• Jack’s Army sign-up (below)
I DESPERATELY need your help getting my 9-year-old autistic son, Jack, in school, and all I need is your email address. The only thing I’ll ever ask you to do is maybe send an email once or twice, and you can easily remove yourself from Jack’s Army at any time.
Operation Jack is the name of my charity I named after my son Jack. Over the past three years I’ve grossed more than $180,000 in the fight against autism. It started with me running 61 full marathons in 2010 to raise about $90,000 through my foundation to benefit Train 4 Autism. It continues now with the annual Operation Jack Marathon.
Now, though, Operation Jack is taking on a whole new meaning. Jack, my 9-year-old severely autistic son, NEEDS YOUR HELP!
He’s still not fully potty trained with very limited language and we can’t get into school. To sum up a long story, for reasons still not truthfully explained to my wife and I, he’s been denied the opportunity to attend the school he attended last year in Broomfield, Colo.
The only school the Boulder Valley School District will allow him to attend, in neighboring Lafayette, has a parking lot just 86 feet from the unfenced playground he would be playing on. He elopes, which means he’ll run away at any moment (he even has a handicap parking placard because doctors know he’s always a possible danger to himself). He’s in a potential life-or-death danger situation every time he sets foot on the playground, so we don’t allow him to attend.
The local school we want him to attend again is fenced, but the district won’t allow him to enroll. Their reasoning (they say we don’t want him to attend there) is illogical (we DO want him to attend there and we’ve been very clear about !).
Me and Jack.
We have no choice but to fight the district and their legal team without a lawyer. While the district battles us, Jack is clearly the one losing the fight. Aside from three two-hour trial sessions at the unsafe school, he hasn’t been in school since May. All we want is for him to be safe. It seems to us that all the school district wants is for him to go away. They know we won’t allow him to attend the unsafe school, yet they won’t allow him to be assigned anywhere else, not even the school in his own neighborhood, where his sister attends, where he attended last year and was enrolled at the start of this school year that has a fence! And to make things worse, we offered to provide a fence for free at the unsafe school and they wouldn’t accept our offer!
So, this is where I need your help. I need you to join Jack’s Army. I need you join my mailing list below. I might not ever even send you an email. But once, or maybe even twice, I might ask you to send an email or two. That’s all. Simple as that. So PLEASE, enter your email address below join Jack’s army. And then make two quick clicks to share this with your friends on TWITTER and FACEBOOK.
There’s strength in numbers and we’re getting down to our last hope. Please, please, please join Jack’s Army. Any time an email goes out, there will be an unsubscribe link attached. And I will NEVER use your email address for anything other than this email list, which will be easy to unsubscribe from at any time.
Thank you for helping me get my son into school!
I see you have not named the offensive school yet Sam. Does that mean you do not wish us to start searching the web for contact names at that school yet to load up with complaints?
Every Mom wants their child to be safe and have every opportunity available to them. I wish you the very best!
Hi, you have had a tough road, my heart and prayers go out to you and your family. My 8 year old son too has autism and we have recently tried a new treatment that has helped him in amazing ways, in a very short amount of time….better speech, eye contact, FOCUS, eating a few more food items, playing better with his sister and more. Check out http://www.braintreatmentcenter.com.
I was a teacher of students just like your son. There is absolutely no reason why your son is not attending school! Whatever happened to Free Appropriate Public Education?!?! I wish you the best of luck and have joined your army. My heart goes out to you and your family.
How incredibly frustrating. Jack is lucky to have such two loving, determined parents. Keep up the fight. I have faith it will all work out.
This infuriates me; as a former teacher who saw how horrible the educational system is, I fully support your family. As a side note, their not accepting your offer of providing a fence is beyond ridiculous; how can a school turn down an offer that would benefit all its students???!!!
I have a 12 year old who has Autism too and this breaks my heart…why can’t they just be truthful and let Jack attend school. I am rooting for him and your family! I will share this as much as I can, love to Jack <3
It breaks my heart that you have to fight so hard for something most take for granted. Jack deserves the right to attend school. You are the strongest person with the biggest heart I know. I know you will reach the conclusion you hope for, I pray, for Jack, that is real soon!!!