A Connecticut honors student is suing her school district, saying she is illiterate.
Despite graduating from Hartford Public High School in June with honors and getting a scholarship to the University of Connecticut, Aleysha Ortiz is claiming she cannot read or write.
The 19-year-old, who spent 12 years in the Hartford public school district, testified at a May city council meeting, explaining her unique situation and how the educational system failed her.
Aleysha Ortiz is suing the Hartford Board of Education, the City of Hartford and her special education case manager for negligence. Youtube/WTNH News8
“I decided, they [the school] had 12 years,” Ortiz, a native of Puerto Rico, told CNN. “Now it’s my time.”
Advertisement
Ortiz is suing the Hartford Board of Education, the City of Hartford and her special education case manager, Tilda Santiago, for negligence.
According to her lawsuit, she began having problems with “letter, sound and number recognition” as early as first grade, and because those issues were not addressed, she began acting out in school.
“I was the bad child,” she told the outlet.
When she was in 6th grade, she was reading at a mere kindergarten or first-grade level, Ortiz alleges.
When Ortiz was a sophomore at Hartford Public High School, Santiago was assigned as her special education teacher and case manager.
Advertisement
Santiago bullied, harassed and stalked Ortiz, and was later removed from the role, the suit claims.
Although she hardly speaks English, Ortiz’s mother, Carmen Cruz, did her best to advocate for her daughter, speaking to the principal and other school officials.
“I didn’t know English very well, I didn’t know the rules of the schools,” she told the outlet.
“While Hartford Public Schools cannot comment on pending litigation, we remain deeply committed to meeting the full range of needs our students bring with them when they enter our schools,” Hartford Public Schools said in a statement to CNN. Youtube/WTNH News8
“There were a lot of things that they would tell me, and I let myself go by what the teachers would tell me because I didn’t understand anything.”
By the 11th grade, Ortiz began taking matters into her own hands and started speaking up for herself, which led her teachers to suggest she get tested for dyslexia.
Just one month before graduation, she began receiving the testing, which was not completed until the last day of high school, the lawsuit states.
Advertisement
The testing concluded that Ortiz was in fact dyslexic and “required explicitly taught phonics, fluency and reading comprehension.”
School district officials told Ortiz she could defer accepting her diploma and receive intensive services, she alleges.
“While Hartford Public Schools cannot comment on pending litigation, we remain deeply committed to meeting the full range of needs our students bring with them when they enter our schools — and helping them reach their full potential,” Hartford Public Schools said in a statement to CNN.
Ortiz, who dreams of becoming a writer, is currently attending the University Connecticut as a full-time student, although she hasn’t been to classes since Feb. 1 in order to get mental health treatment.
To complete her college assignments, she is relying on apps that translate text to speech and speech to text, as she did in high school.
Advertisement
The apps gave “me a voice that I never thought I had,” she said.
Have you still seen a lot of mini-liquor bottles, littering the streets in Connecticut?
Members of one environmental group said they still see them, and believe a ban is the best way to solve a multi-tiered problem.
State data shows in the past 12 months, ending September 30, there were more than 93 million mini-liquor bottles sold in our state.
The group supporting local bans says it’s not just the litter, but also the fact mini-liquor bottles are easy to conceal and consume on the job, in the car, or at school.
Advertisement
The group “Connecticut Towns Nixing the Nip” met this week, working on strategies to get a legislative hearing on the issue in the upcoming 2026 session.
Right now, stores collect a 5-cent surcharge for every mini-liquor bottle sold, resulting in about $5 million annually for town and city environmental cleanup efforts.
Town funding from nip sales
Average revenue per year 2021 to 2025.
Advertisement
“Having talked to a number of towns, well a few towns, they like the money, said Tom Metzner, a member of the group. “It’s fairly broad in how it can be used. It’s environmental. It doesn’t have to be used for cleaning up nips. And so the towns have become somewhat silent on the issue of banning nips.”
The group cited Chelsea, Massachusetts, where minis are banned, both litter and alcohol related EMS calls decreased.
The Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut, which devised the “nickel per nip” program, said banning the mini-liquor bottles would be unprecedented.
Instead, it said the environmental group should be challenging municipalities to prove they actually use the money for cleanup.
Legislative leaders suggested several years ago the way to really do this is to have a redemption program for mini liquor bottles, and now, that could be possible.
Advertisement
At least one state with the Clynk bottle collection program has redeemed mini-liquor bottles for cash.
The company just announced a major expansion in our state, but it told us it is not aware of a redemption program for mini-liquor bottles here any time soon.
National trust in the federal government is at some of its lowest levels in nearly seven decades, and many Connecticut residents fall in line with that belief, a survey found.
New data from the Pew Research Center found only 17% of Americans believe that what the government does is right either “just about always” or “most of the time,” hitting one of the lowest points Pew has seen since first asking this question in 1958. And according to a DataHaven survey, Connecticut residents trust the federal government less than state or local institutions.
While these are some of the lowest polling numbers seen in American history, national trust in the federal government has been on the decline for decades. Public trust initially dropped in the 1960s and ’70s during the Vietnam War from a near 80% but began rising again in the 1980s into the early ’90s. Trust peaked again after 9/11 before falling.
Advertisement
The DataHaven survey found that of all Connecticut residents surveyed, only 9% trust the federal government “a great deal” to look out for the best interests of them and their family. About 28% trust the federal government “a fair amount.”
Federal government trust among Connecticut residents was at its highest in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the federal stimulus programs and child tax credit were active.
The DataHaven survey also asked about trust in local and state government. Connecticut residents generally trust these institutions more than they trust the federal government, the survey found.
Trust in the local governments was higher than trust in both state and federal, with 67% of residents surveyed trusting their local government “a great deal” or “a fair amount.”
Advertisement
And when it came to state government, 61% of residents trust the state “a great deal” or “a fair amount.”
However, across the board, white residents are more likely to trust local and state government than are residents of color. Black residents had higher levels of trust in government than Latino and Puerto Rican residents, but less than white residents.
As of early 2025, the Connecticut State Police was facing a staffing shortage of roughly 300 troopers compared to the more than 1,200 troopers the department had in its ranks over a decade ago. This is due largely to retirements, resignations and a shrinking applicant pool.
Recent academy classes are helping slowly rebuild staffing, but Gov. Ned Lamont and police leadership say Connecticut still needs substantially more troopers to meet public safety demands. More recently, news outlets reported the department had 938 troopers.
This spring, troopers negotiated a 4.5% wage hike with state officials. Troopers’ base pay is on average about $116,000 per year, but that rises to $175,000 per year once overtime is included.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Advertisement
CT Mirror partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.
Sources
Advertisement
Reginald David is the Community Engagement Reporter for CT Mirror. He builds relationships across Connecticut to elevate community voices and deepen public dialogue around local issues. Previously, he was a producer at KCUR 89.3, Kansas City’s NPR station, where he created community-centered programming, led live event coverage for major events like the NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl Parade, and Royals Opening Day, and launched KC Soundcheck, a music series spotlighting local and national artists. Reginald has also hosted special segments, including an in-depth interview with civil rights leader Alvin Brooks and live community coverage on issues like racial segregation and neighborhood development. He began his public media career as an ‘Integrity in News’ intern at WNPR in Hartford.
