TBI Boy’s Parents Continue Fight with School District for Rights
The debate between a school district and the family of Mikey Berns is still in the works. An independent hearing officer listened to testimony from experts representing both the family and the school district. Mikey Berns, 5, suffered a traumatic brain injury when a cabinet fell on top of him last October. The parents have been fighting to get him full-time kindergarten schooling saying that their doctor and other experts agree that repetition helps with cognition and memory stability. According to their neuropsychologist, Dr. Bryan Hudson, the boy would benefit from attending both sessions and the school district is obligated to provide that service. “Any time you have material presented more than once, it increases the likelihood that it will be encoded and consolidated for later use,” Hudson said. Dr. Chris Sullivan, a neuropsychologist hired by the school district, reviewed the boy's medical records and told the hearing officer that the boy's memory is solidly average. The school district's attorney asked Sullivan if a longer day of instruction would help Mikey in which Sullivan replied, “"It is not the case more is better. It is how information is presented. Simply repeating curriculum is not necessarily going to produce gains you want,” Sullivan said. If Mikey and his parents win this debate, they want the school district to cover costs of the one-on-one special education he has been receiving.
