Jenny's death is one of two that has rocked the exceptional education department of the school district.

Jenny's death is one of two that has rocked the exceptional education department of the school district.

Elia calling for dismissals after drowning of Riverview student

TAMPA -- Two aides should be fired and the principal and assistant principal should be removed from their positions at Rodgers Middle School in the aftermath of the drowning of a special-needs student.

..."That's if Superintendent MaryEllen Elia has her way. She will recommend to the Hillsborough County School Board next week that Principal Sharon Tumicki and Assistant Principal Shawn Livingston be dismissed from their jobs at the Riverview school...."

Jenny's death is one of two that has rocked the exceptional education department of the school district.

Last January, Isabella Herrera, a second-grader with a neuromuscular disorder, died a day after having a medical issue on a school bus on the way home. Neither the driver nor the aide called 911 as she turned blue and stopped breathing.

The school district is in the midst of an examination of many of its policies and procedures in the Exceptional Student Education department, and the former director of the ESE area sought a transfer to another department.

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Click here to be directed to the FULL ARTICLE: http://www2.tbo.com/news/education-news/2013/jan/09/3/aides-expected-to-be-disciplined-in-death-of-girl-ar-602048/

Click here for another article to this story: http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/nov/01/drowned-riverview-girls-mom-blames-school-ar-550529/          
The mother of an 11-year-old girl with Down syndrome who drowned last week after walking out of a crowded school gym said teachers and aides are to blame for her daughter's death.

"I think it was negligence from them for not offering (extra) care for children with special needs," said Elizabeth Rosas, the mother of Jennifer "Jenny" Caballero. "If they had had more care for my daughter, this would have never happened."

She wants investigators to find out exactly what happened at Rodgers Middle School in Riverview on the afternoon of Oct. 22.

"I want everything to be cleared up," Rosas said. "I want justice. I don't want the same thing that happened to my daughter to happen to another child because of poor care."

Jenny was in a gymnasium at Rodgers Middle School in Riverview on Oct. 22 when a student alerted teachers that the girl had slipped out of the gym.


An overall review of the ESE department also is under way.

Hillsborough school board members criticize Wieland's transfer

Click link here for full story. 
http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2013/jan/08/3/memeto1-school-administrator-transfer-criticized-b-ar-600796/

Wieland, who had been the general director of exceptional-student education, requested a transfer last month after her department was rocked by the deaths of two special-needs students and the arrests of two district employees on child-abuse charges.

Reading the comments listed after each of these articles is GREAT READING as well. Comments that could be true of any school district!!!

I wonder how this is affecting all the FLORIDA Districts "ESE Departments" and their "Policies".....hmmm I wonder if this will HELP the entire STATE and our ESE Education! Particularly for the Disability Specific TRAININGS of the Unique Aides or Para Professionals or whatever job title used for the person working the closest to our person needing 'assistance'. 

We can only HOPE it does!!!