Nathanael Greene Elementary School
Nathanael Greene Elementary School is an elementary school in Stanardsville, Virginia, a 192 acre (77.7 hectares) town (to put that in perspective, this community college is about the same size as the whole town), which basically consists of a highway intersection. It's named for the Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene. Chris attended fourth-grade classes at this school. To this day he consistently misspells the school's namesake as "Nathaniel Greene," so he obviously learned a lot there!
Chris was pulled out of the school by Bob after telling him that he had become homophobic due to sitting on the (supposedly) homosexual principal's lap (srsly). His later hate for homos can be traced back to this incident,[1] despite being far too young at the time (especially for a sheltered retard) to know what homosexuality even was.
| “ | they abused me by pinning me to the ground with, uh, their ha--with, uh holding my wrists and my ankles | ” |
| Chris on his teachers and principals[2] | ||
Based on "physical abuse from 5 faculty members", Chris's parents took the case to Greene County court. After the school board threatened to (allegedly) lock Chris away, his family moved to Chesterfield County.[3]
Why Chris Left
| “ | There was conflict over where he would have his schooling. The school system or the Department of Social Services had attempted to place the patient in a special school. His parents were very adamant that he be in a mainstream high school. In order to maintain custody of the patient, the patient's father moved them to Richmond, Virginia. | ” |
| Jeff Raynor, M.D.[4] | ||
The newly released Autism papers confirm the fact that Chris's parents moved him out of Greene County to evade the the possibility of having Chris admitted to a special school. Still, details are fuzzy as to what actually took place, since Chris leaves out important details (such as what prompted them to "abuse" him), or spins the story in a way that favors him. The way he describes it, dubiously, the school faculty dragged him out of class for no particular reason, had the dubiously homo principal hold him on his lap, while attempting to molest him. Then, they held him by his wrists and ankles, and shoved a tape recorder in his face to record his screams while they laughed at his suffering.
There are many details about this story which obviously don't add up.
- Despite being Virginia, principals aren't supposed to let kids sit on their lap for the exact reason Chris was afraid of: it's inappropriate behavior.
- Public schools are required to have faculty experienced with special education, so it's doubtful that Chris was surrounded completely by people who didn't understand his problems and chose to mock him.
- Most speculate that Chris was tard raging and couldn't be restrained, leading to the incident in question in the office.
- In a conversation with Alec Benson Leary, Chris said that Principal Johnson "said some offensive things to [him]," when Chris was sitting on his lap. When pressed on exactly what those offensive things were, Chris said he couldn't remember, but that they were offensive. Chris said nothing about being molested, just that after Johnson said what he said, Chris jumped off his lap and hid under Johnson's desk. It wasn't made clear if by "offensive" he meant something of a sexual nature, an insulting remark, or merely a negative statement. Given Chris's ego and oversensitivity, it's likely Johnson simply said something that insinuated Chris's behavior or the pace of his learning was causing problems and that he might need to go into special education, and Chris found it "offensive" that he wasn't considered absolutely perfect and might have to take classes with the slow-in-the-minds.
- It's also a reasonable assumption that the "tape recorder" reflects the school's attempt to record Chris's behavior to use as evidence for the need to send Chris to a special school, either that, or they were aware of the Chandler's potentially slanderous comments towards the faculty.
In the end, it's most likely that Chris's autistic behavior was out of control, and the school district likely sought evidence to prove that Chris needed full time special education. Evidence like this could also be used as evidence of parental neglect or incompetence in choosing to avoid the obvious care a child needs.
Chris may also have been expelled for his out of control behavior, and he may have been forced to leave the county for the mainstream education his parents so naively desired. In the United States, when a student is expelled, they're usually expelled from the school district in question until the board decides it's safe for the student to return, so the Chandlers could have just lied to him. This means that the only way he could have received an education at a public school would have been to move to a different county, where they wouldn't have records of him.
The reason why his parents were so adamant to keep him in a "normal" or "mainstream" educational environment isn't hard to guess. Not surprisingly, most of these objections are self-centered and are really about the parents' own feelings, not their child's needs. Like many parents with children with special needs:
- They may have felt that Chris's need for "special care" would reflect poorly on them as parents
- They may have assumed that Chris would be "stigmatized" by being put in a special school
- They may have assumed that Chris would be limited in future opportunities by being put in a special school
- They may have assumed that Chris's problem "wasn't a big deal" when educators who spent most of the day with him saw the reality of the situation
The Aftermath
After Nathanael Greene, Bob Chandler unsuccessfully took legal action against the school district. His case was later dropped. Chris's family moved him away in order to keep him in "mainstream" classrooms, and we now have the Chris we know and love today.
See also
Sauce
External links
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This article is still yet to be completed due to stress. We get a lot of stressful torture in our lives that makes us crash into slumber. Given that inspiration is a big variable, and we may have been lacking of it, this article will be completed as soon as possible, at our own pace... HONEST!
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