Mary Clark was ready, if needed, to lobby lawmakers for a fourth year, but her call to protect other families from the tragedy her family faced was finally answered late last month.
“I would have been there next time, but I hoped I wouldn’t have to be,” said Mary Clark.
For three years, she has been on a crusade to get “Jerry’s Law” passed in the state Legislature and then signed by the governor. The bill never made it out of the Legislature the two prior sessions, but this June, it passed both houses and landed on the governor’s desk in November. Cuomo signed it into law on Nov. 21, a week before Thanksgiving.
“I was told many times that it would take a long, long time,” said Mary Clark. “Most of the time, I would be told, ‘Lady, do you know what you are up against?’”
She said the bill that passed is “more watered down” than what she was hoping to achieve, but its passage has given her family closure.
“On a personal level, it has provided great healing for my family,” she said. “It is the first peace I had myself because I know it brought peace to my son. Besides my grief, I had to watch him suffer, so this had been a gigantic thing in my life.”
The New York State Council of School Superintendents spoke against an earlier version of the law, which would have required a parent or guardian of a student being suspended to be given information on the Committee on Special Education referral process prior to the hearing.
Robert Lowry Jr., spokesman for the state Council of School Superintendents, previously said the prior version of the bill led to concerns it could be “abused” and “could delay districts from dealing with truly dangerous students.”
The bill that passed only requires districts to notify parents or guardians of the rights to have their child referred and evaluated by its Special Education Committee upon enrollment. The notification must also have the name and contact information for the committee chairperson or whoever processes referrals to the committee.
Any student facing suspension for more than five days was already required to receive a hearing.
Clark said she and other family members families were not aware they could refer Jerry to be evaluated by the district’s Committee on Special Education before he was suspended. Voorheesville Superintendent of Schools Teresa Thayer Snyder has previously said the Clarks were made aware of the committee.
Jerry Clark was 17 years old when he committed suicide on April 27, 2010, shortly after Voorheesville High School administrators suspended him for six weeks. At the time, he was on prescribed antidepressants and mood stabilizers. There is also a history of mental illness in the family, according to Mary Clark.
Jerry fell asleep several times in class, broke the school’s dress code and acted out in other ways before being suspended.
Mary Clark will continue her fight in Jerry’s name because she is a member of the Voorheesville Community Alliance for Healthy Choices. The organization grew out of the district’s Risk Behavior Task Force.
“There is so much more to be done,” she said.