A Pasco County mom is outraged after her disabled daughter has to move schools. Ridgewood High School will become a technical school next year and the ESE program will no longer exist.
“I’ve always fought for her and her needs to make sure she gets everything she needs in this life,” said her mother, Deborah Bell.
Jessica, 20, is a beautiful and unique girl.
“She doesn’t talk. She doesn’t eat by herself. She doesn’t go to the bathroom. She doesn’t dress herself or bathe herself. She completely relies on me for everything,” said Bell.
Bell has tried to give her daughter the best life possible, including her education.
“People don’t seem to understand when you change things for disabled children, it affects them,” said Bell.
That’s why she’s had her daughter in the same school for eight years.
“When changes come about, she can’t ask questions. She can’t sign papers. She can’t say, ‘oh it’s okay going to this school and I am okay meeting the teacher.’ No, she doesn’t get to do that. I am the one who has to do that,” said Bell.
Bell says she just learned her daughter will have to go to Hudson High, but doesn’t know what the ESE program is like or if it can even suit her daughter’s needs.
“I want her to be respected and to be taken care of and loved and cared about and not just brushed off as, ‘oh we can do this because they don’t understand.’ They understand a lot more then we give them credit for,” said Bell.
News Channel 8 reached out to the Pasco County School District. They said they’re looking into the concerns and will reach out to the family involved.
