Cupertino Union School District -- Child Abuse: Part x, The Miraculous Apparition of Colleen N.

 During Karen M.'s deposition, our lawyer Andrea had asked her exactly who was present in the office on the afternoon I collected P. from Dilworth Elementary -- on the day of the culminating incident that led up to the lawsuit. Karen M. had responded with refreshing honesty. To be fair, she had included the falsehood that P. had run into a window frame and bumped her head, but in terms of those present, she was truthful. She mentioned that she herself, Heather D., the behaviorist, Sandy J., the therapist, I, and my four children were present. 

During the trial, however, we witnessed the miraculous apparition of Colleen N., patron saint of child abusers, who retroactively materialized from the ether at the eleventh hour to save the day. According to Karen M. in her trial testimony, Colleen N. was in the office that day, and Colleen and I had stood side by side and watched as P. ran into a window frame and bashed her head. Karen M. added some embellishments to try to make the story seem more plausible. Colleen had left her purse on the floor of the office and P. had trampled it. The implication was obvious: I was a terrible person who had decided to use my child's accident to sue a poor, innocent schoolteacher. 

Cupertino Union School District -- Child Abuse: Part x, The Gestapo

I had to wonder why so many CUSD employees, particularly in the administration, behaved as one body. They were consistently arrogant, indifferent, perplexingly callous, and, in some cases, even vicious. They were dealing with children as young as four years old. Wouldn't people who chose to work with little kids typically possess some basic decency and humanity? 

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

Coconut Tofu in Garlic Pineapple Sauce with Jasmine Rice

So last night I tried a, for us, novel take on the old vegetarian standby of tofu and rice.

I made a garlic pineapple sauce (I substituted a 28 oz. can of pineapple with juice for the fresh pineapple and pineapple juice in the linked recipe). I dipped cubed tofu in aquafaba, rolled each piece in coconut flakes, and baked the nuggets at 375°F in a convection oven for 20 minutes. 'Served with jasmine rice.