Equal Access - HELP ASAP

[Irishblu]

My SS is graduating June 7 from Stow High School in Stow, Ohio.  You have to have tickets to go to the graduation and we do not have any because school policy is to give the tickets to the student at the rehearsal.  BM said she would not give us any of the seven tickets.  
On April 22 we sent a letter to the principal with Ohio Revised Code stating "each party is entitled, under the same terms and conditions under which access is provided to the residential parent to access any student activity in which the child participates."  "Any school officail or employee who knowingly fails to comply is in contempt of court."
The letter was signed for on April 30 and the next day we received a call from the principal saying that they don't get involved in these situations and that he was turning it over to the superintendent.  We told him we only wanted half of the tickets mailed to us or we would arrange to pick them up at the school.
We heard nothing from the super, so we sent a  letter (April 26) to the super asking for tickets.
On May 11 we recieved a response (it was dated May 5, but not mailed until the 10th) saying basically - "ask SS for tickets."  
Sent back a letter May 12 (was signed for on May 13) asking for a hearing with the school board.
We have not recieved a response.  BM now says she will give us ONE ticket of the seven.
Where do we go from here?  How do we file contempt charges against the school?
I have another SS entering 9th grade at the same school in the fall and then in two years my SD will go there as well.  They have a different BM and she will not even give us one ticket when they graduate.  
We need to get this school policy changed and make the school respect non-residential parents rights.

[Brent]

Go over the principal's head to the education district's attorney. Get the attorney's attention and I guarantee you'll see some action.

[Irishblu]

According to the letter from the superintendent, thier attorney was contacted and it was from him that they believe they are fine with policy.  
We contacted our attorney after the letter from the superintendent and he said he knows (of course) thier attorney and he (thier attorney) knows NOTHING about matters of family law.  
Today I did contact all the TV stations, a radio station, and the local paper informing them of "non-compliance with Ohio Revised Code" by the school.  
Our one local radio station has been talking about this school for another problem, so hopefully this will get thier attention!
How would I get the attorney's attention since he thinks he's right and we are wrong?  

[Kitty C.]

Go straight to the state education board.  When they find out that the school is DELIBERATELY disobeying state law, they will yank funding from them so fast, it will make the super's head swim!  At the same time, file contempt charges on them, as per state code.  They are in contempt and should be brought to court for it.

Also, have you talked personally to any of the members of the school board?  Might be enlightening, at least for them.  They certainly don't want to have to deal with a legal matter where the school is deliberately and blatantly in contempt, nor do they want to lose their funding.  It will make their ratings go down, and consequently they could lose students, too.  It's a ripple effect that could leave them belly up.

Hit 'em where it hurts them the most........in the wallet.

[Irishblu]

We have not talked to members of the school board.  Protocol is to request an Executive Session Meeting to be able to do that and they have not responded to our request.  We know they recieved it because we sent everything certified.  The request was signed for on April 30th.  
As for filing contempt - what court do we file in?  
We have done all legal things regarding the children and BM'S pro-se and it's gone well so far.  After spending thousands of dollars just getting orders to see them, we were broke.  Our attorney is great at free advice, but we do as much as we can ourselves so as not to use up our freebies.
Thanks for the advice on the state education board - I'll get to work on that right away!!!!!

[Kitty C.]

The heck with the Exec. Board, find out exactly WHO is on that board and talk to as many of them as you can privately.  Print out what your state statutes are and have that in hand to show them.  As for filing contempt against the school, it would be in the jurisdiction of the school.  This is a separate action from a custody case and would be heard in civil court.

The LAST things schools want is togo to court, lose funding ,or have a ratings drop.  Hit 'em in the pocket!

[Irishblu]

I sent a certified letter today to the State Board of Education representative for our (and SS) district.  She is just a town away so the letter will get there tomorrow.  
I have a listing of the school board members for Stow but there are no address listed.  But I figure they are ignoring us, so (again thanks for your advice) off to the state board we go.  
If I don't have a response by Tuesday, I'll go up to the head of the state board.
What really gets me is that the school keeps saying because they are giving the tickets to SS he gets to hand them out to who he wants - We told the school that putting a kid in the middle of parental disputes was wrong and how could they justify that?!  
They hand the report cards to the student too, but have to mail us one!  What parent allows the kid to keep tickets to a graduation and decide who goes?  If the kid kept the tickets and didn't give them to BM you can be sure she would go screaming to the school and they would accomodate her!!!
It just angers us that every little thing is such a fight - after 8 years it's tiring and takes a toll on our family!  It doesn't seem to affect the BM's - they seem to thrive on it.  
We are just glad SS will be 18 in a few months - CS will be done and he can make his own choices.  
I think what gets to me the most is that according to our CS order (we did it through court not CSEA) we have to pay half of all school fees, graduation costs, etc.  So we are paying for an activity we may not get to attend.
My biggest regret is that we didn't check school policy on graduation when he was in 9th grade.  It just never occured to us to do so.   And we never had to enforce the equal access to records because BM gave us copies of everything.  Of course with the younger SK's we will have to do the records - she won't let us see report cards and tried to stop the school they attend from sending us copies.  
I hope if there is anyone out there with a child entering or in High School, they see this post and CHECK POLICY ON GRADUATION NOW!!!!

[Irishblu]

The certified letter to the state rep for the school district was signed for on June 1.  We have not recieved a response.  
Of course the graduation is over and SS's BM, SD, maternal grandparents, aunt, and stepgrandmother got tickets and BM did give us ONE.  So at least my husband got to see his son graduate.  He was really upset because there were at least 50 empty seats at the place the graduation took place.  
So now all that's left is to file contempt charges and hope we can get school policy changed for the graduation of younger SS and SD.  At least we have 4 years before the younger SS graduates and 6 years for SD.  
We were wondering if we should send a letter to the president of the state board and see if we get a response before filing contempt.  
I think we should file contempt regardless, but my husband wants to see if we can at least get the state to respond.
Any opinions on what way we should go?