As most of you know by now, fifty individuals have been indicted with numerous criminal charges in what has become known as Operation Varsity Blues. Twenty three of those indicted are wealthy and/or famous. The most well known being actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. The other less well known individuals are coaches, instructors and various grifters and conmen. Most of the charges are for Fraud, wire fraud, counselling to commit fraud and other similar crimes.
For some readers this may all seem like a ridiculous grade school pantomime. Sort of a keystone cops episode, rich, entitled, elitists, arrogant parents who couldn’t pull off a simple scam when all they really needed to do was make a donation to a school and voila, unappreciative son or daughter are automatically enrolled. For many this embarrassing failure is entertainment.
The problem however is that there are real victims of these crimes, American youth with disabilities. As the news unfolded and I learned more details about how the scam operated it became known that many of these individuals had claimed that their abled children had various types of disabilities. Learning disabilities to be exact. In US college entrance exams, accommodations and adjustments are made for students with disabilities. This is as it should be. Canadian universities have the same policy. These accommodations are tricky to obtain. In Canada one needs a letter from a doctor and a meeting with the dean or leadership responsible for the exams. More often than not a student with a disability has to argue their case unless the disability is clearly evident.
Even with these measures in place a student can still be denied access to an exam room at the whim of a person responsible on the day of the exam. A case in point recently in Ontario. A brilliant young man was denied access to his Bar exam despite having letters from doctors and the Law dean at a Local university. This young man cannot write due to a disability and must instead use a laptop. This was cleared as a accommodation yet he was denied.
This example shows just how difficult it is to gain a vital accommodation to write an entrance exam for college. As it is already an outrageous burden on the disabled it doesn’t take too much imagination to recognize what will happen next in US schools as a result of the disgusting behaviour of Huffman, Loughlin and the rest of these charlatans. US schools will now make it far more difficult to get an accommodation, resulting in lower acceptance rates to US colleges for American youth with disabilities.
Loughlin faces 5 years in jail. She had no concern or thought on how her despicable actions would harm the most marginalized in our society. She and the other culprits simply didn’t care. Their only thought was themselves and their underachieving offspring.
As US colleges investigate, clear out the rot and put in place more stringent policies and procedures they must take into account that accommodations are a right and not a privilege. They must train their entrance exam staff on the best way to make adjustments and accommodate applicants and they must ensure that these accommodations are granted. In order to get this right they need to include graduates with disabilities to help.
After all, with over 20% of Americans having a disability it’s clear that the cohorts of disabled applicants to US colleges is growing. In Ontario it is growing at 15-17% per year.
And to think at one time I liked Aunt Becky.
The Inclusion Revolution 