Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/anr9305.zip/9305FEAT.ANR

Text File | 1993-06-16 | 33KB | 670 lines

(6)     Sun 2 May 93  7:15p
By: Earl Appleby
To: Stew Bowden
Re: Mednotes (1/2)

SB> Perhaps I got the wrong impression, because I'm not
  > sure I'm supposed to reply to these messages centered
  > around articles written by others. However, I must
  > reply to some of your comments....

By all means, Stew. You and any one joining us on ABLEnews is not only welcome
to comment on ANYTHING posted here regardless of its origin but are encouraged
to do so.

The only ground rule is that we treat each other with the same courtesy with
which we would wish to be treated. And I've found no serious problem along
those lines on this echo since its inception over a year ago.

Inasmuch as your comments, with which I am largely in agreement, reiterate
points made in your original post, I'd like to continue my previous response as
previously promised in a subsequent message.

The purpose of all this is simply exchange ideas so we can learn from one
anorther's unique experiences and personal perspectives. For me this is a gift
of life, and I appreciate your thoughtful contribution.

Earl
ABLEnews moderator

* Origin: ABLEnews...your comments are welcome here. (1:262/4)

(7)     Sun 2 May 93  7:35p
By: Earl Appleby
To: Stew Bowden
Re: Mednotes (1/2)

Stew,

Returning to our discussion, as promised in my reply of April 23...

SB> The medical profession has done an absolutely horrible job
  > of investigating itself. That just goes to show how doctors
  > spend more time protecting each other, instead of honestly
  > disciplining those who need it.

I agree. In fact, many of the cases in which CURE is involved at the request of
family members involve the
possibility, if not the probability, of malpractice.

 > Far too many people have done far too much harm because some
 > lousy medical board refused to revoke their license. Most board
 > actions center around  rationalizing excuses as to why
 > actions should not be taken....

Your observation indicates that you have done your homework and I commend you
for it. MedNotes has reported on the scandal surrounding the California Medical
Board and I call your attention the latest development in the April 26 issue
that follows this message (the page 12 item--California Medical Board Slated
for 'Meaningful Reform').

 > Cost containment has to be an important part of any health
 > care plan, and that means, whether doctors like
 > it or not, some kind of salary cap, along with much
 > needed modifications in tort, and drug caps will occur, too.

In light of your well justified concerns about medical incompetency, I hope you
may reconsider your views on tort reform. CURE opposes scapegoating whether of
doctors or lawyers, while both may be rightfuly criticized where warranted.
Scapegoating however has the tendency to stop people from thinking rather than
stimulating them to think.

In the case of so-called "tort reform," doctors bash lawyers, a popular target,
to promote special interest legislation that further victimizes the victims of
medical malpractice. In the case of caps, doctors and drug companies are the
rhetorical targets but too often it is the patient who is struck by the
allegedly "friendly" fire.

SB> Thanks for listening. Stew

Thank you for speaking out, Stew. Please continue to do so.

Earl

* Origin: ABLEnews...your comments are welcome here. (1:262/4)

(14)    Sun 2 May 93  8:04p
By: Earl Appleby
To: All
Re: Never Forget!

ABLEnews
                        Remembering the Holocaust

[The following message has been imported for your information from Abled:]

FROM:    PHYLLIS DOERING
TO:      ALL
SUBJECT: HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

APRIl 19th HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY 12 Noon to 1 pm., Daley Center
Plaza, Chicago. For more information call the Mayors  Office of Special
Events at 312/744-3315 (v) or 312/744-2964 (TDD).

A baby whom records list only by last name was the first person killed by
the Nazis.  Baby Knauer was born blind.  One of his legs was missing.  So
was part of an arm.  Records listed him as a "mental defective."  Baby
Knauer had been turned over to authorities for death by either his
grandmother or his father..... records are unclear.  His father's
signature is on the "petition".  It was a petition for a "mercy killing."
Baby Knauer was a "life unworthy of life."  Reprinted from the article LIFE
UNWORTHY OF LIFE, by Mary Johnson from the Disability Rag.

It is imperative that we as a members of the disability community remember
and honor the 100,000 "defectives" Adolph Hitler's Third Reich killed.  We
all must remember that the first gas chambers were built in nursing homes.
With all the new support for "mercy killing" or "assisted suicide" here in
the United States and the rising hate crimes in Germany against persons
with disabilities I will definitely be there.  Uppermost in my mind and
heart on April 19th will be the hope that we will by remembering our past
history can prevent history from ever repeating itself. I have a question
for you all out there in BBS land, if you are a person with a disability,
what are you doing to remember your history??

CURE Comment: As Santyana has written, he who does not learn from history
is condemned to relive it.

Orginally posted on I CAN! BBS (1:115/738).

* Origin: ABLEnews...beyond the headlines. (1:262/4)

(29)    Tue 4 May 93  3:25p
By: Gordon Gillesby
To: All
Re: STICKS AND STONES


                         WHAT IS SELF-ADVOCACY?
                             by Jerry Smith

   For many people with developmental and other disabilities, the right
to make decisions, to make their own recommendations, to speak  out on
behalf of themselves and others,  to  take responsibility for their own
well-being, has been hard fought. Receiving  fair treatment in
employment, having access  to affordable transportation and health care
services,  living independently in the community, many would argue, are
rights, not privileges.  And yet these rights have to be continually
fought for; convincing employers, politicians, "professionals," and pa-
rents that persons with disabilities are their own best advocates is
still an uphill struggle.

   Self-advocacy began in the 1960's as a new idea for persons with
developmental and other disabilities, asserting that they were their own
best advocates. Organizations such as the Association for Retarded
Citizens existed to help families of persons with developmental
disabilities, with their motto being "We speak for them." In 1967, a
group of people with developmental disabilities in Sweden came together
at their local ARC, and began speaking for  themselves.  The idea of
people  with  developmental disabilities becoming their own advocates,
making their own decisions, was provocative. The idea quickly moved from
Sweden to Canada, and then to the United States. In 1974, a self-
advocacy convention was held in Oregon, attended by 560 people, were are
presently over 500 self-advocacy groups in the United States, with the
common bond of people with developmental disabilities supporting each
other in speaking up and speaking out  about  their needs, demanding the
full  rights  and responsibilities of citizenship.

   In Minnesota, consumer-run groups including Advocating Change
Together (ACT) and People First have been active in promoting self-
advocacy.  In the late 1970s, ACT worked toward unionizing sheltered
workshops. While the workshops refused to allow its workers to join a
union, ACT was successful in receiving over $35,000 in back wages for
sheltered workshops employees, and in establishing client/employee
advisory committees. ACT has also been successful in developing
leadership skills in consumers, in providing a forum for people to
express their wants and needs, and in assisting new self-advocacy groups
to form, This May, People First is sponsoring a conference on self-
advocacy in Minneapolis. The third annual International Conference on
Self-Advocacy will be held this summer in Toronto.

   The self-advocacy movement has grown into an inclusive civil rights
movement for persons with developmental and  other disabilities,
fighting not only for the right to speak out, but for  fair  treatment
in the community  and  an  end  to discrimination: a common desire for
all minority groups.

   A documentary on the self-advocacy movement in Minnesota Sticks and
Stones will be shown Tuesday, May 18th, at 7 p.m., at the Minnesota
History Center.


This article is from Access Press Newspaper and may be reprinted with
attribution; letters and submissions are welcome.  For more
information or to submit material for publication, please contact:

                              ACCESS PRESS
                      3338 University Avenue S.E.
                     Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414.
                          612/379-0989 (voice)
                          612/379-2730 (FAX)

* Origin: DRAGnet - Disability Information Advocacy * 612/753-1943 (1:2

(71)    Sat 15 May 93  7:09p
By: Earl Appleby
To: All
Re: Special Ed Alert

ABLEnews Special Report

               Yes, Virginia, We Need Special Ed
                                                 --Earl Appleby, Jr.

The Deputy Superintendent of Education for the Commonwealth of
Virginia and a member of the State Board of Education listened to (or,
at least, were present during) more than fives hours of testimony as
speaker after speaker (59 in all) denounced an Education Department
ploy to revise special education.

The cost-cutting proposal of some 56-pages would carve the body of
Vir- ginia's special education system under which 116,000 students are
enrolled to a skeleton reduced to inadequate federal standards. "For
years school [superintendents] and legislators have complained that
Virginia has special education regulations that exceed federal
requirements," whined Deputy Superintendent Edward Carr, lending his
support to the bureaucrats' and politicos' complaints.  "The Board
acted after hearing that over and over again."

Carr and Board member Martha Pennino heard a quite different message
from the 200 parents, advocates, and concerned citizens at the May 3
hearing held at the Fair Oaks Holiday Inn. They heard, but did they
listen?

ABLEnews did. We heard Ramona Freshwater, of Sterling, present with
Nathan, her four-year old son who has Down's, testify, "Once my son
goes to school, he gets tested, and then he gets a label."  Noting
that, as other parents of children with disabilities, she would no
longer be allowed to challenge any change in diagnosis, curriculum, or
even the transfer of her son, she concluded, "It doesn't make sense to
slip backward."

Disability advocates point out the revised rules write parents out of
their child's education. Spencer Hsu reports their critique in the May
13 Washington Post:

  First, the new regulations eliminate categories for testing
  of disabled children, as well as professional requirements
  for school employees who work with them...

  They also cut provisions for parental consent before
  administrators retest, transfer, or alter lesson plans for
  children. Finally, the changes lessen requirements on schools
  to send home written progress reports and to formally answer
  parent complaints.

No wonder parents call the ruse "an attempt to hide the 'paper trail'
of their children's schooling."

Will they succeed?  Earlier token "public" meetings held by the
education bureaucracy were remote and unpublicized. The May 3 hearing
was requested by two state legislators after concerned constituents
raised a public outcry. The commendable campaign waged by parents
fighting for their kids and for their principles (and ours)
doubtlessly accounted for the fact that two state senators and seven
state delegates registered their opposition to the Education
Department's proposal.

As the Board of Education races towards its May 21 deadline for public
comment, Carr simply says members must decide on the changes soon in
order to maintain federal funding.

ABLEnews simply asks our Virginia readers, "Have you registered your
objections to the gutting of our children's education?"

...For further information, contact CURE, Ltd.; 812 Stephen St.;
Berkeley Springs, WV 25411.

* Origin: ABLEnews...Dare to care! (1:262/4)

(95)    Tue 18 May 93  4:19a
By: Susan Harold
To: All
Re: Helen Keller

In reading about Helen Keller, I found this work by her.  I was deeply
moved by it and wanted to share it with you.

                      IN HELEN KELLER'S OWN WORDS

   The world I see with my fingers is alive, ruddy, and satisfying.  Touch
brings the blind many sweet certainties which our more fortunate fellows
miss, because their sense of touch is uncultivated.  When they look at
things, they put their hands in their pockets.

   It is interesting to observe the difference in the hands of people.
They show all kinds of vitality, energy, stillness, and cordiality...
Mark Twain's hand is full of whimsies and the drollest humors, and while
you hold it the drollery changes to sympathy and championship.

   Through the sense of touch I know the faces of friends, the illimitable
variety of straight and curved lines, the exuberance of the soil, the
delicate shapes of flowers, the noble forms of trees, and the range of
mighty winds.

   I have just touched my dog.  He was rolling on the grass, with pleasure
in every muscle and limb.  I wanted to catch a picture of him in my
fingers, and I touched him as lightly as I would cobwebs.... He pressed
close to me, as if he were fain to crowd himself into my hand... If he
could speak, I believe he would say that paradise is attained by touch;
for in touch is all love and intelligence.

   The senses assist and reinforce each other to such an extent that I am
not sure whether touch or smell tells me the most about the world.
Everywhere the river of touch is joined by the brooks of odor-
perception.  Each season has its distinctive odors.  The spring is
earthy and full of sap.  July is rich with the odor of ripening grain
and hay.  As the season advances, a crisp, dry, mature odor predomi-
nates, and goldenrod, tansy, and everlastings mark the onward march of
the year.  In autumn, soft alluring scents fill the air, floating from
thicket, grass, flower, and tree, and they tell me of time and change,
of death and life's renewal, desire and its fulfillment.

   After my education began the world which came within my reach was all
alive.  I spelled to my blocks and my dogs.  I sympathized with plants
when the flowers were picked because I thought it hurt them, and that
they grieved for their lost blossoms.  It was years before I could be
made to believe that my dogs did not understand what I said, and I
always apologized to them when I ran into or stepped on them.

   Without imagination what a poor thing my world would be!  My garden
would be a silent patch of earth strewn with sticks of a variety of
shapes and smells.  But when the eye of my mind is opened to its beauty,
the bare ground brightens beneath my feet, and the hedgerow bursts into
leaf, and the rose-tree shakes its fragrance everywhere.

   The calamity of the blind is immense, irreparable.  But it does not take
away our share of the things that count -- service, friendship, humor,
imagination, wisdom.  It is the secret inner will that controls one's
fate.  We are capable of willing to be good, of loving and being loved,
of thinking to the end that we may be wiser.  We possess these spirit-
born forces equally with all God's children.

   Necessity gives to the eye a precious power of seeing, and in the same
way it gives a precious power of feeling to the whole body.  Sometimes
it seems as if the very substance of my flesh were so many eyes looking
out at will upon a new world created every day.  The silence and
darkness, which are said to shut me in, open my door most hospitably to
countless sensations that distract, inform, admonish, and amuse.  With
my three trusty guides, touch, smell, and taste, I make many excursions
into the borderland of experience which is in sight of the city of
Light.

   I am sure that if a fairy bade me choose between the sense of sight and
that of touch, I would not part with the warm, endearing contact of
human hands or the wealth of form, the mobility and fullness that press
into my palms.

   Our blindness changes not a whit the course of inner realities.  Of us
[the blind] it is as true as it is of the seeing that the most beautiful
world is always entered through the imagination.  If you wish to be
something you are not -- something fine, noble, good -- you shut your
eyes, and for one dreamy moment you are that which you long to be.

From the book Helen Keller, Humanitarian.  By Martina S. Horner,
President, Radcliffe College.  1987.  Chelsea House Publishers.

* Origin: TN Deafness Info.Net. [phone] (1:3615/27)

(96)    Tue 18 May 93  4:53a
By: Susan Harold
To: All
Re: A few thoughts of mine.

In reading about the blind, deaf and disabled, I have come to know more
about myself than through any other single activity.  Through my
readings and subsequent postings, I have discovered a nature to myself I
thought only existed in my imagination.

One important aspect of myself that has emerged is that I believe very
strongly in human rights.  Not the rights that our Constitution puts
forth, but rather those unspoken rights of imagination and dreams.
Simple things that the majority of mankind has taken for granted for
many years should be what we live for.

Nobody can take away the power of the imagination.  We can see, touch,
smell, or taste something and we are immediately transported to another
time and place.  The smell of old schoolbooks, for example, reminds me
of my days in elementary school.  I live in a poor county in Tennessee,
and often the little money set aside for the schools was wasted or lost
in the bureaucratic processes.  Our books were old and few.  They were
musty and many were missing some very important pages that were needed
for a lesson.  Because of this, we quickly learned the value of sharing.
It is upon that all important lesson that I base my life today.

I have also learned that human suffering, of any kind, can bring me to
tears.  It is my desire to one day know that another person would not
need to be blind, or deaf, or disabled in any way.  That physical pain
could be wiped out completely.  That suffering would be a thing of the
past.

Having lived a goodly portion of my life with pain, I can empathize
somewhat with others who live the same life.  Granted, my pain has been
considerably less than many, many others'.  But living with pain has
opened my eyes to the suffering of others.

I can also identify, to a handsome degree, with the partially sighted.
My eyes are weak, but I *can* see.  I can drive a car.  I can read.  I
can watch my children at play.  Knowing that some cannot see often
takes the joy out of such activities.  My hearing, which many people do
not have at all, is limited.  I miss important parts of conversation.
When listening to my favorite music, I must increase the bass so that I
can hear all the tones that make up a particular work.  If I use my
headphones, the volume in the right earpiece is so much higher than that
of the left.  Almost twice, to be more precise.

I write these words out of a sense of compassion and lost self-worth.
While some of my senses are diminished to varying degrees, I still have
good use of all of them.  Would that I might give my sense organs to
someone who perhaps has never know the beauty of a cloudless day.
Children playing.  Concerts.  Or the immense joy in hearing a bird sing.
A frog croak.  The patter of rain on a tin roof.

The hunger cry of a newborn baby.

In spite of all good intentions or desires, disabilities exist and will
for a long time to come.  So now, I come to the crux of this rambling
missive.

While we are here, it is our duty to help in any way we can.  If a
person can do no more than say a simple prayer for those less fortunate,
then it should be done.  Perhaps a letter can be written to someone who
is lonely.  A postage stamp is only 29 cents.  Isn't it worth that
little bit to brighten the day of another who knows nothing but
loneliness?  Even a phone call to someone who cannot go to the store by
himself would be greatly appreciated.

Give of yourself.  That is the greatest gift anyone could ever receive.

Thank you for allowing me to express myself.

* Origin: TN Deafness Info.Net. [phone] (1:3615/27)

(97)    Tue 18 May 93 11:49p
By: Bill Scarborough
To: All
Re: 5/93 p1 adapt in washingt

@SUBJECT:5/93 p1 ADAPT in Washington                                 N

From: BOB GUSTWICK (Monday) 05/10/1993 22:35 ATTENDANT-SERVICE-FORUM
To  : ALL

The following reports were made by Bill Scarborough who is monitoring
ADAPT's actions in Washington D.C.

[May 9th 1993]

I'm  Bill Scarborough calling from the Capitol Quality Hotel in
downtown Washington D. C. following a day of action of ADAPT in
Washington D.C.  Today's activity was a little more solemn than usual.
We had a commemoration for our deceased leader, Wade Blank. Several
people made speeches. A couple people sang songs.  One read poetry.
Including but not restricted to, these were Justin Dart Jr., the
chairperson of the President's Committee for Disabled Persons and
English musician, Johnny Creschendo and some others, not to mention
ADAPT people such as Bob Kafka, Stephanie Thomas, who did their
tributes to Wade Blank.

This Night there were two hours of speeches, music, poetry on the
south steps of the Capitol Building.  This was, in my view, the
largest ADAPT demonstration I've seen so far.  There must have been
2000 people on the south side of the capitol. This is not numerically
nearly as large as that of the gay demonstrators of a few weeks ago,
but a couple of things must be noted:  A number of the people who were
with us were representatives of ACT UP; ACT UP people have helped us
considerably; and also this was a lot of people in wheelchairs.  So we
filled the area around the south steps of the Capitol quite well.  At
the end of two hours of speeches we marched down Pennsylvania Ave. to
the White House.

At the White House we gave our chants about nursing homes.  Then we
ended it in a demonstration in which ADAPT members, as they faced the
White House looking through the White House fence, put little wooden
crosses--white ones to represent people who have died, red ones to
represent people who are going to die in nursing homes.  The going
rule of thumb in Washington is that you don't stick your hands inside
the fence of the White House.  The ADAPT people did just that:
reached in, stuck in a cross of peace.  Some stuck in two or three
crosses, they just simply reached over and stuck in a cross.  Until at
last, there were some 300 crosses stuck on the White House lawn, just
inside the fence.  This was a interesting point in our history.  We've
had more people here this time, we've had a lot of interest.

[Here, the answering machine hung up on  Bill Scarborough]

@SUBJECT:5/93 p2 ADAPT in Washington                                 N

[May 10th 1993]

This is  Bill Scarborough, it's about 11:14 A.M. Eastern time, in
Washington D.C.  here at the Quality Hotel of Capitol Hill.  Health
and Human Services Secretary, Donna Shalala, spoke before an audience
of ADAPT people a packed meeting room in the hotel.  She did go,
according to some, further than they thought she would, she did
appoint a liaison to meet with, do business with ADAPT and other
disability groups.   She will respond to ADAPT's positions within 30
days in writing.  She gave us a very nice talk, and got a lot of
applause.  The meeting with her was very successful.  And now we're
proceeding along with more things for the day.

This is Bill Scarborough  calling from Washington D.C. regarding the
ADAPT protest today.  After meeting with Health and Human Services
Secretary Shalala this morning about noon, we marched on the Capitol.
We went inside the Capitol, proceeded to get in the hallways of the
Capitol the offices of the Majority and Minority Speakers and Whips.
We had not gotten a proper meeting with them, and therefore we
protested. We were shouting, "Up with Attendant Care! Down with
Nursing Homes!"  We were shouting, "A People United Will Never Be
Defeated!"  And our chants reverberated throughout the inside of the
Capitol.  After about an hour or two of (my timing of this is not
good) this the police slowly began arresting people.  I don't know how
many people got arrested at this point.  Some of us went home and some
of us went off to be processed. I don't know at this point what's
really  going on,  I have not seen report of this on the headline
news.  I'll be back with other news as news becomes available.

@SUBJECT:5/93 p3 ADAPT in Washington                                 N

Hi I'm  Bill Scarborough reporting from Washington D.C.  Before the
meeting this morning where Secretary of Health and Human Services,
Donna Shalala, spoke to all the greater audience of us at ADAPT, she'd
had a smaller meeting with a very few people who witnessed to her from
the heart, of things that they had experienced as nursing home
residents and former nursing home residents.  And this is something
which was perceived by us to be something which really reached her.
After that meeting we then proceeded on to the Capitol.  We did not
get to meet with either the Senate Majority leader or the Senate
Minority Leader, but what we did do was we congregated the hallways of
the Capitol, shouted,  "Free Our People!  Up With Attendant Care!
Down with Nursing Homes!" and a few other chants very loudly.  Our
chants reverberated throughout the Capitol building.  We were there
from about 12:30 PM to about 2 PM at which time the police started
making arrests and the group was divided between those who chose to be
arrested and those who chose to leave.  Then those of us who chose to
leave went back to the hotel. Now we have the report, 114 people were
arrested.  They're being released, released slowly, but they're being
released.  and tomorrow morning we will once again do business.  It is
public information that our next subject will be the American Health
Care Association.  And that's as much information that I can come up
with at this moment.

@SUBJECT:5/93 p4 ADAPT in Washington

[MAY 11]

I'm Bill Scarborough calling from the Quality Hotel of Capitol Hill in
washington D.C.  It is currently 4:23 PM, we arrived back at the hotel
about ten minutes ago.  We here with ADAPT left the hotel at about
11:30 AM, boarded onto the Michigan/Columbia Rapid Transit Trains--
the subways.  By riding the subway, we save time in travel but it took
us so long to load and unload from the train (with so many people in
wheelchairs) it took us two hours.  At about 1:30 we finished laoding
people up from the elevators, and then we marched on the American
Health Care Association.  Then we gathered at the address of the
American Health Care Association shouting chants.  After a while we
had a presentation.  I was not close enough to see the presentation,
but I was told that what we did was to give out our awards for the ten
worst nursing homes.  And we did get attention, we did make our point.
And then at about 3:00 PM we proceeded back in what we called a
Victory March.  We chanted as we went down the streets, with the
police clearing the way for us to go back to the hotel.  And here we
are, back at the hotel.  Apparently, a successful demonstration.  To
my knowledge, no one was arrested.

[May 11, cont.]

This is Bill Scarborough reporting from Washington D.C. at the
conclusion of a day of actions.  We just had our final meeting where
people discussed what we had done.  We have completed a week of
protests.  Today we had presented to a carboard effigy of the head of
the American Health Care Association a series of plaques commemorating
the ten worst nursing homes of the nation.  The American Health Care
Association people refused to come out but we did get news cameras to
come and watch us present these awards.  These were called the
"Certain Death Awards."  On each one was written the name of a nursing
home which was notorious for this or that sort of offence, such as
over-medication, neglect, retaliatory abuse and such.  This concludes
our days of protest and we return tomorrow.  We're planning to go back
into action again in September, in Nashville TN.  So that concludes
the reports.

(5-18-93)  These reports are not without their errors. Somehow, we
failed to get these reports on the ADA-Net during the actions due to
some technical problem.  We did get the reports on UseNet, Peace-Net,
and GEnie.

* Origin: Project Enable - Dunbar, WV  (ADAnet 94:3040/1) (FidoNet 1:279/14)

(116)   Wed 26 May 93  9:28p
By: Earl Appleby
To: All
Re: Parents Fight Back!
St: Local

ABLEnews

                  Closing the Door on Our Kids:
                       Parents Fight Back
                                             --Earl Appleby, Jr.

Gertrude Strong's son's education left a lot to be desired. He had been
bullied by other pupils and even molested by an older student. It was
not surprising that the boy hated school.

That was before he transferred to the Buchanan Secondary Learning Center
in southeast Washington, DC. At Buchanan, a center for students, age 13
to 21, with learning disabilities, he started to take an active interest
in his education and began to show signs of independence. Thanks to the
Buchanan's positive, effective learning environment, he has learned to
read and "picks up the newspaper at home." The 12-year-old boy who once
hated school now says he'd like to go to college.

We know all this because Mrs. Strong told it to the DC school board on
May 18 at a public hearing on School Superintendent Franklin Smith's
plan to close Buchanan (and nine other schools) as a cost-cutting
measure.

She was one of a 100 parents, educators, and civic leaders at the
hearing where, as Matt Neufeld reports in the Washington Times,
"speakers spoke emotionally about what they said are the special,
distinct needs of the [100] learning-disabled youths at Buchanan, some
of whom officials said would have difficult in the 'mainstream' school
system."

Noting that many Buchanan alumni had gone on to college and that some
served as DC fire fighters, Assistant Principal Richard Jones protested
that "Buchanan's success would be jeopardized if the center were
integrated with Phelps Vocational School," which he described as
"inadequate to handle Buchanan's students and programs."

Annette Scarboro was another parent speaking up for Buchanan, where her
daughter Lisa had been a student. The 14-year-old girl, who has vision
problems, is now a successful ninth-grader at Paul Junior High, an
achievement her mother says could not have been accomplished without the
education she received at Buchanan.

John "Peter Bug" Matthews, a local community activist, who has taught
Buchanan students shoe repair at his shop, told the school board
members, "If you have any type of commitment to people with special
needs, dig down deep into your souls." "I don't even know how this
school got on the list," Mr. Matthews concluded.

ABLEnews suspects it is the same reason that education for children with
disabilities has always borne the brunt of the assault of the long
knives of the education budget cutters. [Further examples are available
on request from CURE.]

As Mrs. Scarboro reminded the school board, "We're all handicapped,
[including you]. If you weren't handicapped, you wouldn't be here
[dealing with school closings]."

Mrs. Scarboro's candid comments brought laughter from the public, but,
regrettably for our children, as the politicians and the bureaucrats
know only too well he who laughs last laughs best.

...For further information, contact CURE, Ltd., 812 Stephen St.,
Berkeley Springs, WV 25411 (304-258-LIFE).

* Origin: ABLEnews...beyond the headlines. (1:262/4)