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 Lon Burnam greets Haseeb Chishty as Ms. Chishty looks on.
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The oldest of four children, Haseeb was born in 1973. At the age of ten months, during a trip to Pakistan, he contracted pneumonia. Subsequent complications of the disease caused permanent damage to his brain.
Haseeb has, since then, been mentally retarded but was very able to use sign language and communicate with his mother and other family members in broken English and Urdu. He was able to eat cheeseburgers and able to manage himself in most physical aspects. He enjoyed very much being with his family and often bop his head to his brother’s hip-hop.
His life was about to change.
In 2002 Haseeb Chishty was placed by his family into a state home in order to allow him to have a chance to learn and grow in ways that only qualified and trained persons could offer. Haseeb Chishty arrived at the Denton State School of Texas in August of 2002. On August 26, of 2002 he was beaten almost to death. Kevin Miller, an employee at the school who was a part of Haseeb’s day to day care team beat Haseeb within an inch of his life. Kevin along with other co-workers was coming down from a drug-induced high and he was in a rage. For no other reason than Hasib was Muslim, Kevin took out his rage on the helpless man.
The next day Farhat (Haseeb’s mother) arrived for her routine visit with her son. He was unattended and in dire need. He was in a lot of stress and pain. Initially when she asked the school to call for the staff Dr, they refused. So she called 911. When Haeeb arrived at the hospital the admitting physician gave him a .05% chance of survival. His examination revealed severe bruising and internal bleeding. Haseeb was also paralyzed from the beating. To date he has had many operations to reconstruct his internal organs.
The family faces a huge barrier to their quest for civil justice — the state's legal immunity to personal injury lawsuits. Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, is trying to pass a resolution that would grant Farhat Chishty permission to sue the state school and Department of Aging and Disability Services.”
"I hope this bill will open the door for justice. Every day my son looks at me, and I feel he is asking for justice," Farhat Chishty tearfully told the House Civil Practices Committee. "The state is dangerously powerful to cover up all abuses.”
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