Miguel Perez is a 27 year old an unemployed Michigan native with a severe hearing impairment. Miguel struggled through highschool, with his school denying him accommodations to assist his hearing, such as a speech to text machine. Perez's interpreter provided by the IDEA act did not even know sign language, which meant that Perez had almost no way to communicate with his peers and teachers. Perez's interpreter tried to teach herself sign language, but she ended up learning it incorrectly. She taught Perez incorrect sign language, meaning that he could not be understood by people who knew sign language. Perez had to redo four years of highschool at the Michigan school for the deaf, and was denied the chance of going to college.
Perez sued his school district for their inability to provide him with accomodations he needed to be a successful student. If his district had provided him with an interpreter who knew sign language, he would not have had to redo the entirety of highschool, and would have been able to go to college. Perez being unable to go to college and secure a job also put financial strain on his family. The Sturgis Public Schools argued that Perez did not fully go through the IDEA processes, before filing the lawsuit. Rather than trying to actually prove Perez's argument wrong, the school argued that he did not use all IDEA tools at his disposal before filing a lawsuit.
This case boiled down to whether students with disabilities have the power to fight for their educational rights through the court of law. While lower courts dismissed the case of Perez, saying that he needed to exhaust IDEA administrative policies first, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Perez's favor.
While Perez unfortunately had to suffer through highschool without the necessary accommodations, his struggle ensures that no other student with a disability in the United States can have their educational accommodations stripped from them without a fight.
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