Cupertino Union School District -- Child Abuse Part 3: Summer School at Dilworth Elementary

 Summer school was held at Dilworth Elementary, in the city of San Jose. It seemed ideal. A school bus picked P. up from our house every morning and transported her to Dilworth. When school finished at noon, the bus brought her home. This arrangement gave me a little time in the mornings to spend with my younger children, and I hoped P. was having an enriching experience at school. All went well until one stunningly beautiful summer day in July of 2002. It was a Tuesday, and summer school was due to finish the following Friday. 

Cupertino Union School District -- Child Abuse Part 2: Eisenhower Elementary

However, at that time, P.'s diagnosis was still uncertain. And so it was that in 2001, at the age of seven, she started out in a special education classroom at Eisenhower Elementary within the Cupertino Union School District. From the start, there were a number of deeply troubling incidents. 

Our daughter had not been there a week when she came home and told me, "Mommy, my teacher hurt me and I couldn't breathe." She had a bruise on her hip, and the front of her body was reddened. Needless to say, Craig (my husband) was in the classroom the next morning asking for an explanation. The teacher, Karen M., explained that P. had been "restrained" for refusing to stop wiggling a loose tooth while secluded in a timeout cubicle. Apparently being in timeout meant the child was supposed to be punished by boredom, which meant nothing to read, no writing materials, and no tooth wiggling.  The teacher's description of the incident differed from P.'s, and she assured us that what she had done was legal and appropriate. 

The Cupertino Union School District -- Child Abuse Part 1, The Prelude

I have been using my time during the pandemic to continue what has been an on-again, off-again project for the past 15 years -- writing a book about my daughter's abuse at the hands of the Cupertino Union School District, a K-8 district in the heart of Silicon Valley. CUSD covers the cities of Cupertino and parts of Saratoga, Los Altos, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale. Over 17,000 students attend the district's 19 elementary schools, one K-8 school, and five middle schools. Before we even had children (we later had four), my husband and I bought a home in Cupertino in part because of the reputation of Cupertino schools. Our home seemed ideal for children. It was at the end of a cul-de-sac and had a large, safe, enclosed pie-shaped backyard. It backed on to a park, which was accessible through a gate in the fence. And of course ... Cupertino schools. 

2020

For many of us, 2020 was a very challenging year. I am not ready to write about it yet, so I will simply acknowledge here that it happened. I will revisit this ... at some point. 

 “What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.” — Helen Keller