- LanguageAfrikaans Argentina AzÉrbaycanca
á¥áá áá£áá Äesky Ãslenska
áá¶áá¶ááááá à¤à¥à¤à¤à¤£à¥ বাà¦à¦²à¦¾
தமிழ௠à²à²¨à³à²¨à²¡ ภาษาà¹à¸à¸¢
ä¸æ (ç¹é«) ä¸æ (é¦æ¸¯) Bahasa Indonesia
Brasil Brezhoneg CatalÃ
ç®ä½ä¸æ Dansk Deutsch
Dhivehi English English
English Español Esperanto
Estonian Finnish Français
Français Gaeilge Galego
Hrvatski Italiano Îλληνικά
íêµì´ LatvieÅ¡u Lëtzebuergesch
Lietuviu Magyar Malay
Nederlands Norwegian nynorsk Norwegian
Polski Português RomânÄ
Slovenšcina Slovensky Srpski
Svenska Türkçe Tiếng Viá»t
Ù¾Ø§Ø±Ø³Û æ¥æ¬èª ÐÑлгаÑÑки
ÐакедонÑки Ðонгол Ð ÑÑÑкий
СÑпÑки УкÑаÑнÑÑка ×¢×ר×ת
اÙعربÙØ© اÙعربÙØ©
Home / Albums 1903
- ADAPT (1216)
This page continues the article from 1217. Full text available on 1217 for easier reading. - ADAPT (1217)
[three images] [image caption] photos by Carolyn Long. Left: Despite hours of negotiations with police, the NGA refused to meet or talk. Below: ADAPTers take and hold the NGA's building. [Headline] THE SECRET OF GETTING MEDIA COVERAGE IN DC Back at the other locale, the teams were gathering and once assembled, the first marched from Union Station to Hall of the States. Amazingly, despite the couple of hours for everyone to arrive, ADAPT had apparently not been spotted. This time building doors were not guarded and locked as they usually are when ADAPT comes for an appointment. So all 200 in the first team filed inside, and just as we finished, the other team of 200 arrived from their march across Capitol hill. ADAPT filled the lobby! Coincidentally, we found way to get media coverage in DC Lots of news folks have offices in the Hall of the States, and DC media will apparently cover a protest when the story falls on their doorstep and blocks their front door. The National Governors' Association, NGA, acting as ringleader refused to negotiate, or even discuss the issues. The other groups went into hiding. Then the chants and Celtic drumming began. A small group went and covered the parking garage for over an hour, until things got rough and eventually 30 were arrested, after a dramatic tussle. Strangely the police reacted by using their cop cars to block us in to a courtyard in front of the building. Everyone was still inside so it did little to affect the protest, but served as a sensational backdrop. After a few more hours during which the NGA staff continued to stonewall pretending their director was AWOL, and the other groups remained in hiding, police and NGA alike came to the realization we would not be moved. ADAPT was not going to let these groups wipe their feet on the backs of our brothers and sisters and come out smelling like a rose. So the police began to prepare for arrests. Those in the ADAPT group who were not ready to be arrested moved out-side into the courtyard, but remained on site in solidarity with our brothers and sisters inside. The chant "I'd Rather Go To Jail Than To Die in a Nursing Home" began to echo through the lobby. A restaurant in the building responded by blaring country western muzak out into the courtyard. We waited for Elvis' Jailhouse Rock. Folks from the building peered out of windows and some even went out on the roof to watch. Meanwhile, the Mayor's Conference team was headed over to the Hall of the States to join the rest, but unfortunately some misinformation from the cops lead to a march across town in another direction. [2 images] [image caption] Arrests at the NGA. photos by Carolyn Long [text continues] They handled it well though and eventually headed back to meet us at the hotel. Like a slow motion scene in a movie, the cops came and went and finally three city buses pulled up. Slowly the 59 people inside were lead or carried out and shuttled off to jail. Though threatened with 19 days in jail, they were eventually let out and returned to the hotel around 2 am! Hungry and tired, they were also proud of their statement for the 2 million locked away in institutions and nursing homes for the crime of being disabled. One man entered the front doors and said I'm no longer a virgin! [Subheading] OUR HOMES NOT NURSING HOMES, HOW ABOUT IT HUD? Despite the 12 to 15 hour day folks had been through on Monday, Tuesday ADAPT was downstairs and ready to rock by 8:30 am. For those arrested at the garage, there was court. For the rest of us, this time the focus was to be HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Support services are a critical piece of the puzzle, but agencies refuse to deliver services under a bridge or in a cardboard box; you also need a place to call home! ADAPT has been working to hold HUD accountable for their support of institutional warehousing for people with disabilities at the same time this federal agency fails miserably to hold housing providers responsible for making their stuff accessible to us! ADAPT had filed a lawsuit against HUD for their failure to enforce their own accessibility regulations Unfortunately, last winter the courts failed us and we lost the lawsuit. The courts said it was up to HUD to decide how it would enforce its own rules. So, clearly there was only one way to make them enforce 504 and stop supporting institutions as housing with the 232 program, etc.: take it to the streets, or in this case their doors. Again we split up and came together in a march on their headquarters, which covers an entire city block Such a concentration of bureaucrats is a dangerous thing, but this is a dangerous town. ADAPT was ready, surrounding the building like clock-work. The cops helped out by parking their cars across the front doors. We simply surrounded their cars and then covered the other doors with masses of wheelchairs and people Learning from our experiences the last time, a group of dedicated folks also blocked the hardest door, the side en-trance/ exit to the garage. This time it was held so tight trouble was minor compared to before. The leadership sent our demands inside. ADAPT demanded that HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo: end the 232 program and use the funds for a guaranteed home loan program for people with disabilities; immediately begin an aggressive program that would result in enforcement of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act; include on HUD reporting forms a place to identify all accessible units, and to allow people with disabilities to voluntarily identify themselves as using HUD funded housing; and last but not least assign Section 8 voucher certificates for people with disabilities coming out of nursing homes or other institutions as well as all people eligible for Medicaid Home and Community-based waivers. Eventually the top level folks inside sent down people to set up negotiations. However, the process was slowed as the HUD folks couldn't get their own security to cooperate, but finally the officials pre-vailed. ADAPT sent in a delegation to negotiate. With their attention focused on the issues at hand, HUD agreed then and there to begin collecting data on disability related to their housing programs (after five plus years of refusing to do so). They also agreed to set up a meeting with Secretary Cuomo for June. Victorious, we headed back to the hotel. The line for the subway was two city blocks long... and that was only half our group. We waited, but we waited with the satisfaction of having finally gotten the attention of the mule. - ADAPT (1218)
This page continues the article from Image 1219. Full text available on 1219 for easier reading. - ADAPT (1219)
INCITEMENT INCITEMENT INCITEMENT Volume 15 No. 1 A Publication of ADAPT Spring/Summer 1999 [Headline] 30th Time is a Charm! by Stephanie Thomas ADAPT's 30th biannual national action drew over 600 activists from across the nation for one of the greatest actions to date! Washington DC in May was the location for this auspicious gathering, and the nation's capitol was decked out in style with azaleas, cherry blossoms and fine weather. Though the log jams in the hotel with that many wheelchairs was a lesson in patience and perseverance, the comradeship and sheer mass of hard core activists more than made up. Sunday's workshops and meetings were a navigation experiment but once inside one could learn about the history of ADAPT from those who were there, a kid's eye view of the movement, legal aspects of civil disobedience, nonviolence from some of it's most intense practitioners, as well as updates on all the issues. Equally important, networking was almost impossible to avoid as we made our way through the ADAPT bazaar in the front hall: caps, shirts, magnets, beanie babies, books, blankets, clocks, etc. And best of all, all profits going to help more activists participate! [Subheading] SMILING OLMSTEAD SCORES WITH THE EVIL EMPIRE [Image] [image caption] photo by Carolyn Long Monday morning bright and early we headed out to visit the evil empire participants: National Governors' Association, US Conference of Mayors, National Council of State Legislators, the State and Legal Center and the Council of State Governments. These groups signed on to another brief (separate from the one the 26 states signed onto) in the Olmstead case which also asked the Supreme Court to overturn the integration mandate of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA. Nationally, the disability community spent the last several months advocating very effectively to get the supporting states on the one brief to reverse their position, reducing the number of states participating from 26 down to 7. However, these evil empire groups refused to budge and staunchly maintained their anti-integration position against people with disabilities. ADAPT demands for these group were to withdraw their names from the amicus brief opposing the integration requirement in the ADA in Olmstead case schedule ADAPT presentations on most integrated setting for their boards and national conference; identify people in or risk of going into a nursing home and/or other institution and develop the funding and a written, specific plan of service to g or keep them out; support the introduction and passage of MiCASA, and meet with ADAPT on a biannual basis. Being so large, we split into smaller teams to simplify movement. Snaking through subways we had three destinations. Two teams would converge on the Hall of the States, where several of these groups officed. At the same time, the third headed straight to the US Conference of Mayors offices. 200 ADAPT visitors headed upstairs on arrival to deliver this message stay the hell away from our right to liberty and justice. (This is especially true for the folks, since cities do very little with long term care and attendant services. Mayors should mind their own business.) Entering the office, ADAPT folks started looking fo the top brass in every office, something th staff found so disconcerting they left to let ADAPT run the place. It seemed the May-ors' big wigs were off on safari in Africa. Certainly the Executive Director was surprised when he called back to the office di morning and ADAPT answered his phone hey just trying to help out here. Though their president-elect Denver's Mayor Wellington Webb recently penned the Conference a letter expressing his discomfort with their involvement in this Olmstead amicus brief, the staff were a rigid bunch and it took a day of occupation by ADAPT before they started to comprehend what life is like when you are not in control of your home and supports, and they agreed to set up a meeting when the honchos returned from their world travel. - ADAPT (1220)
THE DENVER POST LEGISLATURE 1999 Wednesday, April 7, 1996 [Image] [Image caption] Gil Casarez protests outside the Capitol against Colorado's support of a Georgia law allowing disabled people to be treated in nursing homes rather than community-based treatment. The Denver Post / Dave Buresh [Headline] Capitol closed to protesters in wheelchairs By Mike Soraghan Denver Post Capitol Bureau Wheelchair access to the Colorado Capitol building was cut off Tuesday afternoon to block potentially disruptive disabled protesters. The State Patrol security detail locked the two doors that allow people in wheelchairs to enter the building because it had heard that members of the protest group Denver ADAPT were heading to the Capitol. Members of the group have been arrested at several sit-ins this year at the attorney general's office and the governor's office. [Headline] Lawsuit sparks protest The group was protesting Colorado's support of a Georgia law al-lowing disabled people to be treated in nursing homes rather than community-based treatment. The law was overturned by a federal appeals court, and Georgia is taking its case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The ADAPT group says if Georgia wins, disabled people could be forced into nursing homes. Gov. Bill Owens and Attorney General Ken Salazar decided Colorado will remain a signatory on a friend-of-the-court brief filed by several states in the Georgia case. They say they are worried about the potential financial impact of the appeals court's ruling, which says community-based services must be used regardless of cost. [Headline] Blocking draws criticism The blocking of access drew criticism from one Democratic law-maker, who said the Capitol should remain open to all. "Just because someone is handicapped shouldn't mean they can't get in to the Capitol," said Rep. . Ken Gordon of Denver, who leads the Democratic minority in the House, "Everyone else is allowed into the Capitol." He said the protesters should have been allowed in, then removed only if they broke the law . Sgt. Don Smith, who is in charge of the patrol at the Capitol, said blocking of access was justified because the group has been disruptive in past protests He said some even got out of Their wheelchair* and urinated on the floor. "The attorney general's office and the governor's office aren't gal' ing to tolerate that kind of behavior," Smith said. Troopers were stationed neat' the doors to allow disabled people not part of the group to enter and! exit, Smith said. For at least some; time, when a reporter checked it the north door of the Capitol was unmanned. During the protest, at least one Capitol staffer in a wheelchair had to be allowed in. Protesters yelled at her as she wheeled in. [Subheading] Governor's office consulted Smith said the patrol consulted with Owens' office but made the decision to lock the handicapped access doors on its own. Joe Ehman, a leader of the ADAPT group, said he had never heard the accusation of any pro; testers urinating on the floor duq ing a protest. He said if it happen. ed, it wasn't intentional, but possibly the result of the paralysis that keeps some members in wheelchairs. The ADAPT group first protested in front of the Governor's Mansion on Tuesday, then made its way to the Capitol, where security and locked doors awaited. Protesters brought a coffin filled with names of people who they said had died in nursing homes. The State Patrol allowed one person from the group to go inside with an escort and deliver a letter to the governor's office. A while later, the group left. No one was arrested. - ADAPT (1221)
Drawing of office plants with a sign that reads: The Taft room (restroom) Free our bladders - ADAPT (1222)
[Headline] ADAPT: Demonstrators continue protests Jon Allen, a spokesman for Romer-Sensky, confirmed that the director had agreed to meet Tuesday afternoon. By that time, however, police vans were on their way. "At that point it became a law enforcement issue, not an agency policy matter," Allen said. Allen said Romer-Sensky is still willing to meet with ADAPT members. The demonstrators pleaded with the officers not to make arrests because a meeting had been planned. But the officer in charge told them he had received orders to clear the building entrance and arrest those who didn't leave. "We were negotiating in good faith, and then the (officer) took it in his own hands and said there wasn't going to be a meeting," said Mark Mankins, a protester from Riverside in the Miami Valley. Those arrested were taken to the R-Reynoldsburg Ohio State Fairgrounds, cited with criminal trespassing and released a few hours later. Scott Milburn, Taft's press secretary, said the protesters have had a standing offer to meet with state officials since last Friday. Milburn said the state is considering billing ADAPT for damages during the demonstrations. Those include two broken doors, a carpet in Taft's office and security costs. The protesters still want to meet with Taft and with the House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, R-Reynoldsburg. [pulled quote] "We were negotiating in good faith, and then the (officer) took it in his own hands and said there wasn't going to be a meeting." --Mark Mankins A protester form Riverside [text resumes] They want David-hearings on proposed legislation that would allow use of Medicaid money for home care rather than requiring the disabled to live in nursing homes. Milburn said the demonstrations have now put any possible meeting between Taft and ADAPT on the "back burner." Nearly 90 percent of Medicaid long-term care dollars are spent on nursing homes, with the rest being spent on home-based care, ADAPT officials said. Despite a past bias towards institutional care, Ohio has been pursuing development of home- and community-based care for disabled people, Milburn said. Bob Kafka, a national ADAPT organizer, said that by blocking access to the Rhodes Tower, members were declaring that the building was a "nursing home" for a. day. "So they can feel for one day what people in nursing homes and institutions feel every day," he said. Kafka said the group has used similar tactics in other cities. The protesters are likely to target another state building today. - ADAPT (1223)
- ADAPT (1224)
Wednesday, November 3, 1999 ■ The Columbus Dispatch /METRO [Headline] Protest at state buildings might go on, group says By Connie A. Higgins Dispatch Staff Reporter A national disability-rights group might. continue protesting at government office buildings Downtown this week after a second day of arrests for trespassing. Yesterday, State Highway Patrol troopers arrested 97 members of American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today at Rhodes Tower, 30 E. Broad St., and charged them with criminal trespassing, a fourth-degree misdemeanor. On Monday, 118 members of the group were charged with trespassing when they occupied two floors and the lobby of the Riffe Center, 77 S. High St. Following the Riffe Center arrests, the state obtained a restraining order limiting the group's access to state buildings. The activist group, with chapters in 39 states, has been in Columbus this week to support House Bill 215, legislation that would give people with disabilities more independent-living options. Troopers said yesterday that they warned the protesters, many of whom were using wheelchairs, to disperse when they became rowdy by knocking on windows and blocking access to state employees. When five group members entered the building, troopers began making arrests. They carried protesters away in wheelchairs and onto handicap-accessible vans. "We want to continue to send a message that we're running this in a very peaceful and safe manner," patrol Sgt. Gary Lewis said. He said the protesters were transported to the state fairgrounds, where they were processed and given a court date before being taken back to their Downtown hotel. [pulled quote] "We want to continue to send a message that we're running this in a very peaceful and safe manner." SGT. GARY LEWIS State Highway Patrol Mike Auberger, a co-founder of ADAPT, said members had gone to the Rhodes Tower to meet with Jacqui Romer-Sensky, director of the Ohio Department of Human Services. The meeting never took place. Auberger said his group will continue to pro-test until they leave the city on Thursday. "We may do the same thing tomorrow," he said yesterday. We have yet to determine \Pt hat location." ADAPT members have said their attempts to meet with Gov. Bob Taft and other state representatives fizzled. They complained that Ohio is among states forcing people with disabilities to live in nursing homes and institutions instead of supporting community-based services. State officials have said Ohio has increased its support for community-based services, and a Taft spokesman has said the governor was trying to arrange his schedule to meet with the group State Highway Patrol troopers carry Frank Lozano of El Paso, Texas, away from Rhodes Tower as Lozano's assistance dog, Neto, follows him to police vans. Lozano and other protesters were charged yesterday with criminal trespassing. [image] [image caption] Neal C. Lauron /Dispatch - ADAPT (1225)
The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday ■ OCTOBER 27, 1999 [Headline] Disability-rights group meeting here [Subheading] The organization has staged numerous demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience in recent years. By Steve Stephens Dispatch Staff Reporter A group of disability-rights activists, known for blocking buses and political offices across the country, will be in Columbus beginning this weekend for an event billed as the organization's "last national action of the millennium." American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today will host about 500 activists for a six-day program beginning Saturday at the Hyatt on Capitol Square, said Mike Auberger, the group's organizer. Auberger said it's likely that the group will stage acts of civil disobedience in Columbus. "How far that goes depends on the response we get" from state and local officials, he said. "One of the things that you'll find with ADAPT is that we try to hammer our point home with the folks who want to keep the status quo," Auberger said. "Sometimes that includes demonstrations, sometimes meetings. There have been arrests in the past. No one comes with the goal of being arrested, but the issue is important enough that people feel their personal freedom is secondary to getting the message out." Some of the issues that group members are fighting for include more Medicaid money for in-home health care and less for nursing homes. The organization also has protested problems with accessibility on commercial buses. "We're in Columbus because Ohio is one of the 10 worst, states when it comes to providing community-based services — services that allow people with disabilities to continue living in their own homes," Auberger said. The state "spends significantly more money to institutionalize people" than for home-based care, he said. "Somebody with a disability, young or old, should have the option to choose" between institutional and in-home care, he said. Group members have staged, numerous acts of civil disobedience to Make their point, Auberger said. In August, 33 protesters were arrested in St. Louis, during a meeting of the National Governors' Association after they handcuffed. them-selves to buses at the meeting site. Protesters in the past year also have been arrested. in Memphis, Tenn., and Austin, Texas,. and have blocked the entrances to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building and Democratic and Republican headquarters in Washington, D.C. Sgt. Earl Smith, Columbus Police spokes-man, said officers will assume that the activists will abide by the law, though police will be ready. "The fact that someone is handicapped or disabled doesn't preclude them from going to jail," Smith said. He said that those who break the law to make a point "do a gross disservice to people who are trying to change things legitimately." "But it's not unrealistic to expect a fringe element in any group," Smith said. - ADAPT (1226)
This page continues the article from Image 1127. Full text available on 1227 for easier reading. - ADAPT (1227)
Dayton Daily News [some illegible text near the Daily News title] [weather forecast] CLOUDY, WINDY & RAINY High 48. Low 35. FORECAST, 6B NOVEMBER 2, 1999 [Headline] Protesters shut down office tower [Subheading] Six citations for trespassing issued By MIKE WAGNER, MICHAEL C. BENDER AND WILLIAM HERSHEY Dayton Daily News COLUMBUS --More than 200 protesters, most in wheelchairs, virtually shut down a state office tower Monday that includes offices for Gov. Bob Taft and House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson by handcuffing themselves to doors, seizing control of elevators. At 11 p.m., 15 uniformed Ohio State Patrol officers wearing goggles and gloves. began removing protesters from the building lobby. At least six of the protesters received citations for criminal trespassing. About 30 minutes before protesters had been given an opportunity to leave peacefully. By 11:30 p.m., other protesters began leaving the building. Some of them were given citations for criminal trespassing. "It's wrapping up," said Scott Milburn, Taft's press secretary. Just after 6 p.m. Monday, the state won a temporary restraining order from Franklin County Common Pleas Court that bars protesters froth restricting access to the tower and other buildings housing state offices. [image] [image caption] JACK KUSTROW/ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALFREDO JUAREZ, of El Paso, Texas, joins in a protest of the disabled at the Rife Center in Columbus Monday. [text resumes] Most, if not all, of the protesters are members of ADAPT--Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today. More than 500 ADAPT members are in Columbus for meetings this week. Even with the Court order, which expires Nov. 15, State officials would try to allow protesters limited access to the building, Milburn said. More than 100 protesters remained inside the building, even after the court order was issued. The protesters, including several. from the Dayton area, want Taft and other Ohio lawmakers to help them change the Medicaid health insurance program so more disabled people can receive long-term care at home, rather than in nursing homes. The demonstration started about 10 a.m. in and around the Rife Center for Government and the Arts, across from the Statehouse. Protest-en seized control of the main lobby, and lobbies on Taft's 30th-floor office and Davidson's 14th-floor office. Protesters cut access to the floors by wedging their wheelchairs. between the elevator doors and handcuffing people to the lobby doors. The protesters, which included people from Ohio and nine other: states, plan to remain in Columbus through Wednesday and promise similar demonstrations at other buildings. "Free our brothers, free our sisters, free our people," ADAPT members chanted. "We'd rather go to jail than the in a nursing home." Protesters wanted to meet with Taft and Davidson, R-Reyrioldsburg, but both were traveling in Ohio campaigning. They also wanted Davidson to schedule hearings on legislation that would allow Medicaid money for home care rather than requiring the disabled to live in nursing homes. "We want the system changed," said Theresa Muse of Dayton, 30, who has cerebral palsy. "Anyone could get injured at any time and become disabled. I didn't come over here from Dayton to get thrown in jail, but if that's what it takes to keep people out of nursing homes, then I'll go." State Rep..George Terwilleger, R- Maineville, sponsor of the legislation the. protesters want . enacted, said he had no warning about the demonstration. "I don't need some outside radicals coming into our state, slowing down the process and causing this kind of chaos," the Warren County lawmaker said. Nearly 90 percent of Medicaid long-term care dollars are spent on nursing homes, with the rest being spent on home-based care, ADAPT officials said. Terwilleger, who introduced the bill March 2, said that enacting the legislation would mean $1 million or $2 million more in state spending. He strongly supports the concept. It improves the quality of life for those who can stay at home, he said. Attempts to set up a meeting between protesters and Davidson failed when aides to the speaker refused to agree to a demand that she schedule a hearing on Terwilleger's legislation. [Second article begins] Protester says he lost ability to walk while in nursing home By T.C. BROWN Plain dealer bureau Columbus--Protester John Gladstone, ball cap pulled tight over his head, sat hunched in his wheelchair against the cold last Wednesday outside state offices, describing 14 awful years he spent in a Philadelphia nursing home. "It's like being in a cattle house. You are held as a prisoner, and people are being abused," Gladstone said. "Every person with a disability should be given a choice." Gladstone, who was born with cerebral palsy, said he could walk when he was admitted to the nursing home at age 31 in 1971. But, he said, the staff forced him to sit in a wheelchair and he lost the use of his legs. Gladstone was released from the home, and with the help of a seven-day-a-week attendant, has lived in the Philadelphia community for 14 years. I'm able to live a free and happy and full life now." Gladstone said. He and others bitter about what they perceive as state officials' bias toward housing the disabled in institutions have drawn to ADAPT, American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today. The national group has staged protests throughout the country to press for more funding for community care. ADAPT's standard chants, if not guiding themes, are: "Our homes; not nursing homes," and "I'd rather go to jail than to die in a nursing home. Members of the group hold bake sales and other fundraisers to pay their expenses. Gladstone said he had arrested; in Orlando, Fla., Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. I believe in this issue. I've seen too many friends die," Gladstone said. "I want people who live in nursing homes to have free choice, as I do. We are going to get that." [illegible email and phone number] - ADAPT (1228)
Dayton Daily News THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1999 LOCAL THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1999 [Headline] Officials meet with advocates for disabled [Subheading] Activists want more Medicaid money used for home care BY MICHAEL C. BENDER Columbus Bureau COLUMBUS And on the third day of the struggle between state officials, Ohio Highway Patrol officers and disabled activists, there was a meeting. On Wednesday, five representatives from Denver-based ADAPT —American American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today — got the meeting with state officials that they've been seeking all week. The breakthrough followed two days of protests during which nearly 200 advocates for the dis-abled, many of them in wheel-chairs, were charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. The activists, including Tracy Mankins of Riverside, pressed officials from the state Human Services department to support legislation to allow more Medicaid money to be' used for home care for the disabled rather than for nursing homes. Barbara Edwards, director of Medicaid in the department, was the top state official at the meeting. "I told (Edwards) I wanted to give my friends in nursing homes a little holiday gift to tell them that Ohio is doing something to get them out of nursing homes," Mankins said. "She didn't have a response to that." Jon Allen, department spokes-man, said, "We are analyzing the bill and its financial impact now. We will have more to say about it later this month." The legislation is sponsored by state. Rep. George Terwilleger, R-Maineville. Scott Milburn, spokesman for Gov. Bob Taft, said "we don't have a position on it." The ADAPT demonstrators, who are scheduled to leave Columbus today, wanted to meet with Taft, but the governor was in northeast Ohio on Wednesday. The ADAPT representatives also sought a meeting with department director Jacqueline Romer-Sensky before Thanksgiving. Mankins said that Edwards promised to talk with Romer-Sensky. While Mankins and the: others met with Edwards in the 'Rhodes State Office Tower, other. ADAPT , protesters were about a block, away outside at the Riffe Center for Government and the Arts holding a mock funeral for disabled people who have died in nursing homes. They also signed "indictments" against Taft, accusing him of "incarcerating over 100,000 people with disabilities in nursing homes and other institutions without real choice." The mock service was calm, compared with Tuesday when more than 200 protesters tried to enter the Rhodes tower to demand a meeting with Romer-Sensky. "Jackie accepted the offer," Alla said, "but police vans were already in route and it became a law enforcement issue." State troopers arrested more the 90 protesters and took them to the state fairgrounds where most were cited for disorderly conduct. On was cited for damaging property. On Monday, more than 100 protesters were cited for criminal trespassing after a daylong occupation of three floors at the Riffe Center. > Contact Michael Bender at (614) 224-1608 or e-mail him at miktbender@coxohio.com - ADAPT (1229)
Local Dayton Daily News Coming Sunday Don't miss our Winter Weather Survival. Guide it Sunday's paper. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1999 [Headline] Disabled protest again, 97 arrested [Subheading] Group wants state to shift Medicaid money to home-based care instead of nursing homes BY MIKE WAGNER AND MICHAEL C. BENDER Columbus Bureau COLUMBUS A wrestling match between disabled activists-and Ohio Highway Patrol officers erupted Tuesday over control of a second state office tower. The altercation ended with the arrest of 97 demonstrators. The protesters, including' several from the Dayton area, want Gov. Bob Taft and other Ohio law-makers to change the Medicaid health insurance program so more disabled people can receive long-term care at home, rather than in nursing homes. Protests in Columbus began Monday when more than 206 members of Denver-based American Disabled for Attendant Programs seized control of the Vern Riffe. Center for Government and Arts. By 1 a.m. Tuesday, more than 100 were issued citations for criminal trespassing. As promised, protesters returned. Tuesday. They started about 1 p.m. in a driving rain by parading through a busy downtown street. The group, then tried to enter, Rhodes State Office Tower across from the Statehouse. But unlike Monday, highway patrol officers and other state security personnel were waiting. "Free our people now" and "People are dying! Shame on you!" the protesters shouted. They jammed themselves in front of the building and tried to nudge open the doors that were being blocked by the officers. For about 10 minutes, the officers restrained several demonstrators who were wrestling to hold their positions by the entrance. "We will keep pushing them all day. This is a humanity issue that the governor and other so-called leaders need to. do something about," said Nancy Selandra, 44, a protester from Philadelphia. A restraining order issued late Monday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court bars the activists from entering any state building, patrol Sgt. Gary Lewis said. ADAPT organizers said they went to the Rhodes Tower hoping to arrange a meeting with Jacque: line Romer-Serisky, director of the state Health and Human Services Department Please see ADAPT/4B - ADAPT (1230)
Dayton Daily News Wednesday November 3, 1999 State office tower protesters arrested [image] [image caption] Ohio State Patrol officers remove a man from his wheelchair after protesters blocking the entrance to the Rhodes Tower in Columbus refused to leave when ordered. About 100 members of the Denver-based American Disabled for Attendant Services Programs Today tried to enter the building across from the Statehouse. Story, 1B