Family Fights for Son, Who Has Down Syndrome, To Be Educated in Westhampton Beach School District

WESTHAMPTON BEACH, NY — As the first day of school approaches, all Aiden Killoran, 13, wants is to attend the same district as his brother and friends.

To that end, a family's fight for their son, who has Down syndrome, continues Monday as they battle for his right to attend Westhampton Beach Middle School.

Christian and Terrie Killoran have been advocating for their son, Aiden's, right to continue to attend school in Westhampton Beach with his brother and the friends he attended classes with at the Remsenburg Union Free School District.

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

In order for the federal case to proceed, it has been determined that Aiden's family must "first seek our petitioned for relief at the local and state level, which this due process complaint and hearing represents," Killoran said.

The hearing is public and is scheduled to begin on Monday at 10 a.m. at Westhampton Beach High School.

Aiden, 13, just wants to go to school with his brother and the friends he's always known, his father Christian Killoran, told Patch.

Most recently, Killoran, a Westhampton Beach attorney said, he received a letter from the Westhampton School District, barring him from school property, should he bring his son on the first day of school.

"They say they are not enrolling or admitting him because they are fearful of effects on other students and they don't have the resources to educate him," Killoran said.

"Since the inception of this matter, the Westhampton Beach School District has acted in the child’s best interests in seeking to ensure that he is placed in a program that will appropriately meet his educational and developmental needs," said Westhampton Beach School Superintendent Michael Radday. "Out of respect for the child’s privacy rights and the pending legal process, we will not comment any further at this time."

Killoran maintains that in the history of the Westhampton Beach school district, no alternately assessed special needs child, who is not taking standardized tests, has been educated, and no program has been provided to educated them. "They outsource all of them," he said.

Without the green light from Westhampton Beach, his son would need to attend school at a BOCES program or be bused to another school district, he said.

At Remsenburg-Speonk, where Aiden attended elementary school, "He pioneered a path," Killoran said.

But at Westhampton Beach, Killoran said, "They don't want the headaches."

A hearing will take place Monday at 10 a.m. at Westhampton Beach High School with an independent hearing officer from New York State's committee on special education, to determine whether the district will create an individual education program, or IEP, for his son, Killoran said.

Killoran's other son, Christian, will be entering seventh grade at the Westhampton Beach Middle School this year.

Although his parents have tried to "shield" Aiden from what's been transpiring, "He just wants to go to school with his brother and the friends he grew up with," Killoran said.

The Killorans also have a daughter, Shannon, 8, he said.

The past months, Killoran said, have been "stressful, taxing emotionally and financially."

He added that he believes the teachers at the Westhampton Beach School District would do a great job educating his son. "I have confidence in the staff. The administration doesn't," he said.

Last year, the Killorans kicked off a Change.org petition, "My Son with Down Syndrome Deserves An Education," which so far has garnered 77,464 of its goal of 150,000 supporters.

"My son, Aiden, is like the king of his school. Everybody knows and likes him. He's funny, outgoing, and just happens to have Down syndrome. It's never held him back and he just graduated from elementary school with his friends this spring," Killoran wrote in 2015.

"Aiden and our family thought he would continue on to seventh grade with his classmates at his hometown school but suddenly we were told that because Aiden has Down syndrome, he can’t attend the same middle school as his peers, friends and siblings — he’d have to be bused to a neighboring district."

Killoran added, "We think this is wrong. And we are demanding that Aiden is included, not excluded, from the educational environment that is best for him."

The Killorans, the petition says, have the support of the community and of the National Down Syndrome Society, or NDSS..

In 2015, and after 25 years of the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, "every public school should be able to accommodate a student with Down syndrome or another disability in the classroom. People with Down syndrome are living longer, healthier and productive lives, attending post-secondary education programs, getting married, obtaining gainful employment, and are more integrated into the fabric of society than ever before," the petition states.

"Aiden has the right to attend his local school for many reasons, including a recognition of his basic human dignity, as well as the lawful protections that advocates of special needs children have fought so hard to achieve thus far. Fostering Aiden’s community network is essential to cultivating his future success and ensuring his ability to live a productive life as a contributing member of society," the petition reads.

Photo courtesy of the Killoran family.