PASADENA, Calif. -- On the evening of June 6, Tony and Mary Brandenburg convened with friends and fellow parents in front of the University Club of Pasadena. In just one hour, Pasadena Unified School District officials, parents and teachers would start arriving for an awards ceremony intended to honor the efforts of those who work on behalf of more than 2,200 students in the district's special education programs.
But the Brandenburgs weren't there to celebrate — they were there to protest.
Members of their small group assembled around a pickup parked in front of the club entrance and festooned with posters reading: Inclusion means everyone. Bullying is not OK.
The parents'claim? Their 8-year-old son, whose name they asked be withheld, was bullied out of his second-grade class at Sierra Madre Elementary School by classmates and their parents, the latter of whom, they report, held meetings off campus to discuss his removal. His crime? Unruly behavior brought on by autism.
