Mike Wolanin | The Republic An exterior view of Southside Elementary School in Columbus, Ind., pictured on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.
A family is seeking a change at a local elementary school that they say would allow their daughter to exit and enter the school with more ease and safety.
Joseph and Brittany Hewitt’s petition, “Ensure Safety for Visually Impaired Students at Southside Elementary School,” had more than 600 digital signatures on Change.org, as of Thursday afternoon. The Hewitts are seeking to have the school’s exterior steps marked with high-contrast tape or paint so that their daughter, Harper, can navigate them more easily.
Brittany Hewitt spoke about the request during the time for public comment at the school board’s Sept. 11 meeting.
“Our daughter has started kindergarten this year at Southside Elementary,” she said. “Our daughter’s a fighter. She was born nine weeks prematurely and had three significant brain bleeds, which led to a significant visual and hearing impairment. She has cortical visual impairment, and due to this, she has little to no lower field vision.”
This makes it difficult for her to see where the edge of a step ends and where the drop begins, Hewitt explained.
She went on to say that this problem can be remedied by marking the edge of each step with high-visibility paint or tape, and Southside has used this kind of tape indoors.
The Hewitts have also requested markings on the building’s exterior front steps. However, Southside leadership said they had been told that the exterior would not be painted, Hewitt said. When the family reached out to BCSC’s administration, they were told the stairs would not be taped or painted, as there is a ramp their daughter can use instead.
“But really, all we want is for her to be able to walk those stairs confidently, like any other child,” Hewitt said. “But the part that really troubles my husband and I is that my daughter’s life should mean more to the administration than spending $30 on a gallon of paint every now and then.”
Photo provided Brittany and Joseph Hewitt have started a petition involving BCSC seeking to have reflective paint or tape placed on exterior steps to help their daughter who is visually impaired.
Hewitt told The Republic that she feels that using the ramp would isolate her daughter and make her “feel more different than she should.”
She added that she has since realized that there are steps on the school’s rear entrance that also need markings.
During her communications with the school corp., Hewitt had a friend who is a lawyer send a letter to BCSC’s administration stating that they would be held liable if Hewitt’s daughter falls and requesting that they make the accommodation.
“They didn’t respond to that letter, but he ended up finding out some information, that the two reasons they don’t want to do it is because they said that … school does not want to apply the tape on the exterior, because with the weather, they’re afraid they will have to apply it every few months,” she said. “They’re also afraid that if they apply it to the exterior steps on Southside, they will have to apply it on every school.”
BCSC’s administration has declined to speak to The Republic about this matter.
“We don’t have a comment for an item that pertains to an individual student,” said Superintendent Jim Roberts.
School board member Logan Schulz has said during the board’s Sept. 11 meeting that he has spoken with the Hewitts and would like the board to seriously consider their inquiry.
Following her public comment at the meeting, Hewitt met with Roberts on Sept. 22 to discuss her request.
“He said he’ll come up with an answer this week,” she said. As of Wednesday, she was still waiting for a response.
She added that her issue is not with Southside, as the school has been “extremely accommodating.”
