Decree came too late to help Jennifer
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer
Thousands of Hawai'i's disabled students have been helped in Jennifer Felix's name, but the Felix consent decree did nothing to help Jennifer herself.
Jennifer spent much of her adolescence and young adulthood on the Mainland because there were no suitable facilities or programs available in Hawai'i, even after the class-action lawsuit that bore her name.
She returned to Hawai'i years ago, and — now 31 — recently moved back to Maui to live near her parents. She lives in her own cottage under 24-hour nursing supervision.
None of the families involved in the Felix case received any compensation, but Felix's mom, Frankie Servetti-Coleman, said they had to do it.
"I think we did it because we were struggling and we didn't want other families to go through the legal system and be fighting (the state) while their children get older and older," she said.
Servetti-Coleman's wranglings with the state began well before the 1993 lawsuit.
A viral infection at the age of 18 months had left Jennifer mentally retarded, suffering from a seizure disorder and almost unable to talk. In 1983, when Jennifer was 9, the family moved from California to Maui.
Special education classes in Maui's public schools seemed to work for several years, but Jennifer's entrance into Baldwin High in Wailuku marked the beginning of a downward spiral, her mother told The Advertiser in 1997.
Jennifer began screaming and crying uncontrollably at home and at school. She hit her mother, dangled herself off a balcony and sometimes ripped off her clothes. She ran away dozens of times.
She spent most of her day in "time out" in the school restroom because that was the only place she could be contained.
Meanwhile, Jennifer lingered on a waiting list for mental health services.
Eventually a judge ordered the state of Hawai'i to pay for Jennifer's care in a Texas school that specialized in helping special-needs children. It was 1989. Jennifer was 16.
She showed impressive gains there, finishing out her high school career, her mother said.
In the meantime, Eric Seitz, the family's attorney, joined with other attorneys, parents of special-needs children and organizations supporting them to lobby the Legislature for statewide improvements in special education and mental health services.
After the Legislature ignored the request, Seitz said, the group filed the class-action suit on behalf of six children and 19 organizations, saying the state was not abiding by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
It made sense to have Jennifer Felix top that list, Seitz said in 1997, adding "her case would have been easy to prove."
The suit resulted in the Felix consent decree.
Felix was already 20 by the time the decree started, Servetti-Coleman pointed out.
Servetti-Coleman said she is happy to see the improvements made to Hawai'i's special education in her daughter's name, but said she and other parents worry about what happens next. "They've made a lot of gains. It's just keeping these gains when someone is not watching them," she said.
And the need for help doesn't end when these kids graduate or are no longer in the public school system, said Servetti-Coleman.
"Their problems are lifelong. Just because they graduate from high school doesn't mean they don't have these learning problems anymore," she said. "If they don't have services for adults, what do they think happens to these kids?"
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.
