Teen killer’s education plan questionned
Posted 6 months ago
School board officials say they would have handled a 14-year-old girl with behavioral problems differently if they'd been given a psychological report that found she functioned at a six- or seven-year-old's level.
Instead of placing the girl in a smaller-sized regular classroom, she would have gone into a special needs program, said Suzanne Palumbo of the District School Board of Niagara.
"It was significant," Palumbo said of the report, which she saw as an acting consultant for special education in 2005. "There were things in this report that showed the student should be in a special needs program, not a school-to-work program."
The girl is currently serving a sentence for second-degree murder after smothering a three-year-old boy at a Welland foster home in December 2005. The death of Matthew Reid is the subject of a coroner's inquest this month in St. Catharines.
The coroner's jury has already heard that the girl's behaviour became more and more erratic after she was kicked out of her Niagara Falls school in the fall of 2005 and was waiting to be placed in another class.
Why school board officials didn't see the psychological report has been one of the focuses by lawyers during the inquest.
The report was written by psychometrist Paula Shapiro, who testified earlier in the inquest, and it was received by the girl's FACS Niagara case worker in January 2005.
Shapiro found the girl was easily frustrated and prone to misunderstanding. The girl was unable to come up with alternate approaches to problem-solving and would not have the capability of handling herself in stressful situations, Shapiro said.
Palumbo agreed under cross-examination by Paul Osier, representing Matthew's foster mother, that not having the report cost time and was a waste of the girl's efforts.
She said if the board had the information, it would have integrated the girl slowly, starting with one or two periods in a special-needs program.
Linda Kartasinski, principal at the Niagara Falls school at the time, said it would have been an important report to have. "It would have changed the decision on placement."
Shapiro had testified she sent the report to the DSBN's special services department, but Kartasinski, the vice-principal and Palumbo said Thursday they didn't see it.
The girl's FACS Niagara case worker gave the school the report on Oct. 26, 2005, during a fact-finding meeting held because the girl had been suspended twice.
Suspended for physically assaulting other students, the girl was distinctly memorable to staff for her outbursts of screaming and slamming doors when being questioned about the events.
Palumbo said she brought the report back to school board staff for a psychological interpretation.
Because the girl had shown earlier success in a day-treatment program run by Niagara Child and Youth Services, a mental-health agency, Palumbo said educators felt she could build on that success again. They planned to get her into an NCYS class and integrate her into a technical school in fall 2006, which she was too young to attend until then.
While waiting to be placed in an NCYS class, the girl would receive school work to do at home. Palumbo also suggested volunteer work to build the girl's confidence and self-esteem.
The jury heard during earlier testimony that the girl began running away from her Niagara Falls home in the interim, eventually being arrested for stealing her foster mother's van.
After a weekend in jail, the girl was placed by FACS Niagara into the Welland home run by the Haldimand-Norfok Children's Aid Society and killed Matthew on her first night.
The inquest continues Friday.
kwalter@stcatharinesstandard.ca
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