A momentary interuption to lay the ground rules of public comment

By Elizabeth Scheinberg

Echo has existed for almost a year. She grew out of another blog, Children and Educators First, which after an eight year run has been retired, although some of those posts are archived on Echo. As C&E 1st, there was only one public comment rule - Families are off limits. Nobody's kids or spouses or girlfriends. It could get gritty at times, snarky, and even brutal. Education in Delaware brings out the ugly.

But, Echo is a different beast. A project. A challenge to write about a single topic blog, to tell the story of special education for very particular children through the decades since de-institutionalization became law.

It became very clear, very early on, that Delaware had a particularly special private special education program residing at the "gingerbread house" in Bear. In once-upon-a-time horse country, the movers and shakers marveled at the owner, his wife, his horse, and his dedication to teaching the children most challenged by what is known today as the autism spectrum. And then the 1970s happened and the gingerbread melted away and what was left was a scathing five day series of stories to be followed by months and years of newsworthy updates about the facility once known as Au Clair.

For the last year, Echo floated the blogosphere, quietly collecting readers and research. However, recent events in Mount Dora, Florida, primarily lawsuits targeting community members for slander/libel have led Echo to establish HOUSE RULES on COMMENTS, although it pains us to do that:
1. No Slander/Libel. What will likely be the undoing of the current cases stem from the fact that the complainant must establish he is not what has been accused of being rather than the defendant proving that he is. However, we are so inclined, Echo cannot publish comments that are derogatory in nature. Sorry, no henchmen here. :) Those descriptions may be well-earned, but they will find no home on these pages. Comments may be edited to remove content that could inspire another fruitless lawsuit. We do not support further overburdening the judicial system with unnecessary combat.
2. Be good to each other. You never know when you need a saving grace. And it is often the person least likely who will offer help. Never be too proud to take it.
3. Because we are bit tongue in cheek around here... you have to balance the pain, hurt, abuse, and death with some amount of humor and humility; this is a quiet zone. QUIET ZONES are RIDING CROP, WHIFFLE BAT, and WRAP MAT-free.

Those are the house rules. Sorry for the intrusion. Perhaps tomorrow, if not Sunday, Echo will be back to work researching and writing about the entity that began as Au Clair, it's morph into Advoserv, it's expansion into other states, it's sealed settlements, and finally Bellwether, the latest owner.

Sweet Dreams!

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