I mentioned last month that I've been involved with a case for the past 10 years concerning a student in Texas who needed therapy in Spanish. He's now 18 years old and the school system wants to graduate him from high school so that the district's responsibility to him is over. I was interviewed by the two attorneys from Houston (in Las Cruces), one who was representing the school district and the other for the family and their son, Fernando. We began at 11 a.m. and took a short hour lunch break and then finished the deposition at 4 p.m. We had a court reporter taking notes. The purpose of this meeting was to find out what I knew about the case so that the district attorney could prepare for the hearing in January. I'll be in Houston testifying with Alba Ortiz from the University of Texas at Austin.
When we finished that afternoon, I didn't know what had happened. I felt shaken and wondered if I done any damage to the family's case. I wanted to share with you what I learned, just in case if you ever have to testify as an expert witness for a family who is trying to obtain bilingual special services for their child.
The first part of the interview was a review of my credentials, experiences as a speech language pathologist, and how much time I spend doing diagnostic evaluations while I work as a professor in a university. The school's attorney had my vita, so she went through my education and work experiences. The purpose was to discredit my background as a bilingual speech language pathologist. I think what saved me was that even though I'm a professor, I continue to have private contracts with local school districts to do diagnostic evaluations of bilingual children. I test maybe 4 children a semester. This experience provides me a way to try out new tests and also reminds me of what my students need to know and observe when completing an evaluation.
The rest of the interview was a line by line examination of the report I wrote for the evaluation I completed on this student two years ago and also last September. The wording, descriptions, the tests I used, and the recommendations were all questioned and I had to defend what I stated in the report. This definitely made me more sensitive about how I phrase my sentences.
The last part of the interview was an examination of the student's IEP and my critique and recommendations on how it could be improved. I took my time, but I had to read the last 3 years of IEP's and critique the goals and objectives.
Now I'll start on the Does and Don'ts.
The Do's:
- Rest. I had had a busy week with major decisions and crisis. So I hadn't slept for 2 days when I sat down with the attorneys. My eyes were bleary and I thought that my head would explode from the headache that pounded my frontal lobe. So you can imagine, my response time was not so responsive, and my answers were not so sharp. It took much effort on my part to think about what was asked and how I was going to respond. Take a sleeping pill if you have to, rest.
- Read all of the material sent to you. I had read the materials several weeks prior to this appointment because we had previously scheduled it earlier in the month but cancelled because one of the attorneys became ill. So for the second appointment, I didn't have time to review the materials again. Take time to review everything sent to you before you go into the deposition.
- Make notes to yourself about the materials. Making notes saved me. But then there were notes that didn't make sense to me. Be clear to yourself just incase you have 2 weeks that go by and you don't have time to review.
- Answer only what is asked of you and don't add more. I think that as speech language pathologists we try to be clear about our opinions and how we see a situation. It's not necessary to be so talkative in a deposition. Let the attorney probe.
- Say you don't remember if you really don't. It's funny how memory works. I couldn't remember certain events, and then later I would remember. I didn't know if I should say"Wait a minute now I remember!" or should I just forget about it again. I chose to not say anything and make the deposition go longer.
- Ask for clarification when you need it. Some of the questions were convoluted and for a tired listener, I had to ask for clarification. I wondered if maybe I should have written parts of the questions down to help me remember, but I thought, no it's the attorney's responsibility to make it clear to me so that she'll get the answer she needs.
- Take your time answering questions. I'm sure that they thought I was delaying on purpose, but I really needed to think about my response. I didn't want to just blurt out unorganized and rambling statements. Take your time.
The Don'ts
- Don't rush: Take your time looking at the materials when they're presented. They'll wait. And don't rush to answer the questions. Think about what you'll say.
- Don't give your opinions unless you're prepared to defend them against an attorney. I made the mistake of stating my opinion concerning the school districts policies and stated that I thought that it was horrible that a district would spend 1 million on attorneys fees instead of providing the services needed to children. Of course I had to defend my thoughts on the matter.
The family's attorney told me that school districts around the country are hiring attorneys to help administration and teachers to defend the district's policies concerning children who need bilingual special services. I'm sure that as speech language pathologists, you may be asked to defend the school's policies and implementation of a less than adequate IEP. I hope that if you're asked to do something that is not appropriate for children, that you'll think about the Code of Ethics of ASHA and consider whether you really want to continue to work for that district.
As bilingual clinicians, we do have a tremendous responsibility to do the best job possible for the children in our care. We can't underestimate the importance of the work we have among school districts that will try to minimize our work with children from culturally and linguistically diverse populations. Consider the children.
