Samantha Pierce

Today I'm thankful that I recorded this video. It's summer in a city with a mayoral campaign going. The city has been in decline for decades and everyone is angry. I'll have plenty of opportunities to practice what I preach. Give thanks for every biting comment you keep to yourself. We live in the era of clap backs, shade, and general outrage. It takes courage to turn back from tearing others down. Especially when you really want to give as good as you get.   But we know how wretched it feels to be on the receiving end of the kind of vitriol we're capable of dishing to each other. When you hold yourself back from that, from hurting someone else with your words the same way you may have been hurt, that's an opportunity to rejoice. You have mastered yourself and you have shown compassion to someone else. That's spectacular. 

This is how a failing city fights back. After a recent stabbing at a local high school released a torrent of vitriol directed at the 20,000 students in the Syracuse City School District students pushed back ( so did I after reading this ). Students at Corcoran High School made this video responding to their critics. These students hit the mark with their response to the gross stereotypes and immature hyperbole thrown their way. Syracuse has a hard time thinking or believing anything good about itself and the comments made about SCSD students shows that. Living in a city that’s been in decline for decades some of us have gotten comfortable being at the bottom of the heap. Being first in things no one wants to be first in and last for the things everyone wants. Our surrounding suburbs have gotten used to us being at the bottom as well. Every bit of bad news they hear about Syracuse serves to confirm the negative perception. Anything good that happens is surely doomed to f...

The sun shines even when you can't see it.

Some random dude on Facebook posted this dreck. "For those of you who take adderall & swear you aren't a meth head." Alongside a photo of models of the molecular structure of crystal meth and the active ingredient in Adderall. A concerned Facebook friend wanted to know if it was true. #nerdspawn to the rescue. "The two drugs do have similar chemical structures. However, therapeutic doses of Adderall taken under supervision of a medical professional are no comparison to drug addicts abusing crystal meth. Whoever did this needed to spend more time on their organic chemistry and molecular neuropharmacology. People shouldn't try to equate taking Adderall as prescribed with abusing crystal meth. We need less of this kind of foolishness stigmatizing people and preventing them from getting the help they need." Any questions?

I'm thankful for the clarity provided by considering other perspectives. What are you thankful for?

Repost from Autism Attitude: ABLE 2.0 In 2014 Congress passed the ABLE Act enabling families of disabled children to save for long term care expenses for their children without penalty. ABLE qualifying accounts are tax exempt and do not count against individuals when applying to government programs. As expected the ABLE Act 2014 comes with some strings attached. There are saving and spending limits for qualifying accounts as well as penalties for funds used for unapproved expenses. Now a bipartisan update to the original 2014 version of the ABLE Act, called ABLE 2.0 is in the works. The idea of ABLE 2.0 is to transform the current ABLE Act 2014 into what would essentially be government run estate planning. The ABLE 2.0 package includes three bills. The ABLE to Work Act allows individuals and families to save more money — up to the federal poverty level — in their accounts if the beneficiary works and earns income. The ABLE Financial Planning Act allows fa...

Some big news around here the last few days is the story of a Syracuse City School District (SCSD) substitute teacher stabbed breaking up a fight between students in local high school. People are predictably outraged saying all manner of vile things about not only the students involved but all students in the district. Even Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick has weighed in on the matter declaring the school district must drop its current approach to discipline. The SCSD Code of Conduct has been a hot topic of late. It frustrates families, students, and staff. There is plenty of room for improvement. But people seem to have forgotten, or don’t care, how we got to this point. Families first recognized the problem with discipline in the schools. The Assurance of Discontinuance details just how bad the problem was. High rates of suspensions of students, minority students disproportionately suspended, failure to notify families about referrals and suspension...

A Michigan special education teacher has filed suit alleging that she was wrongfully terminated for bringing sexual harassment by her special education students to the attention of administrators at Bay City Western High School. Teacher: Special ed students sexually harassed me, then I got fired Melissa Sawicki, 36, filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Bay City in September, alleging sexual discrimination and retaliation for protected activity on behalf of Bay City Public Schools and the district’s board of education,  MLive.com reported  on Tuesday.   Sawicki claims special education students began making crude and lascivious comments to her — some even directing obscene gestures to her — shortly after she started her job in the district at Bay City Western High School in 2013. Two, no three, things went wrong if Sawicki’s allegations are proven to be true. First this teacher was not adequately prepared for what she would face in her classrooms during her teac...

Thankful Thursday! Perseverance can turn "it can't be done" into "it it finished." What are you thankful for?

Arresting children with disabilities and learning disorders when the adults around them fail to meet the children’s needs is a triumph of poor planning and mediocrity. The latest example of this, that we know about, occurred in a school in Dallas, Texas . April Obin says her son has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and tends to disrupt class at Gabe P. Allen Elementary School several times a week. But he has trained counselors that help him cope with the mood disorder.   On May 9, Obin says her son had an episode that turned violent and he began to bang his head against the wall.   Obin's attorney, Amar Dhillon, says the school was having standardized testing that day. The boy's counselor wasn't available, so they called his mother in for assistance. Now you might be wondering why there was no one else at the school able to help April Obin’s son without the situation allegedly deteriorating the way it did. I know I am. Did anyone think, hmm...

Re-posting from my other day job. All the Parenting Hats Some days it feels like being a parent requires me to be a general education specialist, a special education expert, a psychologist, a neurologist and neuroscientist, a geneticist, an education law specialist, a diplomat, and a hunting dog all at the same time. It is exhausting. But it’s what you do. Will there be a time when I’m not going to advocate for my children and others like them? When I’m dead maybe. My kids want to go to college. That means it’s my job to make sure everyone does their job to give my children that opportunity. Sometimes that means holding my children to a higher standard than others have for them. Sometimes that means cutting them some slack. It’s a delicate balance that requires knowing the child in question and what best motivates them. ​ Mostly it requires being present and aware of my child and their needs. It means setting in my mind that they can achieve their goals and working alongside ...

The paperwork necessary to "prove" the the existence of a life long condition times two. The Medicaid system is byzantine. There is no way around that fact. Issues with Medicaid have plagued those of us living with disability for decades. But it’s nice to see that others are beginning to notice problems with Medicaid to wit, “ The new healthcare bill could worsen the stigma of special education .” Of concern here is the possibility of a loss of $4 billion over the next 10 years earmarked for schools to help children with special needs. Without Medicaid, support services as well as educational outcomes for children with disabilities may suffer. In a  report from January  of this year, AASA, the School Superintendents Association, made clear how dire the situation could get. Health and wellness, therapy, and nursing services will be on the chopping block, as will the jobs of staff whose salaries are paid either in part or in full by Medicaid reimbursements. ...

I appreciated the opportunity to take part in the live broadcast town hall on Monday, May 15, 2017 with my congressman John Katko. The event wasn’t earth shattering or game changing. It was a good start for a new way to do public dialogue with elected officials. I’d love to get state and local elected officials in that kind of format. Here are the questions I had prepared for the evening but did not get a chance to ask. (News coverage here , here , and here . Plus protest coverage here , here , and here .) Medicaid Medicaid fraud prevention measures do a poor job of preventing fraud. Instead they make it harder for people who need services to get them. How would you address this problem at the federal level? Medicaid reimbursements to service providers are notoriously low. This leaves people with limited options for care. It is a perennial problem for people with disabilities who need specialized care. Central New Yorkers are currently faced with a limited number of provi...

8-Year-Old’s Suicide Leads Cincinnati School to Release Video Showing Bully Attack This is the stuff of parents’ nightmares and it hits close to home for me. I had a similar experience with one of my children. It involved school staff rather than another student. My child is alive and well but I understand the outcome for my family could have been what Cornelia Reynolds is now experiencing. The school made no mention of the incident to the boy's mother, Cornelia Reynolds, only telling her that he fainted, said Jennifer Branch, an attorney representing Reynolds, adding that they learned about the surveillance video months after the attack in January.   But because the mother didn't know what happened, the doctor at the hospital didn't either, which changed the nature of the medical examination, she said. "If she had known he had lost consciousness for over 7 minutes, that is a critical detail for a medical professional to know," she said.   Reynolds foun...

Mom has taught me a few tricks over the years. The most important lesson she has taught me is to fight for family. Here's to many more battles fought and won.

April rolls around every year and every year for autistic folks, their families, and friends we become the center of a media frenzy. Some welcome this some not so much. Lost in the hubbub though is the fact that life is precious and beautiful especially when me make conscious decisions to make it so for our autistic selves, family, and friends.

This really seemed to hit a nerve for people when I shared it on Facebook today, “ 20 Diversion Tactics Highly Manipulative Narcissists, Sociopaths and Psychopaths Use to Silence You ”. It seems quite a few of us have crossed paths with highly manipulative self-centered people in the flesh. People who try to control us, make us over as they see us, distort our sense of self-worth, lay waste to our character, and leave us questioning our sanity. Some of us have been broken by the slow seeping poisoning of our lives by these people. Some of us have been broken and made whole again. Some of us are still a work in progress. Some of us are just beginning to realize the truth of what we have been living with. Wherever you are in the process you are clearly not alone.

Tonight, Friday, November 13, 2105, there is terror in Paris. At home we are at heightened alert lest the same terror seize us unawares. At our colleges and universities mobs have been gathering demanding conformity to their will and their ways. We have watched as we burned our own cities. These are just a few of the more eye catching woes that beset us. What is a Christian to do in the midst of this kind of chaos? Matthew 10:16 16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Wisdom, shrewdness or prudence, and innocence, an openness to what happens in life, both require constant vigilance to cultivate and protect in the right balance. Both are required to see clearly to the heart of the challenges that we face. Lean too much on one or the other and you leave yourself open to being easily deceived. Philippians 4:4-8 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known...

Before we get too far along in digesting what happened in Charleston, SC last night I want to take the time to remind my fellow Christians, and the rest of the world of a few things. We are reminded in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” This message was delivered to King Solomon of ancient Israel at the dedication of the first temple in Jerusalem. The scenario presented to Solomon in this verse occurred over and over again in the history of ancient Israel. The people drifted away from God, they had to seek him out again, and forgave them time and time again. It occurs over and over again in the lives of modern Christians. Brothers and sisters we need to pray. Why? Oh for lots of reasons. Here are just a few that came to mind as I read about the shooting in Charleston, SC. Ephesians 6: 10-12 “...

The first time I caught a glimpse of Verizon's "Inspire Her Mind" ad I thought to myself, good grief.    If this ad is to believed fathers are participants in a conspiracy to drive their daughters away from science and into the stuff that the ad portrays as girly. I'm going to have to call shenanigans on that, both on the idea that girls are discouraged from pursuing the sciences and the portrayal of stereotypically girl oriented interests and styles of play are undesirable. My parents had no problems with my interest in science when I was growing up, so long as I did my chores, and didn't do anything to endanger myself, my siblings, or the structural integrity of our house. As a mother one of my greatest joys is sharing my interest in science with my sons and daughters, with the same limitations my parents set on me of course. (I have no desire to have the house burn down or have to rush anyone to the hospital, again.) The fact of the matter is that women ...