In Texas, when the parents of special needs children disagree with the way their public school is educating their kid and efforts at compromise fail, there is often only one recourse to settle the dispute. It's called "Due Process", an educational court proceeding in which a state-appointed hearing officer listens to the issues and serves as judge and jury.
Larry Craddock was presiding at just such a hearing when he was captured on cell phone camera snoozing through testimony. Attorney Silver estimates Craddock slept through a quarter of the proceedings.
"We dropped water bottles. We tried coughing, we tried jumbling our books to help stir him awake, but it wasn't working," said parent Donna Harvey.
Parents who engage in a "due process hearing" often expend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees fighting school districts with much deeper pockets.
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