"It's against the law where I live to deny a child an IEP service or an accommodation. So, what happened was they brought him to an illegal timeout room. There are legal timeout rooms in New York and in many states across the country, but there are also illegal timeout rooms. The idea is that they're supposed to de-escalate and to calm down in a safe environment.

What they did to my son was they stuck him in a little, tiny instrument closet, literally the size of my child and he was in there for two hours. This is an illegal time out room. He was told he couldn't come out until he did the assignment, which means he had to write. Of course, my son could not write because he has dysgraphia, so they would not let him out of the room. This went on for two hours.

Now, I knew nothing of this. At the end of the day I got a phone call, and it was the principal saying, we're suspending your son. This is the first day of fourth grade in a brand new school district that was known for how wonderful the special education was. Wonderful, right? So, I get a call. I go into panic mode. I'm in Defense Mode at this point. Because what I hear is, "Your son is not compliant. He threw a pencil at the teacher". And I said, "Wait a minute. My son, that doesn't sound like him at all. My son has never thrown anything at anybody." And all of a sudden, I get a week-long suspension for my son, which throws my family into chaos.

Both my sons went into Defense Mode but I did not understand what was going on. Remember, I did not know anything about the timeout room. I just knew about the suspension. I realized I had to have some help to fight the suspension, so I started calling advocates, and I started asking questions the same way people do right now on Asperger Experts. They say, "This just happened to my son. What do I do?"

I learned that there was a system and a process that had to be followed that I did not understand. I had to meet with the principal. I had to have a hearing. I had to do all of these legal things."