...ADA evaluation
The county conducted ADA evaluations for 198 schools in 2017-2018 through a private firm. In February, retired teacher Randy Alton asked for the reports to be released and after a series of filings under the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) procedures and several meetings, the reports were released for all the schools on Oct. 25 on the MCPS website.
This evaluation revealed Wootton’s 380 violations of the ADA. The athletic fields, stadium, school driveway, auditorium, and other major infrastructure compliance concerns did not meet the 1992 ADA provisions when major construction occurred for the Wootton expansion. “How do we go forward as a county, as a school system, as a government with all these ADA barriers?” Alton said.
Speech to Board of Education
On Nov. 7, junior Catherine Contreras spoke on behalf of the school’s special education program to the Board of Education about the need for renovations due to Wootton’s lack of ADA compliance. Contreras highlighted the ways the infrastructure causes the students in the special education program to be excluded from the student body and put in harm’s way.
For a fire drill their route consists of, instead of immediately getting a safe distance from the building, walking alongside the building and through the parking lot to the stadium, as this is the only wheelchair accessible route.
This lone wheelchair accessible exit empties out onto a relatively narrow strip of sidewalk above a steep hill of grass. Because of the lack of renovations at Wootton and a closer wheelchair accessible exit, the special education students would be forced to walk along a burning building in the case of a real fire emergency...
