KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The parents of a Missouri eight-year-old boy are outraged after they say their blind son’s cane was taken away and replaced with a pool noodle.

Dakota Nafzinger, who was born without eyes, attends Gracemor Elementary School in Kansas City.

 

 

School punishes blind child by replacing cane with pool noodle | fox8.com

I done agree with the schools actions. It seems like a possible ADA lawsuit.

 

But a quick search on google shows they start about $20 for a cane, why haven't the parents gone out and get a new one?

I done agree with the schools actions. It seems like a possible ADA lawsuit.

 

But a quick search on google shows they start about $20 for a cane, why haven't the parents gone out and get a new one?

 

 

Did you read the story? The school took this child's cane away as punishment and replaced it with a pool noodle. If the parents buy him another cane, I can only assume the school will take that one as well.

So if I read this right, kid used cane as a weapon on another kid. School took it away, replaced it with a pool noodle, that in theory would/could cause less injury to another kid if this kid used it as a weapon. If thats the cause I see no issue with what the school did here. Sounds like the parents need to teach the kid to use his cane properly.

One point is that the school gave the kid the cane to begin with. The pool noodle thing is a little weird but my argument is that they gave him the cane when he enrolled, he used it improperly, and they took the school property back he misused.

And what happens when the kid falls down a flight of stairs when he doesn't get the sensory feedback from the pool noodle like he does the cane? I understand where the school may be coming from, but I think it's also very thin ice too.

Something does not add up with this story. Why would the school issue a cane to a blind kid to begin with? Wouldn't he already have one?

Those darned 8-year olds. Perhaps just punish him like any other kid and teach him to use the cane properly?

Did you read the story? The school took this child's cane away as punishment and replaced it with a pool noodle. If the parents buy him another cane' date=' I can only assume the school will take that one as well.[/quote']

No I didn't read it as I'm a medicated today. But I did watch the video. Plus, the school gave the cane originally. So the parents have an 8 year old blind child and they never bought him a $20 cane!

Give a blind kid a cane, and the next think you know...

 

 

Parents should buy their kid a cane.

 

Bus monitor should have taken the cane until it was the child's stop. No need for him to be up until then anyways. If the child was a problem, then assign seats on the bus or rearrange the seating chart. Seems like a simple solution to me.

Before doing something that seems real stupid - and this does seem like a very bad action on the schools part - how about some due diligence.

 

Lets look at the articles statements:

 

"...school took the cane after he reportedly struck someone on Monday " (Did he or did he not. 'Reportedly' is pretty soft.)

 

"Cronk said the boy “fidgets” without his cane, so a pool noodle was given to him as a substitute." (So he only got the pool noodle after he fidgeted? Did that mean he did not even have any aid at some point?)

 

"...lifts his cane sometimes and the bus driver thought he was using it violently." (Was he using violently, or not.)

 

Knee jerk reaction, sloppy actions, sloppy reporting?

 

 

I am sure the ADA will have an opinion on this.

Just a bizarre story - I agree BGC that there are a lot of unanswered questions. All I know is if I am the parents of an 8 YEAR OLD BLIND boy, I am pretty upset if they took his cane away for just about anything. Imagine how scared an 8 year old blind kid would be if he has his cane taken away. Think about that for a minute.

 

I have no idea why the school would be buying the cane though...

Parents should buy their kid a cane.

 

Bus monitor should have taken the cane until it was the child's stop. No need for him to be up until then anyways. If the child was a problem, then assign seats on the bus or rearrange the seating chart. Seems like a simple solution to me.

 

Right, because there's exactly 0% probability that the bus was in an accident en route, that anything didn't go according to plan, or that the freakin' blind kid that they'd replaced his cane with a pool noodle might have worried that something horrible like that would have happened, right?

 

No one means for accidents to happen, but the bus driver or bus monitor, whoever was in charge isn't exactly a doctor either, so how about they follow Dr's orders and let the blind kid keep his cane and try not letting other small children get around him within swinging distance?

If the school really made the comments about the student "fidgeting" without the cane, they would also be in danger of breaking confidentiality laws. The details of his disability are no ones business but the parents and teachers directly involved in instructing or supervising the student.

 

Always a big IF when it comes to media reporting though.