ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 7, 1996 TAG: 9610070016
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
ALLAN SCHMAEMAN says a return to eighth grade at age 16 is unacceptable. But he and his parents can't find a legal route to let him learn at home.
Allan Schmaeman's part-time job at a grocery store could be his only ticket to a high school diploma.
Because of discipline problems and disputes with school officials, the 16-year-old Roanoke youth dropped out of seventh grade and has had only three weeks of schooling in the last 18 months.
Now he and his family are in a predicament. His parents say Allan needs home instruction and that the city should provide it, but they have been unable to get a doctor to say he needs it. Students must have a signed statement from a physician or clinical psychologist saying they have a physical, psychological or educational disability that makes it impossible for them to attend school.
Several doctors have said Schmaeman should be in school and interacting with other students.
"The doctors say this child needs to be back with other kids," said Joanne Moche, a specialist in educational disabilities with the city schools.
But Allan, who is 6-foot-2, doesn't want to join younger kids at Ruffner Middle School, where he fears they will tease and make fun of him if he enrolls in the eighth grade.
Because he is bigger than most of them, "the kids would torment and hassle him," said his father, Allan Schmaeman II.
"I couldn't do the work with 30 kids in the class," Allan said. "The teacher wouldn't have enough time to help me," he said. "I don't want to be in a class with a whole bunch of kids" unless he has a tutor.
Allan said he believes he will need a tutor to catch up and keep pace with his class. His parents say they can't afford one. His father is on Social Security disability as a result of two car accidents. His mother works at two jobs - at a fast-food restaurant and on the housekeeping staff for a hospital - to help the family make ends meet.
"If the schools won't provide it for me, I guess I'll have to pay for it myself," Allan said.
He estimates it will cost $100 a week - a big part of what he earns stocking shelves and helping check out grocery store customers 30 hours a week.
Allan dropped out of the seventh grade at Jackson Middle School during the 1994-95 school year. He said his troubles began when he was placed in classes for students with learning disabilities because he was having trouble with math and spelling.
"They put me in the LD classes, and the stuff was not challenging. It was fourth- and fifth-grade work," he said.
Allan got into trouble when he disrupted classes and refused to do his homework and obey teachers.
"I got suspended after I told a teacher off when she said something to embarrass me," he said. "After that, I'd get called to the office and blamed for things that happened."
Allan quit going to school.
"He said he wasn't learning anything. The kids were cutting up and getting into brawls," his father said. "They were putting all of the bad eggs in one class."
Allan was out of school all of last year except for three weeks of home instruction last spring provided by the city.
His father then got a doctor to sign a statement saying the boy needed home instruction because of his learning disability. But that doctor is no longer practicing medicine, and state regulations require a new statement from a doctor each year.
Allan's parents haven't found a doctor or psychologist this school year who will say that the boy needs home instruction.
Robert Sieff, director of special services for city schools, said the city can't make exceptions to the state requirements to qualify for home instruction.
Ann Harman, executive for student services, said the schools try to work with students and parents to encourage compliance with the state law requiring children to attend school until they are 18. School officials sometimes ask the juvenile court to intervene.
She would not comment on the Schmaeman case.
Moche said she recommended that Allan enroll at the city's Villa Heights Educational Center for students with emotional problems and learning disabilities.
"Because of his academic record and history of other problems, I thought that would be best for him," she said.
The Villa Heights Center has small classes for 40 students. It is an academic and behavior management program. Students can transfer back to regular schools if they improve and can function in a regular classroom.
School officials also suggested that Schmaeman could attend Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy, an alternative school for middle and high school students with behavioral and learning problems.
But neither Allan nor his father is interested in Villa Heights or Noel Taylor.
"I don't want to go to either one of them," Allan said.
"Going to one of those schools would just put him in a bad environment," his father said. "I told them to either provide home-bound instruction or nothing."
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff Allan Schmaeman says it would costby CNB$100 a week - a big part of what he earns working at a grocery store
30 hours a week - to hire a private tutor.