Parents seek accessible classrooms for children Two 7-year-old girls, Savannah and Mariah, who have disabilities that require wheelchair access, have been attending Larrymore Elementary School. However, the school was built in 1957 and does not have an elevator or chairlift to access upstairs classrooms for older grades. The school division told the families they would need to transfer schools, but the alternative schools were much farther away and did not offer the supportive environment and friendships of Larrymore. The parents have been working for years to find a solution to keep the girls at their neighborhood school and have offered to pay to install a chairlift themselves. They are continuing discussions with school officials but are considering filing an ADA complaint if no

1. Parents seek accessible classrooms for children
By Ben Werner
The Virginian-Pilot
© April 28, 2015
NORFOLK
A birth defect called spina bifida left 7-year-old Savannah Beane paralyzed from the
waist down, but she still jumps rope, plays baseball and competes in marathons.
Her first-grade classmate, Mariah Poulson-Shuler, also 7, has a disability that means
she needs assistance to walk, and she struggles with mobility and balance,
especially to climb stairs.
Both girls live close enough to walk to Larrymore Elementary each day with their
parents. Each girl has plenty of friends and classmates.
That might change next fall when the girls head to second grade. Larrymore, built in
1957, has neither an elevator nor a chairlift - and its upper grades meet upstairs.
Earlier this month, the Beanes said, the division's administration told them the
school's structure couldn't support an elevator and the Norfolk Fire Marshal would
not approve a stair-mounted chair lift - despite community commitments to pay for
and install such modifications.
The division's proposed list of capital improvements, released in January, includes
design and construction of an elevator at Larrymore - in fiscal year 2020, when
Savannah and Mariah will be in middle school.
Norfolk Public Schools told both families their girls would have to move to other
schools.
"That's especially hard for a child, to tell them you're different, that's why you're
moving," said Mariah's father, Dennis Shuler.
Savannah cried when she heard the news, her parents said.
In response to inquiries from The Pilot, the division said it was working to "ensure
that an accessible classroom is available at the school" and to assess "the feasibility
of engineering and installing an elevator within the division's fiscal constraints."
"The school division and Larrymore team are gladly working to identify a way to
support the student at Larrymore," wrote spokeswoman Elizabeth Thiel Mather.
Also after being contacted by The Pilot, the division invited the Beanes to meet
Wednesday with school officials to discuss a strategy for the upcoming school year.
Mather added that "staff will continue to work to meet [Mariah's] individual needs."
The Norfolk Fire Marshal did not respond to phone calls.

2. Savannah's mother, Stephanie Beane and her husband, Mike, said they had tried for
years - since Savannah enrolled in pre-K at Larrymore - to work with the division to
find a solution.
They knew that one day she would need to follow her class upstairs. Parents from
Savannah's Girl Scouts troop, friends made during years in the Navy, and contacts
from Mike's side job working as a charter boat captain pledged to pay for a chair lift.
They even secured a promise from an elevator company to install one and maintain
it. The cash-strapped school division wouldn't need to spend any money.
But the division's proposed solution involved transfers to W.H. Taylor Elementary
School or Crossroads Elementary School.
Taylor, in West Ghent, is about a 25- to 30-minute drive from their homes in light
traffic. Crossroads requires a 15-minute drive.
"We like to walk from school, because it's good for her legs, the exercise," Shuler
said of Mariah.
Those alternatives have other drawbacks. Crossroads has an elevator. But, Mike
Beane said, the family was told the fire escape plan calls for keeping children with
disabilities in a fire-resistant room while waiting for emergency workers.
The Beanes questioned why that strategy is any better than what would occur at
Larrymore. And the girls would both have to start over at making friends with
classmates.
"The impression we've gotten is Norfolk Public Schools doesn't want to deal with it,"
Stephanie Beane said. "They're hoping if they run us in enough circles that we'll get
tired and quit, and we won't."
The Beanes have fought for Savannah since the room fell silent during the first
ultrasound that showed Savannah had a birth defect that caused her spine to form
improperly. They were told to consider an abortion and that Savannah would never
walk.
Yet mother and daughter practiced every day with a walker to surprise Mike when he
returned from a 2010 Navy deployment to Iraq. Now Savannah ambles around her
home balanced on her hands and feet, lunging forward in a sort of mobile "downward
dog" yoga move.
"We have to fight every day for our children," Stephanie Beane said.
Nearly any building can be outfitted to become handicapped accessible, said Henry
L. Green, president of the Washington-based National Institute of Building Sciences.
A chair lift is the least expensive option but cannot always work in a narrow stairwell.
Elevators can be added to an interior hallway or, if the building's design and
construction materials prove too difficult, added at the end of a hall. At a minimum,
Green said, "You're looking at $30,000 to $40,000 for an elevator."
Many school divisions have already retrofitted buildings or replaced older ones to
meet accessibility standards.
Larrymore's mid-1950s construction doesn't mean the division gets a pass, said Julie

3. Yindra. She's director of student access services at Hofstra University.
The first special education law was passed in 1974 and the Americans with
Disabilities Act passed in 1990. Yindra, who has spina bifida, said both laws opened
the doors to public education for students with special needs. The laws require
schools to make reasonable accommodations for physically impaired students.
"Everywhere has to provide equal access," Yindra said. "Everywhere."
Nationally, about 2.8 million, or 5.2 percent, of the nearly 54 million school-aged
children had at least one physical or learning disability, according to a 2010 U.S.
Census Bureau report. In Hampton Roads, the same report stated, about 5 percent
of school-age children reported a disability.
Both nationally and locally, fewer than 1 percent of children reported having only a
physical disability.
Students in wheelchairs benefit from attending class with non-handicapped children,
Yindra said. It reinforces their self-esteem and academic performance. Additionally,
Yindra said, children with such disabilities tend to develop socialization skills late
because so much of their infancy is spent in hospitals. That's why it's so important for
students such as Savannah and Mariah to be comfortable in their classrooms, where
they've established friendships.
"For a school system to respond to the family, 'I'm sorry you can't come here' is just
mind-blowing," Yindra said.
Savannah and Mariah have thrived at Larrymore, their parents said. Neighborhood
kids stop by in the morning to join in the walk to school and include both girls in
playtime.
"It's a fabulous home-zone school," Stephanie Beane said. "All the kids treat her as
another kid in the class, just like peers."
The staff at Larrymore has welcomed the girls, too, Stephanie Beane added. In
physical education, Savannah's favorite subject, she even learned the quintessential
playground act of jumping rope. Savannah can swing a rope over her head and when
it hits the ground, hop over it in her wheelchair.
"In a million years I never would've figured she'd do that in her wheelchair,"
Stephanie Beane said.
Savannah wants to remain in school with her friends. But like many first-graders at
the end of the school year, she's focused on what do this summer.
"I want to play with bubbles, go swimming, play with sidewalk chalk and go fishing,"
Savannah said. She hooked a 44-pound striped bass at Christmas. "And do some
races."
Beane spoke out to School Board members about their predicament at a recent
meeting.
"We're sure something can be worked out for the student at Larrymore," said Board
Member Ed Haywood after Stephanie Beane spoke.

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The Beanes and the Shulers said they welcome more discussion with the division.
"I'm the eternal optimist. I'm hoping for a good outcome," said Savannah's mother. "If
they come back with a positive answer, I'll be very gracious and say thank you. But if
not, I'll file an ADA (American with Disabilities Act) complaint with the state."
Ben Werner, 757-222-3893, ben.werner@pilotonline.com
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