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A Holistic Treatment Team for Autism: The Professional Education Benefits of a Medical-Legal Partnership for Autism Involving Students from Graduate Programs in Law, Applied Behavior Analysis, and Occupational Therapy
Full text linkThis article will outline the distinct special education and related service needs of children with autism and describe a new model for a medical-legal partnership tailored to address those needs and educate the professionals who work with children with autism. We will share results supporting the use of this model from a series of Interprofessional Education (“IPE”) case studies and consultations the authors conducted through interdisciplinary coursework shared among several graduate schools within Touro University. Part I explains the legal and client-centered framework within which the medical-legal partnership operates. Part II identifies the advantages of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) and occupational therapy (OT) for the complex interrelated symptoms that are associated with autism, and the importance of client-centered legal advocacy for obtaining appropriate services for youth with autism. Part III contextualizes medical-legal partnerships within the broader landscape of interprofessional education. Part IV introduces a pioneering medical legal partnership at Touro University aimed at enhancing the training of professionals and delivering more impactful legal services to children with autism. This initiative integrates expert consultants from ABA and OT into the special education legal representation provided by a law school clinic to children and youth with autism. Part V presents empirical findings illustrating the educational benefits of this model for students pursuing careers in OT, ABA, and law, along with suggestions for refining the pedagogical approach to better serve professional students. This article also shares some of the early beneficial outcomes of the partnership for the law clinic’s clients with autism
Love in the Disabilities Paradigm: A Normal Person’s Need for Healing
Full text linkWe function in a disabilities paradigm where people are broken in a multitude of ways and where, having recognized their brokenness, we seek in our benevolence to remake these broken people in our own image. There is, however, another paradigm in which one might live, a paradigm of love. In that paradigm, people are not divided between “normal” and “broken” but live together on a common spectrum of light. In this paradigm, people are not so much “disabled” as they are waiting to be believed in, and in this paradigm, the greatest need for healing is in the capacity to love. In the paradigm of love, love is not just a word or a feeling. Instead, love is a gut-wrenching compulsion to action in response to the need of another. In this paradigm, love is not a feeling or a choice one makes. Rather, it is love that defines all one is. In the paradigm of love, families flourish, miracles happen, and even scrawny trees can save children
Private Religious Schools and Disability Discrimination
Full text linkIn the lead-up to the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), religious institutions and organizations lobbied to be exempt. Because they were successful in securing an exemption to most of the ADA’s requirements, religious private schools maintain the legal right to refuse admission to disabled students or to fail to give them various legal protections. After considering the arguments given in its favor, the paper critiques this exemption on moral grounds. It then suggests that these considerations should lead to a reexamination of the legal right such schools have to discriminate against disabled individuals, especially in those cases where that discrimination is contrary to the official theology, teaching, or policy of the religious organizatio
A Guide to Urban Planning and Environmentalism
Full text linkReview of The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook, by Nico Larco, Kaarin Knudson
America’s Turning Point: Religious & Free Speech Rights Transcend the Authority Public School Districts Think They Possess
No full textWhat is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the First Amendment? I would argue that most people either say “Religion” or “Free Speech.” Arguably two of the most important and humane values inherent in a functioning democratic society are safeguarded by the First Amendment. But are they? Imagine this situation. You and your spouse have a child and send him to the local public school. One day, he comes home and says that his fourth grade teacher instructed the class that each student must refer to classmates by the pronouns of that student’s choice. Your child is confused, because the Bible says there are only two genders. As a parent, what are you supposed to tell your child? Any response suggesting acquiescence in this instruction is directly contrary to your spiritual life. Say your child listens to what you teach him about the Bible and to not let anyone tell him otherwise. Your child listens to you, and comes home the next day saying he was reprimanded for apparently violating this pronoun policy. Your child shows you a detention slip citing an incident of “bullying and harassment” for referring to his LGBTQ+ friend Joseph as “he” while knowing Joseph’s pronouns are “she/her.” Has the First Amendment protected your child in this situation? No. However, it should. This Note argues that Public School District policies that require students to use preferred rather than biological pronouns when referring to students are unconstitutional under the First Amendment. These policies not only unconstitutionally compel the speech of the school district’s students, but are viewpoint discriminatory and are not supported by compelling justifications. Further, this Note argues that these policies violate the free exercise rights of the students’ parents. This Note contends that all preferred pronoun policies, no matter their accommodation, should be stricken as unconstitutional and that all States and the Supreme Court, if it hears such an issue, should reason in harmony with this Note and the authorities cited throughout. Free Speech is essential to a functioning society and without it comes society’s death
Symposium Transcript, In re Opioid Litigation: The Trial Phase
Full text linkIn October 2023, Touro Law Center held a two-day conference on “The Past and Future of Opioid Litigation.” The inspiration for the conference was an extraordinary five-month jury trial in Suffolk County presided over by Hon. Jerry Garguilo. The trial, which was the first in the United States to include all parties in the pharmaceutical supply chain, from manufacturers to wholesale distributors to retail sellers, began in the summer of 2021. Ultimately, in 2022, the case settled. This allowed Judge Garguilo and attorneys from the case – Jayne Conroy, who represented one of the plaintiffs, Suffolk County, and Harvey Bartle, who represented one of the defendants, Teva Pharmaceuticals, to discuss the case in detail. Associate Dean Rodger Citron moderated two 90-minute panel sessions with Judge Garguilo and the attorneys. In the first, the panelists discussed the pretrial phase. In the second, set out below, they discussed the trial phase. The transcript below was prepared by Associate Dean Citron and reviewed by Judge Garguilo, Ms. Conroy, and Mr. Bartle. Edits were made for clarity along the way