District Won't Allow Teen With Down Syndrome To Go To Prom, Graduation

WESTHAMPTON BEACH, NY — It's a new battle for the family of a Remsenburg teen with Down syndrome who just wants to go to participate in senior year activities with his friends.

The Killorans have been advocating for years for their son Aiden's rights, first to continue to attend school in the Westhampton Beach School District with his brother and the friends he attended classes with in the Remsenburg-Speonk School District.

The past years have been marked with hurdles as they filed a federal lawsuit against the Westhampton Beach School District, which they said has not provided a program to educate their alternately assessed special needs child.

Now, Christian and Terrie Killoran have been told that Aiden cannot participate in any Westhampton Beach High School senior extracurricular activities or graduation with his friends and brother.

"The Westhampton Beach School District has denied and refused to allow New York State Public School student Aiden Killoran to attend graduation and prom with his friends and brother Christian Riley," his mother, Terrie, wrote on Facebook. Last year, he was unable to attend the junior prom with his brother and friends, his parents said.

As a mother, she is devastated, Terrie Killoran told Patch. "My heart is broken."

In a letter to the Killorans, MaryAnn Ambrosini, director of pupil personnel services, said the district had deemed it "inappropriate" for Aiden to participate since he wasn't enrolled in the district. And that he could have attended similar activities in the Eastport-South Manor School District if enrolled there, but that his parents had opted to homeschool their son.

"It is unfortunate that your election not to abide by Committee on Special Education recommended placements over many years at this point will continue to isolate Aiden socially and academically and not afford him the socializations that would have existed" had they done so, Ambrosini wrote.

Carolyn Probst, superintendent of schools, also issued a statement to Patch: "The district cannot comment on matters related to specific individuals. However, to participate in graduation, a student must be actively enrolled as a student at Westhampton Beach High School and have met all requirements for graduation. The senior prom is an event for Westhampton Beach High School twelfth grade students and their guests."

Christian Killoran said he and his wife are "outraged and saddened, but not surprised. Because of the pending litigation, the district wants to impose as much hardship upon our family as possible, because we are making them change the district’s discriminatory history. These type of things, though, just strengthen our resolve. The community should know how despicable the district is however, particularly the superintendent and the senior BOE members and Mary Ann Ambrosini — the district’s director of pupil personnel."

And, addressing the statement made by the district that Aiden needed to be enrolled, Killoran said: "He actually is, as the school district was ordered to enroll him back in 2017."

The litigation remains ongoing in federal court, Killoran said. "The district still hasn’t figured out a way to educate him for over seven years, choosing to want to send him to Eastport-South Manor, Southampton, Hampton Bays and BOCES."

"WHBSD Superintendent Carolyn Probst along with the WHBSD BOE President Mench must be so proud of their inclusivity," Terrie wrote on social media.

For years, Aiden has wanted just to belong. In 2018, while in the midst of the ongoing legal battle to let Aiden, now 19, go to school with his friends, he was also told he could not volunteer at a summer recreation program where he's spent many happy years, his family said.

Aiden Killoran was rejected by the Westhampton Beach School District as a volunteer, his father said.

"Amidst the current litigation, wherein we are seeking inclusion of Aiden within the school district, Westhampton has now denied Aiden's application to serve as a volunteer within its summer recreation program," he said.

Additionally, Killoran said, the Westhampton Beach school district at the time refused Aiden's integration into lunch and electives, while the court proceedings evolved.

Killoran said he and his wife haven't told Aiden, "to protect him. We, however, are furious. This is a malicious and retaliatory tactic and it comes in the heels of the district refusing to allow Aiden to attend lunch and electives, even though the district has admitted that his participation is not only feasible but in his best interest, and yet they refuse to do it simply because if further compromises their court case."

When reached by email, former Westhampton Beach School District Superintendent Mike Radday responded: "This matter is the subject of ongoing litigation. Accordingly, I am unable to comment at this time."

Aiden's heartbroken mom shared her feelings: "It is truly unbelievable. This kid just wants to be included in his Greater Westhampton Community, alongside familiar peers, in the school he would have gone to if he didn't have a disability. He has so many friends who want to include him and want him to be apart of their lives."

The battle for Aiden to attend classes in the Westhampton Beach School District has been ongoing for years, with the Killoran family filing a complaint in federal court.

The complaint, filed with the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, states that Aiden "continues to suffer from the significant emotional, psychological and physical effects caused by Westhampton's affirmative and discriminatory actions."

According to Killoran, he and his wife hope the filing would bring their son's substantive complaint before the purview of the court.

"To date, Westhampton Beach School District has done everything in its power to avert the adjudication of the issues. We are confident that justice is now on the foreseeable horizon and we look forward to a new day, not just for Aiden, but all special needs children who will follow him," Killoran has said.

He added in 2018 that it had been more than three years since Aiden graduated from Remsenburg-Speonk Union Free School District and yet, the Westhampton Beach School District "continues to have its heels stuck in the ground, so as to preserve its discriminatory culture of institutional laziness. My family understands the Westhampton's intransigence, because Aiden's case basically represents a 'Pandora's box', that will change the way Westhampton has historically been governed."

And, Killoran said, "Remarkably, New York State remains the worst state in the nation regarding inclusion, and Westhampton remains a perfect example of this antiquated mind-set. The recent Supreme Court decisions profile that Westhampton can no longer 'hide' behind its past practices. It is just sad, and frustrating that the Board of Education and superintendent would be so foolish with the taxpayers' money, simply to preserve their personal agendas. It's actually an outrage."

The complaint asked that that the court issue a declaratory judgment holding that "Westhampton has violated Aiden's rights" as protected, issue an order "compelling to educate Aiden in accord with its at law mandates, which shall expressly include at least an attempt to implement Aiden's IEP within Westhampton," an award of compensatory education to mitigate the deprivation of educational rights" they believe their son suffered for two years, and "an award for monetary damages (including punitive) related to the emotional, psychological and physical damages suffered by Aiden and his parents due to Westhampton's intentional, malicious, and/or recklessly negligent violations," the complaint stated.

Aiden, Terrie said, has been a vital part of the community since birth, attending Saint Mark's Bright Beginnings Preschool at the age of 2 and then the Remsenburg-Speonk School District, "always on the same path as his peers. Along the way, making friendships to last a lifetime."

While many of his peers will go to college, return to the area, settle down, have families and perhaps open businesses, the path for her son is marked by challenges, Killoran said.

"We do not know if Aiden will go to college but one thing is sure — he will have to depend upon his relationships to get a job. It is so heartbreaking and detrimental for him not be able to continue his relationships and friendships, not to mention being absent from his community, further delaying his independence, navigating community roads and establishing more community relationships," Terrie said.

She added, "We are all different but all the same. A community is just that. We all help each other and include each other."

She and her husband have said that New York State has been ranked No. 50 in terms on inclusion. "The time is now to make a change, instead of fighting so hard to keep segregation," Killoran said.

The Westhampton Beach School District, Killoran said in 2017, was ordered to formally enroll Aiden, retain a qualified consultant on inclusion, with experience at the middle school level, and reconvene a Committee on Special Education to develop an appropriate individualized education program, or IEP, for Aiden, something that was seen as a victory.

In 2017, however, he remained only partially enrolled, Killoran said, suffering the "educational deprivations of not being educated completely within the least restrictive environment possible."

Killoran said the IHO denied the family's claims for compensatory damages but said he would be appealing that component and now moving onto the federal court to seek punitive damages for "the hell they — the superintendent and board — put my family through. They need to be held accountable. Also, the district will likely appeal, so the battle will likely continue," he wrote.

Killoran's other son, Christian, was enrolled in the district and is now graduating. The Killorans also have a daughter, Shannon, he said.

In recent years, the Killorans kicked off a Change.org petition, "My Son with Down Syndrome Deserves An Education."