A lady who claims she graduated from high school without being able to read or write is suing her previous school system.
“It’s really difficult to succeed if you can’t read and write,” 19-year-old Aleysha Ortiz tells PEOPLE. That’s the truth for many folks. The difficult thing for me is that they [took] away that chance.
Ortiz moved to Connecticut with her family from Puerto Rico when she was five years old, according to a lawsuit submitted to Hartford Superior Court in December.
She tells PEOPLE, “I came here with documents saying that I needed professional therapy and that I have ADHD and a speech impediment.”
However, Ortiz’s learning problems “were not properly addressed by the Board,” according to the lawsuit. She “continued to struggle academically” throughout elementary and middle school as a consequence.
According to the lawsuit, Ortiz’s academic performance and reading comprehension in the sixth grade were found to be at a “kindergarten or first-grade level.”
Ortiz tells PEOPLE that among his other learning difficulties were not being taught how to tell time or count money. Additionally, she still struggles to grip a pencil, a condition that has been since middle school.
“A special education teacher was so shocked when I told her about it that she actually made fun of me because she didn’t think I was going to high school and hadn’t been taught how to do basic things,” Ortiz adds. “Instead of actually sitting down with me, she made fun of me.”
The case claims that Ortiz’s learning difficulties persisted throughout high school and that she was still illiterate.
The lawsuit also identified Tilda Santiago, a special education case manager, who reportedly harassed and abused Ortiz on many occasions by shouting at the teenager and degrading him in front of other students and instructors, in addition to the City of Hartford and Hartford School Board.
“I thought I was losing my mind. “Am I in the wrong?” I thought,” she says. “It was hard to deal with someone who shamed me for asking for help, who shamed me for not knowing how to read and write.”
Ortiz suffered emotionally as a result of the alleged bullying and harassment.
“I would say, ‘It’s alright,’ and lay my head down. It’s all right. She tells PEOPLE, “But it really hurt me mentally, that I thought I was worthless.” “I believed that it would be better for me to die now.”
Despite her best efforts, Ortiz “still failed to make meaningful academic progress” by the time she was in the 12th grade, according to a May 2023 report from a social worker included in the lawsuit.
“This was recognized by many teachers and/or school employees who suggested that she get tested for dyslexia,” the report said.
According to CNN and ABC station WTNH, respectively, Ortiz overcame her scholastic setbacks to improve her grades, fulfill her credit requirements, and graduate high school with honors.
In addition to using speech-to-text tools to complete her high school assignments, Ortiz would attend class, record her teacher’s words, commit them to memory, and then listen to the tape at home. She told the CT Mirror, “I went to school twice in one day.” The lawsuit claims that Oritz discussed her plans to attend the University of Connecticut with her case manager in May 2024, but she voiced reservations about her future there.
According to the lawsuit, the Board consented to further testing one month before to her graduation. It wasn’t until June 14, 2024, the final day of classes, that the assessments were finished.
“[Ortiz] needed explicitly taught phonics, fluency, and reading comprehension – none of which she ever received during her time as a student in the Hartford Public School system,” the complaint states, citing the reading evaluation’s conclusion that she had not mastered several fundamental reading skills.
Hartford Public Schools told PEOPLE that they “remain deeply committed to meeting the full range of needs our students bring with them when they enter our schools — and helping them reach their full potential,” even if they were unable to comment on the litigation.
Santiago did not reply to PEOPLE’s request for comment, and neither the Hartford Board of Education nor a spokesperson had any comments.
