Sorry I didn't add more information sooner about my court case! Past month has been filled with doctor appointments, blood tests, and more appointments. I am currently on recovery from a 2-3 year struggle with diabulimia. I'm finally "mentally" prepared to get my self under better control, now just have to get there physically. I went from a 13.5 A1C to 10 in a month.. and after I get my pump, I'm hoping to be down to 6 :)
Alright, I just had to brag about my recent accomplishment. Back to topic...

Let me point out some important facts some of you may already be familiar with.
Before I began high school, my parents wrote up a personal "504 Plan" regarding my diabetes. They basically went off of a sample 504 plan based from the American Diabetes Association. (i.e. I would be allowed to leave the classroom in case of a low blood sugar. I would be allowed to leave to get water during any time. I could keep my insulin pen and glucose monitor with me at all times. I could leave to use the restroom at any time. etc. etc.)
Here a site that gives some information about a lot of the rights I was refused in high school - http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/504/

I only stayed at my high school for two years. During those two years, my school completely humiliated me and frightened me of my disease. I want to keep this first blog fairly short, so I will list just a few of my situations that happened in high school.

Let me also add this - I discovered I had juvenile diabetes two years before I started high school. I still did not want a lot of people knowing I had diabetes. I hated "displaying" my disease by having to check my glucose or administer insulin in front of others, especially other kids my age. I wanted to look and feel as normal as any kid without diabetes.

When I began high school, my parents told me about my 504 plan. I was told that my disease could be known amongst myself and my teachers; that they understood.
Little problems started to begin that only bothered me slightly..
Issue: My 504 plan stated I was allowed to leave the classroom at anytime to check my blood sugar (I didn't like checking my sugars in the classroom) I was always good about feeling my lows, and wanted to just let the teacher know I was leaving, and freely walkout.
Problem: I soon figured out that my teachers had no idea about any "504 Plan." They weren't even aware there was a diabetic in their classroom. If I ever wanted to leave to go to the nurse's office, I'd have to wait until the teacher could fill out a hall pass for me. I wasn't allowed to leave in the middle of tests or quizzes.

Humiliating events took place such as:
Issue: My 504 plan stated that if I was ever absent because of any diabetes related issues, then I was allowed to makeup any absent homework and turn it in with no penalty. Because, obviously, my teachers had no idea about my 504 plan, my absent homework was always deducted 50%, resulting in F
Problem: There were many problems because of this issue, however, there was one time when I was absent up to a week. I was in the process and switching basal insulins, and making a new regimen for myself. This resulted in many unexpecting highs and lows - making me feel AWFUL. Once I returned to school, my teacher stood in the front of my class and said out loud to me "My grandmother has diabetes, and its not even that bad. Theres no reason you should be missing class." (I remember this directly, one of the most embarrassing moments for someone young, with diabetes.)

Another situation that scared me was during a PE class -
In the middle of class, I noticed I was going low. However, my "main" PE coach had left the gym for a few minutes, and had the assistant PE coach watching over the class. I told the assistant PE coach I was low, and was leaving - She immediately stopped me. She told me since she wasn't my primary PE coach she couldn't let any student leave until my main coach returned. In the middle of explaining that I was diabetic and allowed to leave, my main PE coach returned. I told him I was low and leaving - He had no idea what I was talking about. At this point, I am very low, very sweaty, very confused, very "drunk" low for all you diabetics that know what I'm talking about - and I am having to explain that I am diabetic, and allowed to leave.
Let me just wrap this up by saying - I was terrified. When I was finally able to test my sugars, I was in the low 30s.

I stopped going to high school. I decided to have a "Why does it even matter" attitude towards school and my homework. I went from being an A,B student to D,F student pretty quick.
I finally immediately enrolled into the high school's partnering community college - which offers hundreds of students dual credit courses - I passed all my courses with As - only to be turned down by my high school who told me that they weren't going to accept my credits, and that I couldn't use the credits toward my high school diploma.
- Which this is a whole other issue which stirs up another problem.

summing this all up... My family and I decided to bundle up all these problems and take my high school into federal court.


Sorry if a lot of this was hard to understand - its a lot of issues and a lot of problems. Hard to cover all of them in one blog :)