Help Us Save Lighthouse!

The Lighthouse is a small classroom inside of Austintown Elementary School in Austintown, Ohio. It holds 7 kids and 4 teachers who have special needs. The kids have Autism, ADHD, ODD, etc. Many of them have behaviors, are minimally speaking, or non-speaking. This makes it hard for them to be in crosscat or mainstream classes. We have experienced nothing but discrimination and pushback when advocating for our kids. They were left out of the yearbook, not given the same opportunities, left out of events and forms not sent him, and stopped from having extra parent help at parties. We tried to start a support group that was not supported and forgotten about. Then, this week, we were told individually that starting next year they're removing lighthouse, the teachers, and nothing will be the same for our babies. Most of these kids can't communicate to even understand these changes. Many Autistic kids have photographic memories and remember everything. Their routine is very important and these changes will make them regress so much. Us parents have worked so hard with our kids for years and have fallen in love with these teachers. We knew that our kids would have a safe, soft place to land for a few years. Now they are trying to remove that and say it's "positive changes." Please help us save this class and the teachers!