Cameras, Airline Problems, and Medication Issues

This week, the Special Needs Blog included topics such as cameras in classrooms, airlines behaving badly, unaccepted apologies, and many issues with different kinds of medications. Here is a quick review of the blogs that went up between September 3, 2012, and September 8, 2012. Thalidomide Maker’s Apology Not Enough Gruenenthal, the maker of a drug called thalidomide (and Contergan and Distaval), issued an apology for the harm caused to those affected by their drug. Many are seeing this apology as insufficient, and believe that there should be financial compensation coming to the thalidomide victims. Harvard Newspaper Website Runs Ad … Continue reading

Parents Petition to Put Cameras in Classrooms

There is a growing movement of parents who want to have cameras placed into Special Education classrooms. Students who are non-verbal cannot tell their parent what happened at school, but the cameras would be able to record the events for them. The presence of a camera could prevent situations where students are abused by the teacher. Earlier this year, Stuart Chaifetz started getting notes sent home from school with his son, Akian. The notes said he was having violent outbursts at school, which was very unlike him. Akian has autism, and has difficulties with verbal communication, so he couldn’t simply … Continue reading