April 26, 2007

ValleyViewpoints

Efforts to discredit Mike Silva are a witch-hunt

Editor,
I’m writing regarding the dispute over Mike Silva and his intent to set up a coffee stand at the Almaden library. First I want to state that I do not know Mr. Silva and had no prior knowledge of him or the issues surrounding him until it recently “exploded” in the papers.

I can understand the concern of parents with young children. However, I feel that this issue has become a witch-hunt and hysteria has taken over. All the allegations brought against Mike Silva stem from a messy divorce. He had the courage to try and protect his children rather than put them in a position of further trauma by not going to court and using them to clear his name. He chose to protect them in the same way these so called vigilantes are doing for their children.

If Mike Silva is this horrible child predator, why is he trying so hard to reconcile what’s happening? Why is he so willing to meet with and reach out to the residents of Almaden and try to remove the cloud of fear? Do they really think he’s doing this so he can get to their children by setting up a coffee stand at the Almaden library? He’s just trying to make a life for himself out of a bad situation.

What has this man done in the past 18 years that suggests that the allegations brought against him are true? What gives people the right to drive by his house, call the police without him having done anything wrong and to maliciously gossip about him? I hope these people realize that this could have just as easily happened to them. I hope they remember the phrase, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

Name withheld upon request
Almaden Valley

Thanks for talking about the autism crisis facing our public school system

Editor,
It’s great that someone is finally talking about this crisis in our public school system! (Almaden Times Weekly, April 26, 2007 “High-functioning autistic children and their parents struggle in the public school system”) I'm a Vermont mom of a teenager who has Asperger's who is searching for a good school and I found your article on the Internet.

Districts spend massive amounts of our educational funds to fight against the families of disabled children – more than the cost of giving them an appropriate education for the remainder of their educational life would even cost!
No one should accept this waste of our tax dollars. If ‘We The People’ allow this to continue, we will all be paying far more later. The Center for the Study of Autism reports that high functioning adults today require assisted-living supports for the remainder of their life and many cannot work. The Autism Society of America says it will cost between $200 and $400 BILLION per year to provide what these people will need when they reach adulthood.

The fate of these children and the immense stress for their families can be changed. Giving them an “appropriate” education now will lead them to the hope and promise of independent living. The law requires districts to prepare all children for further education, employment and independent living. The law requires districts to provide academic, social, communicative and emotional development for all children. So you see, the needs of these children are protected by law, yet districts continue to deny them. These children are not asking for MORE, they ask only for what is given to their non-disabled peers from the educational system; their disability simply requires that they receive it in a different way.

We need to ask ourselves, since your article points out that many of these children are highly intelligent, if we "throw these children away" and keep them on a path destined for dependency, which of these children could have gone on to develop a cure for cancer or AIDS or diabetes? We could “throw away” the next Albert Einstein, Diane Fossey, or even a Bill Gates?

Your article shows the divide between parents and the educational system (thank you!), and it points out how districts ‘reassess’ despite a diagnosis from medical experts. Notice that while they ‘reassess’ and conclude that medical experts are wrong, we see that poor “Ben” was diagnosed at age 3 and went without any services until he was 6 years old. That’s three precious years of development he can never recover, and the money the district spent to fight his parents – who ultimately prevailed – was wasted and could have gone to help many children. Given that there are many "Bens," the waste of educational funds is staggering.

With Social Thinking classes designed by Michelle Garcia Winner and created on public school campuses, and a school like Pine Hill where “all children can achieve their potential” through a specialized curriculum with expert teachers, high functioning autistic children can overcome the emotional and social obstacles as proven there daily. These children can develop the skills that prepare them for further education, employment and independent living, as the law requires. And families can breathe and live harmoniously again.

I can't believe you have such an excellent school in San Jose as Pine Hill and superb intervention-therapies such as the "Social Thinking Institute.” It is just a shame that my local public schools don't use those nationwide acclaimed facilities. When will the discrimination and neglect end?

Andrea Stefani
Plainfield,Vt.

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