Aleysha Ortiz Connecticut honors student files lawsuit claiming she is illiterate and that she can not read or write. How the Hartford Public Schools graduate was failed by the educational system.
A Connecticut honors student is suing her school district, saying she is illiterate.
Despite graduating from Hartford Public High School in June with honors and getting a scholarship to the University of Connecticut, Aleysha Ortiz claims she cannot read or write let alone even spell her own name.
Ortiz, 19, who spent 12 years in the Hartford public school district, testified at a May city council meeting, explaining her unique situation and how the educational system ‘she trusted with her education,’ failed her.
Learning disabilities not addressed but still pushed through
‘I decided, they [the school] had 12 years,’ Ortiz, a native of Puerto Rico, told CNN. ‘Now it’s my time.’
Ortiz is suing the Hartford Board of Education, the City of Hartford and her special education case manager, Tilda Santiago, for negligence.
According to her lawsuit, Ortiz who moved from her birth home of Puerto Rico to the United States in the first grade, began having problems with ‘letter, sound and number recognition’ upon entering the school system. As a consequence of not addressing those issues, Ortiz claims soon falling behind and ‘acting out’.
‘I was the bad child,’ she told the outlet.
Unbeknownst to Ortiz and not necessarily picked up by school educators, Ortiz was struggling with a speech impediment, dyslexia, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHT) and initially a language barrier.
Ortiz claims telling teachers that she could barely read or write and for teachers to be patient with her. Nevertheless the student despite her learning disabilities was pushed through, never mind her effectively being illiterate according to the suit.
When she was in 6th grade, Ortiz in her suit claims reading at a mere kindergarten or first-grade level.
‘I didn’t know English very well, I didn’t know the rules of the schools,’
When Ortiz was a sophomore at Hartford Public High School, Santiago was assigned as Ortiz’s special education teacher and case manager.
The suit alleges Santiago belittling, bullying, demeaning and even stalking Ortiz, before eventually being removed from the role according to WTNH.
Ortiz’s mother, Carmen Cruz, whose command of spoken English is very basic claims ‘trying her best’ to advocate for her daughter, speaking to the principal and other school officials.
‘I didn’t know English very well, I didn’t know the rules of the schools,’ Aleysha told CNN.
‘There were a lot of things that they would tell me, and I let myself go by what the teachers would tell me because I didn’t understand anything.’
By the 11th grade, Ortiz began taking matters into her own hands and started speaking up for herself, with her teachers suggesting she get tested for dyslexia.
Just one month before graduation, Aleysha Ortiz began receiving the testing, which was not completed until the last day of high school, the lawsuit states.
Meeting the needs of students and how educational facility doesn’t always get it right
The testing concluded that Ortiz was in fact dyslexic and ‘required explicitly taught phonics, fluency and reading comprehension.
Notes the British Dyslexia Association: ‘Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which primarily affects reading and writing skills. However, it does not only affect these skills. Dyslexia is actually about information processing. Dyslexic people may have difficulty processing and remembering information they see and hear, which can affect learning and the acquisition of literacy skills.’
Ortiz claims school district officials telling her should could defer accepting her diploma and receive intensive services.
‘While Hartford Public Schools cannot comment on pending litigation, we remain deeply committed to meeting the full range of needs our students bring with them when they enter our schools —and helping them reach their full potential,’ Hartford Public Schools said in a statement to CNN.
Ortiz, who dreams of becoming a writer, is currently attending the University Connecticut as a full-time student, although she hasn’t been to classes since Feb. 1 in order to get mental health treatment.
To complete her college assignments, she is relying on apps that translate text to speech and speech to text, as she did in high school.
The apps gave ‘me a voice that I never thought I had,’ the graduate student said.
