Lowell Elementary -- No Way To Run Our Schools

Paula Bock's Nov. 10 article about the Seattle School District's threat to remove the special education program from Lowell School caught my eye. The ostensible goal would be to make room for the placement of a different program at this central location.

I am a master's student in special education and as such visited a dozen special education programs in Seattle Public Schools last spring. My best visit by far was the morning I spent at Lowell School watching a multicultural assembly. The entire school participated in a celebration of diversity and the feeling of community was palpable.

At Lowell, the staff and students have worked together to make a school/home where everyone belongs. It is a shining example of how schools need to be managed to provide the best learning environment for all children.

It is unthinkable for the school district to propose to callously displace children with special needs when they are an integral part of a school that is the best model I've seen of true integration of these children into a school community. Pitting one program against another in the most convenient building is really not the way to run OUR schools. Pat Close

Seattle