A parent at Frankfort’s Pioneer Grove Educational Center is advocating for fencing to surround the playground and keep their children, many of whom have severe disabilities, safe.
Months of inaction from the cooperative school for special education students ages 3 through 22 has caused frustration for students’ family members, said Laila Yassin, who claims multiple students have wandered from the playground in recent months.
Yassin, of Manhattan, has advocated for a fence since April, when she said her 7-year-old son Zakariya, who is autistic and mostly nonverbal, ran from the playground to a nearby retention pond filled with water.
“I wasn’t even aware that there wasn’t a fence around the playground, because he gets bused in every day,” Yassin said. “I just automatically assumed — like honestly, it’s common sense, right?”
Yassin said since then, she has brought up the issue at every Lincoln-Way Area Special Education District 843 meeting.
At the July 23 meeting, Yassin asked about the fence, supports provided to Pioneer Grove staff and communication with parents. School director Sarah Rexroad responded that procedures and training began last year to orient new staff to Pioneer Grove, and that a new communication template would be used in the 2024-25 school year, according to meeting minutes posted on the website.
Pioneer Grove board members and administration did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, Yassin posted a petition on Change.org that has so far received more than 1,200 signatures. She said she fears for her son’s safety and is frustrated that paraprofessionals and teachers at the school have to focus attention on preventing students from escaping rather than interacting and engaging with them.
About two weeks ago, Yassin said, the school had to call 911 after a student was lost for close to 10 minutes. She said the failure to install the fence has boiled down to a failure to obtain a permit from the village of Frankfort. The village of Frankfort did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Yassin said she is so concerned about student safety that she hired an attorney to look into filing a complaint with the International Disability Alliance.
“Most of the kids that are in that school who have autism are nonverbal, so they can’t advocate for themselves,” Yassin said. “They can’t come home and tell us, ‘hey mom, I got lost today,’ We we put all of our trust in the school to protect our kids and to keep them safe.”
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
