A Personal Note: My Story
My Curriculum Vitae speaks to my education, professional training, employment, and work history, all of which make me well-suited and highly qualified to advocate for Special Education students. I work with school-aged children, ages three through 22, with a vast array of different types of disabilities.
As the parent of a son who received special education services, I have experienced the challenges, worries, and heartbreaks of having a special needs child. I take this personal experience with me each day as I work with families to ensure that the educational rights of their children are upheld as intended under the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act).
My interest in advocacy began when I was still a child. In October of 1969, I spent a day with other Girl Scouts volunteering with high-functioning intellectually disabled children at Letchworth Village, a custodial asylum in rural New York State. During our visit there, I accidentally walked into an auditorium-like building. There I saw disabled children lying in cribs with nets over them, while others ran about nude or in diapers. The stench was nauseating, and I can still hear the echo of the children's cries and other unintelligible sounds as they bounced off the high ceilings of a structure built in the early years of the twentieth-century. There were two nurses there, with approximately eighteen 3 to 7 year old children. The nurses were dressed in those severe, old-fashioned white uniforms. Not being a shy child, I yelled up to the stage where the cribs were located and told the nurses that I was lost, and asked them why there were nets over the children, and why they were in cribs. I asked “why are they like this, what is wrong with them?" One of the nurses told me to leave and never tell anyone what I saw. Of course I did tell people, but no one really listened.
Then, in early 1972, I saw a series of news segments done by Geraldo Rivera, then an investigative reporter for WABC-TV in New York. The segments exposed horrific abuse that was taking place at Letchworth Village and at Willowbrook, another state asylum. The facilities housed people under the most deplorable of conditions, including overcrowding, inadequate sanitary facilities, and physical and sexual abuse of residents by employees.
It was not until 1975 that Public Law 94-142 (Education of All Handicapped Children Act) was passed by Congress. Now codified as IDEA, this law required that a free and appropriate public education (FAPE), in the least restrictive environment (LRE), be given to all school-aged children identified as disabled. This truly diminished the need for institutional segregation of disabled children.
What I witnessed in October of 1969 is firmly and permanently imprinted in my mind. This experience determined my path in life, leading me to assist and advocate for the disabled. As the years have passed, I have been on a continued quest to refine and enhance my skills and knowledge in ways that give me the greatest ability to successfully advocate for school-aged children in special education.
I look forward to utilizing my passion and experience in advocating for your child.
-Gwen Campbell
As the parent of a son who received special education services, I have experienced the challenges, worries, and heartbreaks of having a special needs child. I take this personal experience with me each day as I work with families to ensure that the educational rights of their children are upheld as intended under the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act).
My interest in advocacy began when I was still a child. In October of 1969, I spent a day with other Girl Scouts volunteering with high-functioning intellectually disabled children at Letchworth Village, a custodial asylum in rural New York State. During our visit there, I accidentally walked into an auditorium-like building. There I saw disabled children lying in cribs with nets over them, while others ran about nude or in diapers. The stench was nauseating, and I can still hear the echo of the children's cries and other unintelligible sounds as they bounced off the high ceilings of a structure built in the early years of the twentieth-century. There were two nurses there, with approximately eighteen 3 to 7 year old children. The nurses were dressed in those severe, old-fashioned white uniforms. Not being a shy child, I yelled up to the stage where the cribs were located and told the nurses that I was lost, and asked them why there were nets over the children, and why they were in cribs. I asked “why are they like this, what is wrong with them?" One of the nurses told me to leave and never tell anyone what I saw. Of course I did tell people, but no one really listened.
Then, in early 1972, I saw a series of news segments done by Geraldo Rivera, then an investigative reporter for WABC-TV in New York. The segments exposed horrific abuse that was taking place at Letchworth Village and at Willowbrook, another state asylum. The facilities housed people under the most deplorable of conditions, including overcrowding, inadequate sanitary facilities, and physical and sexual abuse of residents by employees.
It was not until 1975 that Public Law 94-142 (Education of All Handicapped Children Act) was passed by Congress. Now codified as IDEA, this law required that a free and appropriate public education (FAPE), in the least restrictive environment (LRE), be given to all school-aged children identified as disabled. This truly diminished the need for institutional segregation of disabled children.
What I witnessed in October of 1969 is firmly and permanently imprinted in my mind. This experience determined my path in life, leading me to assist and advocate for the disabled. As the years have passed, I have been on a continued quest to refine and enhance my skills and knowledge in ways that give me the greatest ability to successfully advocate for school-aged children in special education.
I look forward to utilizing my passion and experience in advocating for your child.
-Gwen Campbell