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THE PESA POST
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Parents, Educators/Teachers & Students in Action

January 20, 2022
REMEMBERING DEVON MUNOZ
How a fight for the rights of special-education students shaped the formation of PESA—and continues to this day 
Recently, PESA lost a member of its extended family with the passing of 20-year-old Devon Munoz, a loving young man who had a lifelong affliction with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a rare and debilitating form of epilepsy. While we’re saddened by his loss, we’re also reminded about and wanted to share the story of how the roots of PESA can, in a circuitous fashion, be traced to the Munoz family’s struggle to ensure a decent education for their son through LAUSD. 
In 2013, attorney and would-be PESA founder Seymour Amster became aware of the plight of Devon’s mother, April Munoz, and other families whose children with moderate to severe disabilities had been attending dedicated special-education centers within LAUSD. The Chanda Smith class-action lawsuit and subsequent consent decree sought to dismantle these centers in favor of integrating special-ed students into general-population campuses. However, the Munoz family and many others whose children also had extensive forms of physical and cognitive disabilities argued that the move would be potentially detrimental to their education and dangerous to their physical well-being, as many of these students required specialized medical equipment, therapeutic programs and more intensive supervision that would be lacking on regular campuses.
 
Making matters worse, many of these families were undocumented and didn’t speak English, so there was a great deal of miscommunication and apprehension. PESA agreed to support this cause and have Executive Director Amster, along with attorney Angela Gilmartin, serve as the attorneys for this group of intervening plaintiffs who wanted to keep the special-ed centers open.
The case was first heard by the district court where it was denied. It was appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which in a published decision reversed the district court's decision and allowed the intervening parents to present their position to the district court. After extended litigation and failed mediation, eventually the original class-action plaintiffs agreed to no longer use the consent decree to force this horrendous integration of moderate to severe special-education students to general education campuses without proper support, and further agreed to have the Chanda Smith case brought to an end. This restored the decision-making on special education in LAUSD back to the teachers, parents and the school board. 

In fighting for the rights of these disabled students, says Amster, “We were making sure that all parents had a choice and a say in their children’s education, something that has remained at the core of the PESA mission.”
 
The effort has had profound implications for the organization. “It led to special education always being ingrained into PESA,” says Amster. “As we found ourselves getting involved in diversion, getting involved in more schools and districts, we always made sure: Don’t forget about the special-ed children. There have been many times when we’ve had a diverted youth who is special ed, and as a result, we’ve had a social worker intern who has gone to an IEP meeting to cause things to happen. Also, the concept of training and providing parent advocates came out of that Chanda Smith fight, and it remains a critical  function of PESA today.”
 
“If we do not address special-education needs,” Amster continues, “then the kids who are special-ed will fall behind, and then they will be ripe to become involved in the school-to-prison pipeline as well. PESA is the only diversion program that has a specialized diversion for special-ed youth. It’s part of our DNA.” 
 
And for that, we give thanks to Devon Munoz and his family. ■

If you’d like to support PESA’s many social and educational initiatives, please contact us.