School Takes Away Blind Child’s Seeing Eye Cane As Punishment, Gives Him Humiliating Substitute

The parents of 8-year-old Dakota Nafzinger are shocked and outraged after their blind child’s seeing eye cane was taken as a punishment by a school bus driver. In exchange for the much-needed cane, the school, located in North Kansas City, Missouri, gave the boy a swimming pool noodle to use instead of the cane.

Although the school would not go on camera for an interview, a North Kansas City District spokeswoman did confirm that the school had taken the blind child’s seeing eye cane away, saying that officials took it after the child hit someone with it and wanted to prevent the child from hurting himself or others with it. Because the cane was actually given to the child by the school district when he enrolled, it’s technically school property, so the school feels justified in removing it and replacing it with the pool noodle that the child says doesn’t do him any good.

“It’s a lot harder with this,” he said simply, indicating the flexible pool noodle.

His mom and dad say that removing their child’s cane is a way to humiliate the boy for misbehaving. “Why would you do that? Why would you take the one thing that he’s supposed to use all the time? That’s his eyes,” his mother said.

Dakota, says his parents, is like any other 8-year-old child, only he has a rare disorder called bilateral anophthalmia, meaning he was born without eyes. But despite that, Dakota loves to sing, fish, and swim, even though his parents admit that those activities require extra work when a child is blind. And certainly, when his most needed tool is taken away from him, Dakota will be facing even more difficulties.

When asked why the child was given a pool noodle as a substitute for his cane, the school’s spokeswoman said that Dakota fidgets and needs something to hold in order to control that.

“They [the school] said they were going to give me this [pool noodle] for the next two weeks,” Dakota said in an interview with Fox 4.

The child’s mother admits that Dakota was, in fact, written up for his misbehavior on the bus but still doesn’t understand why the school would decide to punish her blind son by removing the very thing he needs the most to navigate through his world.

“He’s gone through so much in his life already, 8 years, 8 years, and I just don’t like someone else putting my son in that position,” she said. “If I don’t stand up for him, who is going to?”

Dakota’s father, Donald Nafzinger, believes it’s a misunderstanding. He said his son sometimes just lifts his cane sometimes and the bus driver thought he was using it violently.

“All around, he’s a good little guy, and he shouldn’t be treated the way he’s being treated,” he said.

Last Tuesday, Dakota had to attend his sister’s school concert with nothing but the wobbly, flexible pool noodle to guide him through a world that he cannot see.

“Can’t feel things,” he said.

After Dakota’s story initially aired on Fox 4 in Kansas City, at least one local viewer called the station and expressed a desire to buy Dakota his own seeing eye cane since the school was able to remove the child’s cane because it was still school property.

This isn’t the only time a school has made headlines for punishment many view as extreme. Watch the video showing a coach who grabbed one of his team members by her hair and threw her to the ground during a brawl here.

What do you think? Was the school justified in addressing the child’s misbehavior by removing his cane and replacing it with the pool noodle, or should they have explored other disciplinary actions?