SEATTLE, Washington State, USA: A federal appeals court has affirmed a judge's finding that the Federal Way School District did not violate the rights of a six-year-old autistic boy by failing to put a stop to merciless teasing from other children.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the staff at Mark Twain Elementary School had had no meaningful chance to correct the problem because the boy's parents had pulled him out of kindergarten just five days after seeing other kids mock and malign him.

Bob Millen, president of the Federal Way School Board, said that last week's ruling would not weaken the district's strong commitment to prevent harassment. "Our policies can always be more stringent than the law," he said.

The September 2 ruling means that the district will not have to repay the parents of the boy, identified in court papers only as M.L., for private school costs.

Jim Lobsenz, the attorney for the boy's parents, said on September 8 that he had not yet decided whether to appeal the case to the US Supreme Court.

Bill Dusseault, a Seattle attorney and special-education expert, said that the decision set a poor standard for schools throughout Washington. "It tells the district in this case that it was OK for one group of kids to pick on another kid. That should never be OK," Dusseault said. "It tells the other students that it is acceptable to tease students who are different."

However, a Seattle University law professor, Jim Rosenfeld, said he thought the ruling would not have much of an impact. "I don't think it establishes any standard," he said, noting the lack of evidence that the teasing had actually harmed the Federal Way boy.

The boy is severely retarded and autistic and cannot talk. He may not have heard his classmates' teasing because he often wore headphones, listening to his favourite music as a way of controlling his classroom behaviour, the court records say.

When he entered kindergarten three years ago, Federal Way schools had a policy against teasing. But his mother testified that, every day during her son's first week at Mark Twain Elementary School, she had heard other children on the playground and in his classroom call him "stupid" and "crazy" and make fun of him when he tried to talk, court records say.

His mother reported the teasing to M.L.'s teacher, who witnessed only one incident, and to the vice-principal, who responded by encouraging the teacher and mother to talk, court records say.

The teacher "did not take any action regarding the teasing incidents" but did promise to watch for problems in class and to "intervene if necessary," the three-judge panel said in its unanimous ruling.

Under the US federal Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, disabled children have the right to an "appropriate" public education designed to meet their needs.

A school's deliberate indifference to teasing would violate that right if "the teasing is so severe that the child can derive no benefit from the services offered by the school," the court held.

In M.L.'s case, the court said he had not been stripped of all educational opportunity, so there was no violation.

(Source: Associated Press, September 9, 2003)