A Deaf Student Says His School District Failed Him. The Supreme Court Will Decide

一个聋哑学生说他的学区辜负了他。最高法院将对此作出裁决。

When the U.S. Supreme Court takes up his special education and disability discrimination case on Wednesday, Miguel Luna Perez will in the courtroom. Perez, now 27, is deaf, and he will be aided in trying to understand the complex legal arguments by both a certified deaf interpreter and an American Sign Language translator.

美国最高法院将于星期三审理他的特殊教育和残疾歧视案件时，米格尔·卢娜·佩雷斯·卢纳·佩雷斯将会出庭。现年27岁的佩雷斯是一名聋人，他将在一名经过认证的聋人翻译和一名美国手语翻译的帮助下，试图去理解复杂的法律论点。

“My case at the U.S. Supreme Court is hard for me to understand,” Luna Perez said in a statement released by his lawyers. “Part of it is about having no interpreter at Sturgis [Public Schools]. Part of it is that some judges said I can’t tell my story in court.”

“我在美国最高法院的案件对我来说很难理解，”卢娜·佩雷斯在他的律师发布的一份声明中说。“部分原因是斯特吉斯（公立学校）没有翻译。还有部分原因是一些法官说我不能在法庭上讲我的故事。”

The young deaf immigrant’s statement hints at a personal narrative of dashed dreams allegedly caused largely by the failures of a Michigan school district to ensure that he was being provided the educational assistance he needed to learn to communicate.

这位年轻的聋人移民的声明暗示了他个人对梦想破灭的叙述，据称主要是由于密歇根州的一个学区未能保证他获得学会沟通所需的教育援助。

“I want to tell my story in court,” Luna Perez said. “I wish I could have gone to college. I don’t have a job, but I want to have one.”

“我想在法庭上讲述我的故事，”卢娜·佩雷斯说。“我希望我能上大学。我没有工作，我想要一份工作。”

Learning about a ‘certificate of completion’ instead of a diploma

我只有一份“结业证书”而没有一份毕业证书。

In 2004, when he was 9 years old, Luna Perez moved with his parents and some of his eight siblings from Mexico to Sturgis, Mich. He had not had any formal education in Mexico. He enrolled in the local school district in Sturgis, but he faced enormous challenges: He was deaf. He did not know any form of sign language and could not read lips. He could not speak any words in Spanish or English. And he could not read or write.

2004年，当他9岁的时候，卢娜·佩雷斯和他的父母以及他的八个兄弟姐妹中的一些人从墨西哥搬到了密歇根州的斯特吉斯。他在墨西哥没有受过任何正规教育。当他在斯特吉斯当地的学区入学，他面临着巨大的挑战：他是聋人。但他不懂任何形式的手语，也不会读唇语。他一点也不会说西班牙语或英语。同时他既不会读也不会写。

Still, to Luna Perez’s parents, who speak only Spanish and thus had their own challenges communicating with the district, it seemed like the Sturgis school system had their youngest child’s interests at heart. Perez received an individualized education plan, or IEP, under the main federal special education law. The IEP called for him to have an educational aide use sign language to relay his lessons to him. His teachers described him as a curious student who willingly used the signs taught to him.

而且，对卢娜·佩雷斯的父母来说，他们只会说西班牙语，因此他们自己与该学区的人们沟通也有挑战，斯特吉斯的学校系统似乎把他们最小的孩子的兴趣放在心上。根据最主要的联邦特殊教育法，佩雷斯接受了个别化教育计划。个别化教育计划要求他请一名教育助理使用手语向他传达课程。他的老师描述他是一个求知欲强的学生，愿意使用自己教给他的手势。

In 2016, however, his parents—Jose Luna andMaria Perez—learned from school officials that their son was not in line to graduate with a high school diploma but instead with a “certificate of completion.” This was surprising to them because Perez had made the honor roll for four years and had received mostly As and Bs on his report cards. And they would be further disappointed to learn, according to papers in the family’s lawsuit, that the educational aide assigned to their son did not adequately know any form of sign language.

然而，2016年，他的父母——何塞·卢纳和玛丽亚·佩雷斯——从学校官员那里得知，他们的儿子毕业的时候没有拿到高中毕业证书，而只拿到了“结业证书”。这让他们感到惊讶，因为佩雷斯已经连续上了四年的荣誉榜，他的成绩单上大部分都是A和B。根据这家人诉讼中的文件，他们还更失望地得知，分配给他们儿子的教育助理并不充分了解任何形式的手语。

In 2017, the family filed a due-process complaint with the state of Michigan under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The district settled the complaint in 2018 without any admission that it had failed to provide Luna Perez with a “free appropriate public education” under the law. The district agreed to pay for him to attend the Michigan School for the Deaf, which the young man attended for four years but still has significant difficulty communicating.

2017年，这家人根据联邦《残疾人教育法》向密歇根州申请正当程序的申诉。该学区于2018年解决了这一投诉，但没有承认未能根据法律为卢娜佩雷斯提供“免费且适当的公共教育”。该学区同意为他支付参加密歇根州聋人学校的学费，虽然这名年轻人在学校里学习了四年，但仍然在沟通上有极大的困难。

Luna Perez also sued the Sturgis district under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, seeking unspecified money damages for the emotional distress and economic harms allegedly caused by its years of failures to provide him with an adequate education. Two lower federal courts dismissed the ADA suit, ruling that Luna Perez was barred from suing for money damages because he never completed, or “exhausted,” the IDEA administrative process, which can involve months or even years of hearings and exchanges of paperwork to develop an evidentiary record.

卢娜·佩雷斯还根据1990年《美国残疾人法》起诉斯特吉斯区，要求其对据他自己称因多年未能为他提供适当教育而造成的精神痛苦和经济伤害进行金钱赔偿，具体数额不详。两个下级联邦法院驳回了《美国残疾人法》的诉讼，裁定卢娜·佩雷斯被禁止提起金钱损害赔偿的诉讼，因为他从未完成或“彻底履行”《残疾人教育法》的行政程序，该程序可能涉及数月甚至数年的听证会和交换文书工作，以形成证据记录。

In Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools (Case No. 21-887), the Supreme Court is taking up two thorny legal questions arising out of the ADA case. The first is whether students and parents must exhaust all procedures under the IDEA before they may sue under a different federal law such as the ADA which allows for monetary damages (which the IDEA does not). The second issue is whether courts may conclude that it would simply be futile to require going through all administrative proceedings in cases such as Luna Perez’s, where the school district offered to settle his IDEA complaint.

在卢娜·佩雷斯诉斯特吉斯区公立学校案（第21-887号案件）中，最高法院正在处理《美国残疾人法》案件中出现的两个棘手的法律问题。第一个问题是，是学生和家长是否必须彻底履行《残疾人教育法》下的所有程序，然后才能根据不同的联邦法律起诉，如允许金钱赔偿的《美国残疾人法》（《残疾人教育法》没有）。第二个问题是，法院是否可能得出结论，要求在卢娜·佩雷斯（Luna Perez）这样的案件中进行所有行政诉讼都是徒劳的。在卢娜·佩雷斯的案件中，学区提出解决他的《残疾人教育法》投诉。

The school district has argued that, under the IDEA, Luna Perez was required to exhaust those procedures. That meant he should have rejected the very settlement they offered, the district has said. The district won in two lower courts, which ruled that Congress has inserted a provision in the IDEA which requires families to complete the administrative procedure process for their educational claims under the special education law before suing under other federal laws such as the ADA.

学区辩解称，根据《残疾人教育法》，卢娜·佩雷斯被要求彻底履行这些程序。该学区表示，这意味着他应该拒绝他们提出的和解方案。该学区在两个下级法院胜诉，裁定国会在《教育法》中插入了一项条款，要求家庭在根据《美国残疾人法》等其他联邦法律起诉之前，必须根据《特殊教育法》完成教育索赔的行政程序。

“That turns the IDEA upside down,” Roman Martinez, a Washington lawyer who will argue Luna Perez’s case before the justices, said in an interview. “The statute clearly wants to get kids like Miguel educational relief as quickly as possible. That means that when the school district offers you everything you want under the statute, you should be allowed to say yes, without giving up other claims under other statutes.”

“这把《残疾人教育法》颠倒了，”罗曼·马丁内斯在接受采访时说，他是华盛顿的一名律师，将在法官面前为卢娜·佩雷斯的案子辩护。“法令显然希望尽快让像米格尔·卢娜·佩雷斯这样的孩子得到教育救济。这意味着，当学区根据法规为你提供你想要的一切时，你应该被允许说是，而不应该放弃根据其他法提令提出的其他要求。”

The school district, in high court, focuses on legal arguments

在高等法院，学区专注于法律辩论。

The 3,000-student Sturgis district declined through its lawyers to discuss the case. In filings with the Supreme Court, the district argues that it is centrally important that Luna Perez was seeking a free appropriate public education under the IDEA, and the fact that he settled that claim “makes futility an irrelevant concept.”

拥有3,000名学生的斯特吉斯区拒绝通过其律师讨论此案。在提交给最高法院的文件中，该学区辩解称，卢娜·佩雷斯根据《美国残疾人法》，寻求免费的合适的公共教育至关重要，而他解决这一索赔的事实“使徒劳成为一个无关紧要的概念”。

“Congress had good reason to require exhaustion no matter the remedy, because it prioritizes children’s educational needs and allows experts to develop a record facilitating judicial review,” the district argues in its high court brief.

该学区在其高等法院简报中辩称：“无论采取何种补救措施，国会都有充分的理由要求用尽补救措施，因为它优先考虑儿童的教育需求，并允许专家建立有利于司法审查的记录。”

In a lower-court filing, the district had argued that Luna Perez was making “fantastic and exaggerated claims” that it had denied him accommodations under federal law. But in its Supreme Court brief, the district focuses on its legal arguments much more than the facts as they are alleged in Luna Perez’s suit.

在一份下级法院的文件中，该学区辩称，卢娜·佩雷斯提出了“荒谬和夸张的声明”，即提出学区根据联邦法律拒绝为他提供住宿。但在最高法院的案情摘要中，该学区更多地关注其法律论点，而不是卢娜·佩雷斯诉讼中所指控的事实。

“This case highlights the risks associated with allowing plaintiffs to circumvent the administrative process,” the district argues, adding that Luna Perez’s arguments “would raise difficult questions, like whether the requested damages [under the ADA] overlap with IDEA relief and whether they are even available under the other law.”

“本案凸显了允许原告规避行政程序的风险，”该学区辩称，并补充说，卢娜·佩雷斯的论点“将提出棘手的问题，比如[《美国残疾人法》下的]请求损害赔偿是否与《残疾人教育法》的救济重叠，以及它们是否甚至可以根据其他法律获得。”

The district has major education groups in its corner. The National School Boards Association and its Michigan affiliate, in a friend-of-the-court brief, argue that the IDEA’s requirement that the administrative process be exhausted before claims may be brought in court encourages collaboration between families of special education students and districts.

这个学区有一些主要的教育团体。全国学校董事会协会及其密歇根州附属机构在一份法庭之友简报中辩称，《残疾人教育法》要求在向法庭提出索赔之前彻底履行行政程序，这鼓励了特殊教育学生家庭和学区之间的合作。

AASA, the School Superintendents Association, in a friend-of-the-court brief joined by five other education groups, called the facts of Luna Perez’s case “sympathetic,” but then sought to direct the high court’s attention to a separate case where parents sued a school district under the ADA and another federal law even though they had years earlier unilaterally pulled their child from the district and enrolled him in private school.

在一份由其他五个教育团体联合撰写的法庭之友简报中，学校管理协会（AASA）称卢娜·佩雷斯一案的事实“令人同情”，但随后试图将高等法院的注意力转移到另一起案件上，即家长根据《美国残疾人法》和另一项联邦法律起诉一个学区，尽管他们多年前就单方面将孩子从该学区带走，并送他进入私立学校。

“Allowing the IDEA’s exhaustion requirements to be avoided simply by requesting monetary damages in a non-IDEA lawsuit would significantly weaken the collaborative benefits of the IDEA,” the superintendents’ group’s brief says.

“允许在非《残疾人教育法》诉讼中简单通过要求金钱赔偿，来避免《残疾人教育法》用尽要求，这将大大削弱同《残疾人教育法》的协作的好处，”监管机构的简报说。

A lost opportunity to attend college

失去了上大学的机会

Such unilateral placements in private schools potentially at public expense are a major issue for districts under the IDEA. But Luna Perez’s parents never pulled him from the Sturgis district. Instead, according to the lawsuit, they tried to comprehend the complexities of the IEP process under the federal special education law, sometimes with the aid of an English-language interpreter and sometimes not.

这种单方面将孩子安排在私立学校的做法可能需要公共费用，这是《残疾人教育法》下，各学区面临的一个主要问题。但卢娜·佩雷斯的父母从未把他从斯特吉斯区带走。相反，根据诉讼，他们试图理解联邦特殊教育法下个别性教育计划程序的复杂性，有时还需要一名英语译员的帮助。

A local educational expert recommended that the district provide Luna Perez with an ASL interpreter. But instead, the district provided him with an educational aide who did not know ASL and had tried to use a book to teach herself Signed English, which uses ASL signs but English grammar instead of ASL’s own syntax.. But the aide was using that methodincorrectly, the suit says, which resulted in Luna Perez and the aide being able to communicate with each other, but left the student without a way to communicate with others who knew Signed English.

当地的一位教育专家建议该学区为卢娜·佩雷斯提供一名美国手语译员。但相反的是，该学区为他提供了一个不懂美国手语，曾经试图用一本书来自学英语手语的教育助理，书中使用美国手语，但采用的是英语语法，而不是美国手语自己的语法。但该诉讼称，这名助手错误地使用这种方法，导致卢娜·佩雷斯和这名助手能够相互交流，但却无法与其他懂手语的人交流。

In the fall of 2016, when Luna Perez began attending the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint, a licensed psychologist specializing in working with deaf and hard of hearing individuals evaluated him and concluded that he had “very limited language, mostly relying on a collection of atypical and incorrect signs that were not familiar to other students or teachers who sign.”

2016年秋天，当卢娜·佩雷斯开始在弗林特的密歇根聋人学校上学时，一位专门从事聋人和重听人工作的有执照的心理学家对他进行了评估，并得出结论，他“语言非常有限，主要依赖于一系列非典型和不正确的手势，其他学生或教师对这些手势并不熟悉。”

Luna Perez was reading at a 1st to 2nd grade level at that time, when he was then in his early 20s. The psychologist reported that if the school district had provided Perez with the necessary accessible language assistance, the student likely would have been able to attend college.

卢娜·佩雷斯当时他20出头，是一到二年级的阅读水平。这位心理学家报告说，如果学区为佩雷斯提供了必要的语言援助，这名学生很可能会上大学。

“The allegation in the [ADA] complaint is Miguel suffered immense harm as a result of Sturgis’ conduct,” said Martinez, his lawyer. “That harm manifested itself in emotional harm and [Luna Perez] having to go the Michigan School for the Deaf and [do] four years of high school again.”

他的律师马丁内斯说：“《美国残疾人法》诉状中的指控是，由于斯特吉斯学区的行为，米格尔·卢娜·佩雷斯遭受了巨大的伤害。” “这种伤害表现在情感上的伤害和（卢娜·佩雷斯）不得不去密歇根聋人学校，重新上四年的高中。”

A vocational expert has estimated that the harm he has suffered will likely lower Luna Perez’s lifetime earnings by 40 percent, Martinez said.

马丁内斯说，一位职业专家估计，他所遭受的伤害可能会使卢娜·佩雷斯一生的收入减少40%。

Luna Perez’s case resembles in some respects a special education case the Supreme Court decided six years ago, Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools. That case involved an underlying lawsuit in which the family of a girl with cerebral palsy who was denied the use of a service dog sued her school district under the ADA. And the question before the high court was whether the family had to exhaust administrative proceedings under the IDEA before it could proceed with the separate suit under the ADA.

卢娜·佩雷斯的案件在某些方面类似于最高法院六年前判决的一个特殊的教育案件，即弗莱诉拿破仑社区学校案。这起案件涉及一个潜在的诉讼，其中一个脑瘫女孩的家庭被拒绝使用服务犬。以此根据《美国残疾人法》起诉她的学区。高等法院面临的问题是，该家庭是否必须彻底履行《美国残疾人法》下的行政诉讼程序，然后才能根据《美国残疾人法》提起单独诉讼。

In Fry, the court held that IDEA procedures need not be exhausted when the essence, or “gravamen,” of a lawsuit centers on a violation of other federal disabilities law rather than the special education law’s core guarantee of a free appropriate public education. (The justices sent the family’s case back for further consideration of some factual issues, and the parties later settled.)

在弗莱案中，法院认为，当诉讼的实质或“申诉”集中在违反其他联邦残疾人法，而不是特殊教育法的核心保障——适当的免费公共教育时，不必彻底履行《残疾人教育法》程序。（法官将这家人的案子发回重审，以进一步考虑一些事实问题，双方后来达成和解。）

The Sturgis school district relies heavily on Fry, arguing that it is clear that Luna Perez is seeking relief for the denial of a free appropriate public education and thus he must exhaust all of the IDEA’s administrative proceedings before he can pursue his ADA claims. The district goes on to cast doubt on whether Luna Perez would have any valid ADA claims for money damages for emotional distress after the high court held last term that such claims were not available under several federal disabilities laws.

斯特吉斯学区严重依赖弗莱的案例，认为卢娜佩雷斯很明显是为被剥夺免费适当的公共教育而寻求救济，因此，他必须彻底履行《残疾人教育法》所有的行政程序，才可以继续他的《美国残疾人法》索赔。该学区继续质疑卢娜·佩雷斯是否会因为精神痛苦而获得任何有效的《美国残疾人法》索赔的金钱损害赔偿，因为高等法院认为在上一届裁定中，几个联邦残疾人法律中，这种索赔是不适用的。

Martinez responds by arguing that the district’s approach would disincentivize settlements of IDEA complaints and deprive students with disabilities of their rights under other federal laws such as the ADA.

马丁内斯回应说，该学区的做法将削弱解决《残疾人教育法》投诉的积极性，并剥夺残疾学生根据如《美国残疾人法》等其他联邦法律享有的权利。

“The court should make clear that Miguel did not have to reject an IDEA settlement to preserve his ADA claim for damages,” Martinez said.

马丁内斯说：“法院应该明确表示，米格尔·卢娜·佩雷斯不必拒绝《残疾人教育法》的和解协议来维护他的《美国残疾人法》损害赔偿要求。”

Luna Perez has the Biden administration on his side, as well as several disability rights groups and others.

拜登政府，还有几个残疾人权利组织和其他人站在卢娜·佩雷斯这边。

Perry A. Zirkel, a professor emeritus of law and education at Lehigh University and a leading expert on special education law, said in an interview that he considers the Supreme Court’s decision to take up this case one more example of the justices sidestepping some of the big issues in special education while settling arcane questions under the IDEA about access to the courts.

佩里湾利哈伊大学（Lehigh University）法律与教育学名誉教授、特殊教育法领域的权威专家齐克尔在接受采访时表示，他认为最高法院决定受理此案，是大法官们《在残疾人教育法》下解决了有关诉诸法院的难以解决的问题时，回避特殊教育领域一些重大问题的又一个例子。

Still, he said, “If it is in the mutual interest of parents and school districts to resolve these complaints without all the transactional costs, then settlement is a good thing. But if I settle, I shouldn’t have to give up my other claims.”

尽管如此，他说，“如果在不产生所有交易成本的情况下解决这些投诉能符合家长和学区的共同利益，那么和解是一件好事。但如果我和解了，我就不能放弃我的其他诉求。”

A student’s pride in finally earning a diploma

一个学生终于拿到毕业证书的骄傲。

Luna Perez, in the statement released by his lawyers, speaks with pride of his achievements at the Michigan School for the Deaf and his still unrealized aspirations for a career and fulfilling adulthood. He graduated from the state school in June 2020 with a diploma, not a certificate of completion.

卢娜·佩雷斯在他的律师发表的声明中自豪地谈到了他在密歇根聋人学校取得的成就，以及他对职业生涯中尚未实现的愿望和和成年后的成就。他于2020年6月从公立学校毕业，拿到的是毕业证书，而不是结业证书。

“At MSD, I learned so many new words and signs,” Luna Perez said. “I learned construction. I helped others in my class to measure, and I got to build chairs and tables. I learned about building houses. I want to build houses as a job.

“在密歇根聋人学校，我学到了很多新的单词和符号，”卢娜佩雷斯说。“我学习构造建筑。我帮助班上的其他人测量，我还做了桌椅。我学会了盖房子。我想把盖房子作为一份工作。

“I want to make my own choices.”

“我想自己做选择。”