Parents Jennifer Sample and Eliot Ferguson were excited when their 3-year-old son Owen was accepted into Washington Market School's preschool program.
They received an acceptance letter, but after Owen was diagnosed with autism, the school notified them that he could no longer attend. Sample is certain that her son was being discriminated against.
School officials hadn't met her son before or after the diagnosis. Sample believes if the school had assessed Owen's behavior and found it inappropriate that would be one story, but they had never met him. In fact, nothing had changed before or after the acceptance, except that Owen was given the label of having autism.
"They did say that without meeting him. And that's discrimination. They have to do due diligence with a child, with children with disabilities. And they did not want to do that," Sample told ABC News.
The family is now suing the school in hopes of preventing other children with disabilities from going through this.
"They didn't discriminate on the basis of some legitimate reason such as the child has aggressive behavior, or the child is doing something that will change the fundamental character of the school. They didn't even care to see the child. They rejected him and rejected him sight unseen because of the autism label," said autism rights lawyer Gary Mayerson.
Do you think the school was in the right to reject Owen? Let us know in the comments.
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