It's not nice to make Mama angry....

I have a son with disabilities. Physical and visual. He is a permanent wheelchair user. He is legally blind. I believe that he should attend the high school in our district along with his peers. And he does. I believe that the school district should make the necessary accommodations so that he can attend classes. And the do... sort of. The high school he attends installed lifts in the stair ways so that he could access the building. The building is old and has multiple levels that don't quite match up where the new additions were added onto the old building. I understand that nothing can be done about that. There are 2 lifts. One to the old part of the building and some levels; another to the new part of the building and different levels. He cannot access the entire building from one lift. They do try to arrange his class schedule so that he isn't on the first floor and then the second using one lift and then the third using the other lift. Oh, by the way, to get from the second floor to the third floor he has to go down to the first floor and over to the other lift then up to the third floor. As you might imagine, this takes time. At least 10 minutes. They let him leave class a few minutes early so that he can get where he needs to be before the other students are released and filling up the stair ways. School has been in session for 4 full days. The first day neither lift was working. One is now working, one still is not. The stair climber is also not working. The lift company has been called. Parts are ordered. My son is CRAWLING up and down the stair while a teacher carries his chair for him! What!? Are you kidding me!? My son came home from school the first day and told me about the problem. Thought it would be fixed the next day. No. Second day he says they are coming the next day to fix the lifts. Didn't happen. On Sunday I saw the principal at a school function and we discussed the problem. I understand he has little control over the lift company not coming and parts not arriving, etc. He told me he would be looking into the stair crawler; he had not been made aware of it not working. According to my son, that is not true.
Today I called the school to find out if the lift had been worked on. No. I asked for a call back from the principal who was in a meeting. He just called me. Lift people not coming until Friday. He said he would understand if I wanted to keep my son home until the lift was working. What?! I do NOT want to keep my son home; I want the school the accommodate him! And, I really don't think it would be too hard. Two of the 3 classes he is crawling to are Study Skills (study hall) and Homeroom (another study hall). I cannot believe that I had to suggest to him that possibly, could they maybe move him to another classroom for that, or could the whole class go to the cafeteria. Come on! The other class is a math class. How hard is that to move? It's not like it is science lab with equipment that cannot be moved. I am sooooo mad! I really feel that someone - SOMEONE - should have been looking at his schedule and figured this out - his special ed teacher who he has Study Skills with, his vision instructor who is there 4 days a week, the math teacher who is carrying his chair. Someone should have noticed this.
It makes me feel bad as a person to have to make this kinds of phone calls. To stand up for my son. To tell them to do the right thing. To have to ask them to move him to a different class. I do not like confrontation. It is very hard for me. It makes me mad that the people who are suppose to be looking out for him are not. They are not doing their job. They KNOW what SHOULD be done, but they wait for me to make them do it.
Plus I work for the school district. I am in a different building but still in the district. I feel that I am in a unique situation because of that. I try to be cooperative and understanding but this is just not acceptable. I understand they don't control the lift company. I understand the custodians cannot fix the lift. I understand that the lift company kept saying they would be there the next day. But I still think they should have had a plan. This is not the first time he has had to crawl up and down stairs. When he was in middle school there was a situation that forced him to have to crawl the stairs. I kept asking if they could move his classrooms to a floor he could access. They refused. It took surgery (unrelated) and a letter from an very appalled physician to resolve that issue. I cannot believe that anyone would be expected to go through the things my son has had to with this school district. I have said before and still maintain, sometimes it seems like the district works harder to NOT accommodate him than to accommodate him. It is so unfair what parents of special needs children have to go through for their kids. What so many parents take for granted, we have to fight for. And, I . am . tired. I just want my son to be able to go to school and get an education. And, to not have to crawl up stairs.
I'll stop now. Sorry for the rant. I just needed to get that off my chest.