It never ceases to amaze me the things that school personnel say at meetings, that parents relate to me, or testify to at hearings, Here are few a choice ones. I will supplement this list as I recall more and I invite readers to post their "darndest statements" in the comments:
- I am a PhD. I do not have to explain anything to you;
- You are a parent you would not understand this report any way;
- Your child is intentionally sleeping and snoring in school (even though they could not rouse him);
- We [the school district] did not pay for the AAC device for 4 years because we were waiting for insurance approval from an administrator who bragged at hearing that he had expertise in insurance matters;
- Your child has "no reading issues in 3rd grade" even though he was still at the pre-primer level and had few decoding skills;
- What do mean by "adverse effects" from a veteran special education teacher when asked at hearing why goals were not developed;
- A totally nonverbal child in 8th grade was able to "get her point across" even though no one including the SLP could understand her one handed sign, and she had no other reliable means of communication;
- At an IEP meeting where all of the school people had the evaluation reports but the parents did not; "those reports are none of your business."
- We could not provide you with the reports before the meeting because the word processors were all broken; curiously stated at every meeting held at a large educational coop;
- A superintendent in written memo instructed his staff prior to an IEP meeting to address serious elopement issues "under no circumstances are you to provide a bus aide for this child."
- In the same case as above involving the child with serious elopement risks, the superintendent bragged at hearing that he specifically refused to authorize the purchase of "good walkie-talkies like we provide to the janitorial staff" justifying the fact that staff did not have the means of supervising the child off premises, and the child nearly died as a result.
It is not just the glare of the moment that allows this statements to dribble out. In some instances, it is arrogance and a practice that is observed by some IEP teams and in some schools (not all) that parents are there to sign their names and get out of the way.