Buried in the Forward's report on Lakewood is this frightening note:
Earlier this year, the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union released a study showing that the Orthodox community used a disproportionate amount of the school district's special-education resources.
One of the great fears of those who are trying to ban metzitza b'peh, the
dangerous oral suctioning of the circumcision wound practiced by many
haredim, is an increased rate of learning disabled boys whose brain damage from the herpes virus was not severe enough to be noticed at the time of infection. This "sub-clinical" brain damage, the theory goes, surfaces later as learning disabilites and other related conditions.
Is haredi Lakewood's rate of learning disabilites as judged by their dispropotionate use of resources an indication this theory – promoted by Rabbi Moshe Tendler – is true? It may very well be.