Youth Hockey Teams step up for Special Needs child's Disney trip

Indiana veteran, daughter with special needs headed to Disney World thanks to hockey teams
CBS4Indy
Trevor Shirley
February 17, 2018

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – A central Indiana veteran with a special needs child is getting the thrill of a lifetime, and it’s all thanks to some youth hockey teams.

On Saturday, Steve Scroghan learned he’ll finally get to give his daughter the gift she’s been asking for.

“Still trying to process it,” said Scroghan. “It’s an honor.”

The retired Army veteran and his family received the honor Saturday after some local hockey teams teamed up to raise money for the charity Wish For Our Heroes.

“It was really cool. You get to be a part of something that makes somebody so happy,” said Erich Orrick, the president of Wish For Our Heroes.

Scroghan said his daughter, who has special needs, has been wanting to visit Disney World for a long time, but tight finances made it tough.
read more here

Hidden Recorder Reveals Soldier's Special Needs Child Mistreated At School

"Shocking’ discovery"
KILLEEN DAILY HERALD
BY LAUREN DODD AND CLAY THORP
August 16, 2015

Editor's Note In the wake of a critical report by the Texas Education Agency, the Herald is looking into practices and procedures of the Killeen Independent School District’s Special Education Department. This is the first part of the investigative series.

A Killeen mother is calling for transparency in special-needs classrooms after a case of mother’s intuition led her to uncover “shocking” treatment of special-needs children in her son’s life skills classroom at Iduma Elementary School in the spring.

After witnessing one life skills teacher lose her temper with a child during a field trip, Laura Thomas said she was left with an awful feeling.

“I saw this teacher and aides act terribly to these children. After seeing her yell at a kid who spilled popcorn, I thought this isn’t right and had a really bad feeling.

“That’s when my friend suggested I send a recorder (to school), because you never know how bad it is when you’re not around,” Thomas said. “I’m so glad I did, because I was mortified.”

In March 2014, Thomas and her family moved to Killeen from Colorado Springs, Colo., where they were stationed at Fort Carson. Thomas’ son, a now 6-year-old special-needs student at Iduma Elementary, suffers from a rare condition, schizencephaly, in which he is missing a large portion of the right side of his brain. He is nonverbal but typically has a very pleasant demeanor, Thomas said.
read more here