Somoza Sues: Teach me to Read!

Her education at NYC’s School of the Future was a sham, she says. She graduated with honors in 2002; now she wants a judge to order the city to teach her to read...

Alba Somoza is the great-granddaughter of former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García (1896-1956). Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who ruled Nicaragua from 1967 to 1979 before the [i]Sandinistas[/i] took control of the country, was Alba's great-uncle. She has cerebral palsy, is a quadriplegic, and cannot speak. Alba uses a computerized device to communicate by taping on a keyboard with a stick that is attached to her chin.

In 1993, Alba's twin sister, Anastasia Somoza, asked then-President Bill Clinton at a town meeting for help getting Alba admitted to a regular school. He did; and later he attended Alba's graduation from the NYC school where she was awarded a diploma with honors. Alba's mother, Mary Somoza says that Alba's transcript was falsified; Alba got a grade of 90 in a chemistry class her mother says she never attended.

While both Alba and Anastasia were born with quadriplegic cerebral palsy, Anastasia can communicate through normal speech. She is now a college junior at Georgetown University. When Alba graduated from High School in 2002 she enrolled in Queens College but it was soon obvious that she was not academically ready for college; NYC evidently agreed to cover the $1.2 million cost of remediating her for three years to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA requires that children with disabilities aged 3 to 21 be provided with a free appropriate public education, or FAPE. Now, at the age of 22, Alba's lawsuit seeks to compel NYC's department of education to continue providing remedial services (at an estimated cost of $800,000) for another two year. NYC says that they fulfilled their obligation to provide three years of remedial services after high school and that, because Alba is now 22 years old, IDEA no longer applies to her.

According to one news source, Alba read at the fourth grade level when she graduated with honors from the School of the Future in 2002...