cannot risk it getting broken again and she argued with me. I went back to the principal and the situation was resolved, but I am just not happy how the whole thing has been handled. I know part of the problem is her teacher is not in the classroom right now due to other circumstances. I am positive if she had been there it would have been handled much more appropriately. I understand working in this classroom can be a difficult job and that people make mistakes. But the bottom line is this mistake cost me several hundred dollars, impacted Ashley greatly, and the people responsible for her and thus the talker just didn't seem to get it or care. I just put my kids back into school after several years of home schooling. The reason we chose to homeschool was because of the many mistakes at Ashley's expense and because she was being abused. We felt comfortable putting her back in school because it was a completely different group of people, a wonderful teacher, and the program seemed to be stable. But now I am very concerned about whether the school can really handle my child. The principal and the coop have been very kind and concerned, but can they look out for Ashley's best interest?

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