A private school shows its sad colors colors.

By Nick Coleman, Star Tribune

June 19, 2005 — The purpose of Academy of Holy Angels High School, in the words of its motto, is to produce young Christian men and women who are "Confident, Prepared, Connected in Faith."

Maybe we should add one more thing: "Able-Bodied."

Here's a troubling case that has cost the school a large financial donation and is certain to fuel the arguments of public education supporters who say private schools do not face the same challenges as public schools: Holy Angels has rescinded the admission of a ninth-grader with muscular dystrophy (MD) who was all set to enter the Catholic high school in Richfield next fall, alongside his twin brother.

Kevin Baxter was born with MD, but his brother, Eddie, a talented athlete, escaped the genetic disease. Together, the twin 14-year-olds attended a Holy Angels open house last fall, took the entrance exam in January, received letters of acceptance in February, registered for classes and signed an enrollment contract.

They were looking forward to Eddie's attempt to make the Holy Angels football team, and to Kevin's hope of becoming team manager when, late last month, the boys' parents, Dennis and Robin Baxter of Burnsville, got bad news:

Eddie was still welcome at Holy Angels, but Kevin was not.

The school belatedly decided it could not accommodate a kid in a wheelchair who presented a variety of challenges. Kevin would have to find somewhere else to go - itself a challenge in June, when application deadlines for most schools have long passed. But finding a new school will be easy compared with dealing with the emotional pain of Kevin's 11th-hour rejection.

The news crushed the twins, who recently graduated from St. John the Baptist elementary school in Savage.

They were happy to be heading to Holy Angels with about 30 of their classmates. After 14 years of closeness, the MD and a reversal by a Catholic high school threatened to separate them.

"They didn't give me a chance," Kevin says. "That makes me feel bad. They didn't even try."

Kevin is a soft-spoken teen who played sports until his condition progressed to the point where he needed a wheelchair in third grade. In March, he earned a varsity high school letter playing for Dakota United, an adapted floor hockey team that won the state championship the past two seasons. He already has a state championship patch in the team colors of Holy Angels. It was going to go on a Holy Angels letter jacket.

Now the Baxters are scrambling to find a public school for the boys. They are hoping the twins can go to Nicollet Junior High in Burnsville in the fall, with the idea of entering Burnsville High in 10th grade. But no thought was given to splitting them up.

"One of our best days ever was the day Kevin and Eddie got their acceptance letters," says their father, Dennis, an Air Force vet who is a financial planner for Lockheed Martin. "We could've kept Eddie in that school. But if Kevin's not good enough for Holy Angels, Eddie's not good enough, either.

"That school put more effort into figuring out reasons why Kevin couldn't go there than figuring out ways he could. They thought about all the problems, but never thought about what Kevin would bring to the school."

According to the Minnesota Department of Education, there are 1,700 physically impaired public students in the state - 1 percent of the student population. Most suffer from chronic impairments ranging from cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy to spinal cord injuries and spina bifida.

Few private schools accept such kids. Holy Angels, with an enrollment of 850 and annual tuition of $8,750, has none.

"Our hearts go out to the [Baxter] family," said school president Jill Reilly. Reilly said data privacy laws prevent her from discussing the specifics of the Baxter case, but said Holy Angels "did not feel we had the expertise or the ability to keep the student safe. I could not look the parents in the eyes and say that. If we cannot meet those needs, we must decline a student."

Holy Angels, run by a board of trustees, opened in 1932 and has an addition built in 2003. Twenty percent of students are non-Catholic, but all must attend daily religion class on the fourth floor, which would be hardest to reach in a wheelchair.

But it's OK if Kevin Baxter skips religion class. He is learning about religion right now.

Holy Angels rescinded Kevin's acceptance after studying his physical therapy plan. Although Kevin gets daily therapy in the Baxters' home, where a hot tub and exercise equipment are installed, the plan includes details of Kevin's physical limitations that seemed to surprise Holy Angels.

Reilly says "substantive and critical information" was "withheld" from Holy Angels. The Baxters deny withholding anything and offered to sign an agreement not to sue Holy Angels if anything went wrong. They have worked with school officials since last October and say the school was fully aware of Kevin's needs, which they say boil down to a few things: assistance in using the bathroom, adjusting desks to fit his chair and providing for help in a school emergency (a special sling is stored on Kevin's chair so he can be carried by volunteers in case of an evacuation).

"I think they flipped out when they read the plan," says the boys' mom, Robin. "We wanted them to go to Holy Angels to get a Catholic education - the belief in God and family and all their values. But this has shaken my belief." Robin, who had agreed to help coach volleyball at Holy Angels, knows muscular dystrophy: Two of her brothers - Kevin's uncles - had MD. They were the first disabled kids admitted to Duluth East High School back in the 1970s. Baseball and hockey players carried them up and down the stairs.

"All we asked Holy Angels was that they give Kevin a shot," Robin says. "They didn't give him a chance."

The decision to send Kevin to public school has begun to make waves. One prominent set of Holy Angel parents who had promised to make a large gift to the school have withdrawn their pledge over the issue.

"Holy Angels is going to lose a lot more than Kevin would have gained if they had let him attend here," said the woman, who asked me not to identify her and her husband. "What he would have contributed to that community is unbelievable."

But I believe Kevin Baxter may still contribute much. At the very least, his story will contribute to the debate about the duties of education in this state. It also should contribute to a debate about values.

One of the big "values" listed in the Holy Angels mission statement is a promise to "Respect, embrace and celebrate the uniqueness of each individual in creating a spirit of community." After all, the school reminds us: "Each of us is created in God's image."

That sounds really great.

Unless you are a 14-year-old boy in a wheelchair.

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