School Board to Appeal Ruling on Crippled Girl

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District has decided to appeal a ruling ordering it to enroll a 6-year-old girl, paralyzed from the neck down, in a regular kindergarten class.

School board members, meeting in special session, voted unanimously Wednesday to challenge in federal court a Sept. 11 order by a state hearing officer to place Stephanie Stratford in a regular class at Rancho Vista School.

The order was issued after a hearing in which the girl’s parents objected to a decision by school officials that Stephanie should be taught by special education teachers in a class with other handicapped children. Stephanie will be allowed to remain at the school pending the appeal’s outcome.