Ironwood High School Is Unfairly Failing Dylan

EDITORIAL - by Keri Singleton - Monday, February 8, 2010 - Dylan Korpela-Jorgenson does not want any special treatment, only what is allowed him by law: access to free and appropriate education. Dylan gets good grades, is a good kid, and only wants to have every chance available to him for success. He is a great looking, well-mannered young man of 13 years old, and has gone to Ironwood schools all his life. What sets Dylan apart from his classmates? Why is Dylan’s Mom, Linda Jorgenson, fired up and asking for help? Why are they feeling like their needs are being ignored and pushed aside?

Dylan is in a wheelchair, and has been since 2001, when a car crash left him paralyzed. There is not a trace of self-pity in him or his Mom, despite having to greatly modify their lives, and change everything about living. They don’t complain, they just do what needs to be done, and accept life as it is. Dylan is smart, and wants to do what so many kids fight against daily----he wants to learn.

Dylan attends Luther L. Wright High School, where he is in the eighth grade. This last October 13th, Dylan went on an elk hunting trip with his Grandpa in Colorado. On October 24, Dylan returned home. Shortly after returning home, Linda noticed that Dylan had a pressure sore on his tailbone area. He was transported to Grand View Hospital by ambulance. Grand View said they had to transfer him to a special hospital equipped to handle such cases. Dylan was sent to Marshfield on October 25th. On October 27th, surgery was performed, where the wound was debrided. For three weeks, he was on a wound vac, and on November 13th, a muscle skin-flap graft was done. For a month, Dylan had to stay on his left side, and had to be in a highly specialized bed.

The bed could not be brought home because no service providers are anywhere in the near area. A bed that was appropriate was finally located and brought to their home. On January 5th, Dylan came home. Linda has been in contact with Ironwood High School throughout the whole process. It took the school three weeks until they sent any homework to Marshfield. Finally, after involving the teacher from Marshfield School District, Karen, Dylan finally received his work by fax. Marshfield had been on stand-by, waiting to receive the homework to help Dylan catch up. Through his hard work, Dylan caught up on his work, through December 18, 2009, when Christmas vacation began.

On Tuesday, January 5, 2010, Linda went to Ironwood High School, where she talked to the principal, Mr. Kolesar, in the lunchroom. She told him Dylan would be home at about 4:00 PM, and they needed to get a tutor to come to the house. According to Dylan's mom, Kolesar assured her that they would get something going right away. He told her that the planned tutor, Ed Martinson, would be over to tutor Dylan.

On Monday, January 11, 2010, no contact was received from the school, and no tutor arrived. Someone is in the house 24/7, due to Dylan’s need for someone to constantly be in the house, should anything occur, since he is unable to move out of bed.

On the 14th of January, Linda called the GOISD (Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District), out of Bruce Crossing, Michigan, and talked to the superintendant, Bruce Mayle, explaining the situation. Mr. Mayle advised her to contact the superintendant of Ironwood Schools, Mr. Rayner. When Linda told him her son had an I.E.P. (Individualized Education Plan), he told her things changed. He asked her if Dylan was counted in the school’s September attendance count. He was counted, which means Ironwood has received funding because of Dylan’s wheelchair status.

Linda asks, “Where is the free and appropriate education?” It is not known whether Dylan will be counted in the February count; however, it is certain he will be home bound for the rest of the school year.

Linda called Mr. Rayner on Thursday, January 14th, and did not receive a reply until the 18th of January, Monday, whereupon he told Linda he would, “Look into it.”

On January 21st, at about 6:30 PM, Mr. Tim Kolesar, Ironwood’s Principal, came to Linda’s house with Dylan’s homework. The homework consisted of work from the weeks of January 4th - January 8th, and January 11th - January 15th.

On January 27th, Linda called the school, and asked to speak to Mr. Kolesar or Mr. Rayner, receiving no response. Linda called again on the 28th, leaving messages, and received no reply. On Thursday, February 4th, Linda said she called Mrs. Kanipes, who used to be the Vice-Principal, two times, and received no response, and the same thing happened on Friday. On Friday, February 5th, February, Linda called Mr. Steve Thomas, the School Board President. He said he would get back to her on Monday, February 8th. She told him the school is, by law, to provide Dylan with tutoring. He told her that he doesn’t think the school has to provide tutoring, and he would check into it. Linda said she knows what the laws are. Linda told me according to the law, Dylan is entitled to 2 forty-five minute tutoring sessions a week, and was supposed to start three days after Dylan returned home. It is well over three days.

Due to the lack of tutoring, Dylan has fallen behind in his work. When asked what the desired outcome would be, Linda said all she wants is the help Dylan is entitled to, along with some make-up tutoring to help him get to where he was. He is a hard-working young man, with above-average obstacles, who deserves all the help he can get.

The pathetic thing is, in this writer’s opinion, is that not one teacher has reached out to Dylan, a lifetime student of Ironwood schools, at a time when he needs some extra help. Due to the “Free and appropriate education” he has been denied, Dylan has fallen behind, and to me, that is a tragedy that parallels the accident that took away his ability to walk. Where is the compassion, and where is the willingness to “go the extra mile” that teachers expect from students? Are teachers so overworked here that they don’t have the time to reach out to Dylan, whom everyone knows and loves? Dylan has been a student in Ironwood since pre-K, and spent 74 days in the hospital, during which time not one inquiry was made about him from the school. We do not live in a city where there are thousands of kids, this is Ironwood, Michigan.

Linda told me that Mr. Kolesar told her face-to-face in the cafeteria, that they did not want to set Dylan up for failure; let’s see actions match words, please. There are many many students in that school who don’t work as hard for or appreciate their education as much as Dylan does, and what has been done to him seems extremely unfair. Please, the powers that be, make things right for Dylan, and give him what he deserves, a chance for a free and appropriate education.