School Committee Member Discusses Clinton Claims

The issue of school access for disabled children in New Bedford came into the limelight again after Hillary Clinton mentioned meeting a handicapped girl in the city during her address at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Clinton said that during that meeting in the 1970's the girl was denied access to school due to her disability.

New Bedford School Committee Member Dr. Lawrence Finnerty spoke about the issue with with WBSM's Brian Thomas and said that while he wasn't involved in policy in 1972, when the meeting took place, there was an effort to make sure that children were provided with access to handicapped accessible education.

"Students were brought to school, as former Mayor Markey mentioned, there was a strong advocacy for bringing kids to schools that had a ramp, or some such other some facility access issue to them," said Finnerty.

While saying that the school administration wouldn't have prevented the girl from attending school, Dr. Finnerty says the girl's family may have.

"Back in the old days, before there was a federal law, which was '75, and before there was a state law, which was '72, 766, some families with profound disability children chose not to use their access to the public school," said Finnerty.

Dr. Finnerty says that even though a great deal of progress has been made, there are still schools in New Bedford, like the William H. Taylor Elementary School, that aren't handicapped accessible.

"The building looks fine from the outside, but if there's a child in that neighborhood now, who has the need for handicapped accesibility, a school like the Taylor School, even now has some challenges," said Finnerty "so we would look for an accomodation in a nearby school."

The meeting came through a series of interviews Clinton was conducting for the Children's Defense Fund.