Disability Classics

Editors Note:  This section of RDS is intended to highlight ÒclassicÓ articles or commentary that 
helped to lay the foundation of disability studies and disability rights, or, as in the case of the article 
reprinted below, simply make a point that never tires from being repeated! Reprints can be from 
journals, newsletters or other media.  If you have ideas for material that would fit in this section, 
please contact Associate Editor Megan Conway at mconway@hawaii.edu.

Dee [Lesneski] Says
Josie Byzek

Reprinted with permission from Mouth:  Voice of the Disability Nation, XI (5) (Jan.-Feb. 2001), 12-
13, 44-45. This is a slightly edited version of a January 2001 interview by Josie Byzek with Dee 
Lesneski, who became known as Òthe flagpole mom.Ó  It begins with an explanatory paragraph, 
followed by the interview.  More about Mouth is at:  http://www.mouthmag.com/

Dee Lesneski chained herself to a flagpole in the parking lot of her sonÕs elementary school. The 
school had refused to provide a sign language interpreter, as ordered by the court, and would not 
allow her son Max access to his own asthma medication. Due to their denseness at missing his 
distress and his signed need for his medication, he suffered a life-threatening asthma attack. 
Outraged, Dee stood her ground at the flagpole for 20 days, until the school backed down and agreed 
to do as the court had ordered them to do. The police would not arrest her because they viewed the 
flagpole as US property, not school property. Nonetheless, in vigilante fashion, the Ògood citizensÓ 
of Pennsylvania, USA expressed their displeasure at her daring to stand up for the rights of her son 
by shooting at her, and trying to gas her in her tent with automobile exhaust fumes. 

Josie Byzek (JB): Dee, what made you do it?

Dee: For three years I had battled the school district for what my son needs. And IÕd won...We went to 
due process three times. IÕve filed numerous state complaints. We went to mediation. Every process 
weÕve gone through has said the school district must put someone proficient in sign in class with 
Max.

  Max is in a regular classroom. He has a hearing impairment, and Down Syndrome, and asthma. He 
knows how to sign. What he needs is someone to communicate with. In the beginning of his 
schooling, no one signed or interpreted for him when he signed. 

  At that point, MaxÕs life was in danger. He had no one to communicate with if he needed his 
asthma medicine. The last hearing was in February, 2000, and the hearing officer said to the school, 
finally, ÒIÕm a little tired of this. This has got to happen, and IÕm giving you thirty days to have it in 
place.Ó That meant by the end of March. In May, nothing was in place, so I went to federal court. 
And the federal judge told them that they needed to do everything that had been ordered in February.

  Come the first day of school in August this last year, Max had an asthma attack. No one knew 
what it was. I had gone to the school to check on him. He was blue. He was telling them, in sign, 
ÒCall Mommy please!Ó  They said, ÒHeÕs been doing that all morning. We have no idea what heÕs 
saying.Ó No one there knew sign. No one.

  I medicated him, he was stabilized, he went back to his classroom. And I was so angry. I didnÕt 
know what to do. I had done everything I could. I had gone all the way to federal court, and a federal 
judge, Judge Cindrich, had told them what they had to do. What could I do that a federal judge canÕt 
do? For GodÕs sakes, what could I do?

  I said, ÒThis is it. I am not leaving this building until my son has what the court ordered.Ó Well, 
they got me out of the building. When I got outside, completely frustrated, I realized I could make a 
stand. I have a ten-year-old who plays baseball, so I carry a lawn chair in the car to watch his games. 
And Max was learning to jump rope, so I had a rope in the car.

  I went up to the flagpole Ñ which is the only thing standing near the school besides a dumpster Ñ 
and I tied myself to the flagpole.

  I said, ÒI am not leaving here until my son gets the services he needs.Ó ThatÕs how it started. I 
thought IÕd be out there three hours, tops.

JB: What did you expect would happen?

  In an hour or so, I thought, somebody will be out here saying, ÒOkay, weÕll do what the court 
ordered.Ó 

  Well, they didnÕt. They sent a police officer to arrest me. But they couldnÕt arrest me, because the 
flagpole made it my first amendment right. I did not know that. 

  Thank God I didnÕt tie myself to the dumpster. They could have arrested me. I would have been 
trespassing. The flagpole made it freedom of speech.

  I wasnÕt prepared. The flagpole was on blacktop in the middle of a large parking lot. It was hot, 85 
degrees that day. No trees, no shade, no nothing. I wound up staying for twenty days and nights. The 
media showed up almost immediately, and came back every day. The school hated that.

  I was shot at from the wooded area by the school. The shot that was fired hit my girlfriendÕs van. 
She had brought her daughter, who has spina bifida, and she had to take her girl home. We didnÕt 
know if they were going to shoot again or not.

  Then a truck tried to run me over, at about three in the morning. It was an older, black truck with 
Confederate flags in the windows. The form of muscular dystrophy I have is called channel 
myopathy. When I get cold, I tense up and stay like that. So when it rained or got cold, I got in the 
tent.

  My daughter had come to spend the night with me and it was starting to get cold. The truck 
couldnÕt get close enough to the flagpole to run us over, so it backed up and filled the tent with 
exhaust fumes. 

JB: DidnÕt you call the police?

  The police? They did absolutely nothing.

  They didnÕt try to find out who shot at me, or who drove the truck. The security guard the school 
put there told us, ÒYouÕre not going to die while the kids are here at school. But when we leave at 
four oÕclock, there will be no protection.Ó They didnÕt want me dying during school hours, but it was 
okay afterwards.

  There would be school buses pulling up and kids would have flags hanging out the windows with 
little signs saying, ÒJustice For Max,Ó ÒGo Max!Ó And busloads of kids would be cheering. 

  And then there would be other buses with kids giving me the finger, saying, ÒGo home!Ó

  After the school closed at four oÕclock, clear through the middle of the night, people would drive 
by, circling the flagpole, gawking and heckling.

JB: Why did you stay?

  Because instead of me being dead in the parking lot it could be my son dead at school from not 
getting an asthma treatment.

  As long as I was in their face, they were cautious about what care my son got.

JB: How did the press treat you?

  I did talk-radio shows and a local talk show host told me he would put a drive on to get money if I 
would consider institutionalizing my child.

  I had probably a hundred people say that what I was doing by putting him out into public school 
was humiliating and degrading to him, that it was a very aggressive idea to bring to a small town. 
That I actually was sick and Òin denialÓ because I ÒdidnÕt recognize his needs.Ó

JB: You didnÕt know about the disability rights movement? 

  I knew there was a disability movement. I just didnÕt know there was anybody that would actually 
work for me right now!

  Then my kids started making phone calls, saying, ÒMy momÕs tied to the flagpole. SheÕs getting 
into a lot of trouble. Can you come help?Ó  I have five children. One of my oldest called here [Tri-
County Patriots for Independent Living, the CIL in Washington, Pennsylvania]. He talked to John 
Lorence. John said, ÒAbsolutely. WeÕll be there.Ó

  People from TRIPIL came out and stayed the whole 20 days with me. I was never by myself. I owe 
these people my soul. They went through everything that I went through. The rain, the cold, the 
harassment, the sun, not having bathroom facilities, days without eating or drinking. 

  They fully supported everything I decided to do. The school would come out and say, ÒWeÕll put 
somebody with him. Why donÕt you go home and rest up?Ó  Well, next week wasnÕt going to serve 
the purpose. 

  I wasnÕt wanting piloting lessons, I was just wanting what a federal judge said was necessary for 
my son. 

JB: Where do you see yourself and Max in our history?

  IÕm not comparing myself on any level to Rosa Parks, but when she got on the bus, she wasnÕt 
leaving the front seat. I wasnÕt leaving that flagpole until the school did what a federal judge ordered 
for my sonÕs education.

  It is a damn shame that a little boy who wouldnÕt say a bad thing (loving someone to death would 
be the biggest harm he could do) that there would be a protest about him being in a public school! 

  I was asked by a number of interviewers, what could be gained by what I did. The only thing I 
know is that kids are kids. ItÕs what we teach the children that makes a difference.

  Max does have a signing aide with him at all times now. HeÕs in second grade, with the other 
second graders, doing regular science and health. He gets help with reading and math. But other than 
that, heÕs doing the same curriculum as the other second graders.

  ItÕs harder for him. I spend three hours a night working with him because they donÕt modify the 
communication on his subjects to allow for his hearing loss. ItÕs like all they can see is the Down 
Syndrome.

  I still get mail saying to remove him from school. The school district made me explain why I 
wanted him in public school, to parents who wanted to sue me to have Max removed. All they kept 
saying was, ÒThat animal needs to go home.Ó

  And I still cannot go to open house like any other parent. His Christmas program is next Monday. I 
will be heckled the whole time. 

  ItÕs still there. Standing in line at the grocery, people will leave the line when I have Max with me 
so they donÕt have to look at him. Being the last one into the doctorÕs office but the first one called. 
ItÕs there. 
  
JB: You work at TRIPIL now. What are you learning?

  You know how when you wake up in the spring, you can just smell that spring is here? You can 
smell the rain? ItÕs like all of a sudden, I realize what itÕs about. My eyes are opened. 

  I had no idea I was going through life with my eyes closed.

Correspondence

Letters to the Editors and brief commentary are included in this section and can be addressed to Dr. 
Megan Conway, Associate Editor, Review of Disability Studies, Center on Disability Studies, 1776 
University Avenue, UA 4-6, Honolulu, HI 96822, U.S.A. or emailed to 
submissions_rds@cds.hawaii.edu.