Disabled student denied wheelchair in Duval Schools

Nov 10, 2023

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The mother of a 9-year-old student with cerebral palsy says her daughter’s substitute teacher prevented her from using a wheelchair at school last week.

Shatavia Hurt’s daughter Mia started back to school last week in the fifth grade at Sabal Palm Elementary. She needs a wheelchair to go from class to class, but Hurt said a substitute teacher forced her daughter to walk to other classes, and outside for a fire drill last Wednesday.

Hurt said Mia was exhausted and unable to go to school the next day.

“My daughter was made to walk that day to the other side of that campus,” Hurt said. “There and back and participate in a fire drill in the heat without a wheelchair.”

Because of the teacher shortage, some substitutes stay with a class for an entire year, Hurt said, but school officials told her these short-term employees aren’t permitted to access to a student’s Individualized Education Plan or I-E-P and can’t discuss it with a child’s parents.

“Any teacher that will be teaching a child with IEP should have access to that information for medical, behavioral, educational purposes,” Hurt said. “It’s actually their right. They need to read over that to know how to attend to that child individually.”

Hurt said she previously called the substitute to discuss the accommodations spelled out in her daughter’s IEP, but she said office staff wouldn’t allow it.

She called again after last week’s incident, and said an employee said her daughter should have communicated her needs to the sub.

“Other parents, I’m aware, are going through this as well,” Hurt said, “and they definitely need to rectify this. Just because they’re having a teacher shortage doesn’t mean you need to compromise the health of my daughter or any student.”

A Duval County Schools district spokesperson told First Coast News school leadership met with Hurt late last week “and then took appropriate action to address the situation at the school.”