San Diego County Office of Education spokesman Jim Esterbrooks said the slides and handouts from a special education presentation that were criticized as inflammatory and discriminatory by parent Jackie Husson were presented as myths about special education — not the reality of how special education operates.
“She didn’t have all of the slides or the content that was presented,” Esterbrooks said of Husson, who did not attend the training and received the information from an attendee. “Slides were put up that were purposely myths. Without the context, that is misleading. It’s not accurate to characterize the people working in special education as negative or anti-child.”
Esterbrooks also said that another County Office of Education staffer said some of the slides that Husson cited in her complaint were from a previous presentation in 2004. I have requested the full presentation to get a better sense of how the slides were incorporated.