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Naslovnica / Skupine / Curb Cuts & early education battle 23
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Mjesečni popis
Nadnevak izrade / 2013 / Srpanj / 10
ADAPT (69)
Denver Post Fri. Aug. 19, 1977 [This article is in ADAPT 69 and ADAPT 71, but is all included here for easier reading.] [Headline] Debbie Wins School Board Vote: She'll Stay at Boettcher School By Art Branscombe Denver Post Education Editor A compassionate majority of the Denver Board of Education voted Thursday night to let Debbie Tracy, a cerebral palsy victim, continue to attend the Boettcher School she loves, even though she is over the age of 21. The vote came after a stormy interlude in which Board President Omar Blair shouted down Miss Tracy’s attorney, Nathan Davidovich, when the latter tried to address the board. The 4-3 vote on a motion by Board Member Kay Schomp specified that Miss Tracy may attend Boettcher School for the handicapped only for the first semester of the 1977-78 school year, while legal action is pending to straighten out her status. The tuition at Boettcher School is more than $6,000 per year for nonresident students. However, while the school board was in executive session considering the issue, Davidovich revealed he filed a motion in Denver district court late Thursday seeking a temporary restraining order requiring school officials to allow Miss Tracy to continue at Boettcher until the courts act on his plea for permanent relief. A hearing on the motion for a temporary restraining order was to be held early Friday before Judge Robert Fullerton, Davidovich said. A companion lawsuit, filed by Davidovich and attorney Charles Welton, in behalf of Miss Tracy, four of her companions in the Atlantis Community and other handicapped persons, seeks: Compensatory education for Miss Tracy and others of her class of handicapped persons who were denied admission to public schools programs "for a period equivalent to the number of years during which an adequate education was denied them". To invalidate Colorado laws limiting public education to children between the ages of 3 and 21, as applied to handicapped persons over 21 who are educable and have been denied an education suited to their needs in public schools. The plaintiffs motion estimates there may be as many as 10,000 handicapped persons in Colorado who would belong to this class. The school board was unaware the companion legal actions had been filed when Miss Tracy, a dozen or more of her companions at the Atlantis Community- a community of handicapped persons, most of them in wheelchairs- and her parents and lawyers appeared in the board room of the Denver Public Schools Administration Bldg. 900 Grant St. Mrs. Schomp, chairman of a board subcommittee on special education, noted the persons in wheelchairs in the audience and, at the start of the board's meeting, moved to take up Miss Tracy's case before it would normally come up on the agenda. The board voted, 6-1, to do so, with only Board Member Robert Crider dissenting. Mrs. Schomp then moved that the board allow Miss Tracy to continue at Boettcher School for the first semester of the new school year "while we are seeking a state ruling as to where funds for her education should come from". State special education funds go only-unless the new court action determines otherwise- to children under the age of 21. Crider asked whether admitting Miss Tracy would set a precedent binding the board in the case of other handicapped persons. Michael Jackson, the school board's attorney, said the motion by Mrs. Schomp would only commit the board for one semester. Mrs. Schomp said the subcommittee was aware of possible legal pitfalls. "We are also aware we can't commit the school district to something illegal," she added, "but the subcommittee felt we shouldn't penalize this one person while the whole ponderous (fund - seeking) process is taking place. "The best solution may well be in the courts," she noted. Miss Tracy's problem is that in addition to cerebral palsy, she has perceptual handicaps. After being denied admission to the school system, she wasted nine years at the Ridge State Home and Training School and another five at the United Cerebral Palsy Center- in neither of which she received any substantial education After two years at Boettcher, she now reads at about the third-grade level, her mother, Elaine Jacoby, said. "I love school- my teacher helps me there, and I learn things I never learned before,"Debbie said recently. And she wants to continue there. However, this spring, because she is 21, she was "graduated" from Boettcher with a "certificate of attendance" rather than a high school diploma. And school officials said she should go to Opportunity School rather than continue at Boettcher. Crider insisted at the board meeting that allowing her to continue at Boettcher "puts every board member in the position of making a decision that may affect us for years". He moved to table the motion to admit Miss Tracy. Board Member Bernard Valdez supported his motion, asserting that if the board voted to admit her to Boettcher it would "defuse" the lawsuit her attorneys were preparing. At that point, Davidovich moved to the speakers table in the bedroom and tried to say something. Chairman Blair pounded his gavel and told Davidovich to "Shut up.. I don't want to hear anything from you. We offered to set up a special meeting with you and you refused." When Davidovich persisted in trying to speak, Blair gaveled him down and then called for an executive session of the board, which lasted for more than half an hour. During the executive session, Davidovich told reporters he merely wanted to tell the board he already had filed the lawsuit and the board's action wouldn't affect that. When the board returned, it voted not to table Mrs.Schomp's motion, then voted to approve it, both on 4-3 votes. Voting for admitting Miss Tracy were an unusual combination: Board Members Naomi Bradford, Marion Hammond, Virginia Rockwell and Mrs. Schomp. Against were Blair, Crider, and Valdez. After the vote, a disgruntled Blair thundered that the vote "is not a precedent set by this board in any way, shape, or form". Members of the Atlantis Community- 11 of whom were by then sitting in front of the room in their wheelchairs- booed him lustily. The school board then recessed- having done nothing else on their agenda to that point- for a dinner break. Asked about how she felt about it all, Debbie Tracy said , "Yes, I'm happy" about being allowed to continue at Boettcher. "It all seemed to be pretty interesting,"she added. " And I'm tired of staying at home."
ADAPT (70)
This is a continuation of the story in ADAPT 69 and the complete text of the story is included there for easier reading.
ADAPT (71)
[Headline] Disabled Persons Back Debbie By Fred Gillies Denver Post Staff Writer About 30 seriously disabled persons participated Wednesday in a demonstration on behalf of a cerebral palsy victim who has been told she cannot continue her education in a special education facility operated by Denver Public Schools. The demonstration at the schools' administration building, 900 Grant St, was on behalf of Debbie Tracy, 21, whose first chance at an education was provided two years ago when she was enrolled in special-education classes at Denver's Boettcher School. Recently, Denver Public Schools officials indicated that Debbie wouldn't be permitted to return to the school this fall because she is over age 20. Under Colorado's handicapped Children's Act, the state's public schools are obliged to provide an appropriate education for disabled persons aged 5 through 20 only, the school officials noted. Main Speaker at the demonstration Wednesday was Mrs. Elaine Jacoby, Debbie's mother. Mrs. Jacoby insisted that Denver public schools have a moral, if not a legal, obligation to provide an education for Debbie until she acquires the basic skills needed to take care of herself. Mrs. Jacoby also pointed out that Debbie had proved her potential for an education after 15 years of deprivation. "For the past two months," Mrs. Jacoby said, "I have been in contact with the Denver Public School Administration and the School Board in an attempt to keep Debbie in the system. Their response has consistently been that they have no legal obligation to her even though they provide 15 years of education to other children and even through a law was passed in Colorado in 1975 making clear the schools' obligation to disabled children between the ages of 5 and 20". Existing laws, Mrs. Jacoby emphasized, "reflect an acknowledgment of past wrongdoing and a willingness to correct the situation." She also noted that she isn't asking for the taxpayers to finance Debbie until she is prepared for college. "However, I feel that the Denver Public Schools owe Debbie more than two years of very basic education before they throw her out into society," Mrs. Jacoby said. After Mrs. Jacoby presented her statement, John Rankin, coordinator of instruction for Denver Public Schools, told her that he would do his best to arrange for her to meet with Dr. Joseph E. Brzeinski, Denver school superintendent. Also speaking informally Wednesday with Mrs. Jacoby was Theodore White Jr., director of the schools' department of special education.
ADAPT (72)
This text is a continuation of the story in ADAPT 67, and the entire story is included there for easier reading.
ADAPT (73)
ADAPT (74)
[Headline] Citizens call for curb cuts By Karen Sykes Daily News Staff Advocates of rights for handicapped citizens appeared before the Community Services committee Wednesday to make an emotional plea for construction of access ramps at intersections in the city. The issue came to the attention of the city after Danny Thomas, president of the Irving Chapter of the Handicapped Association of Texas, told city officials that a city ordinance was being violated. "There seems to be some problem interpreting (the city ordinance requiring handicapped access ramps)," Thomas said. "All of us who worked toward getting that ordinance drawn and passed believed, and still believe, that the ordinance calls for construction of a curb is replaced, regardless of whether as maintenance or new construction." Streets Administrator Wilburn Hinkle said the city ordinance calls for the installation of ramps only on request or during new construction or reconstruction of sidewalks. Access ramps are not installed when maintenance work is being done, he said. The Department of Public Works is following that policy, which is effective in placing ramps where they are most needed and maximizing city funds, he said. Thomas said numerous sidewalks at intersections in the city are being repaired, constructed or reconstructed but ramps are not being installed. However, much of that work is being done by utility companies, which are not required to install ramps, Hinkle said.
ADAPT (75)
[Curb proposal gets support] would increase by $97, up to an average of $600. Average annual expenditures for repairs to curbs is $52,122, but if handicapped ramps were installed at those corners, the cost would be an additional $212,478 each year. "Literally hundreds of curbs have been put in at hardly any cost by developers putting in new construction," Patrick said. "The new (subdivision) ordinance is working really well." That ordinance requires developers to put in sidewalks with curb cuts. The city is working on a policy to handle situations where utility companies repair or reconstruct curbs or sidewalks. Legal questions have to be answered before that situation can be resolved.
ADAPT (76)
Dallas Times Herald 18-8-87 [Headline] Irving [Subheading] Curb policy changed Without amending city ordinances, the City Council agreed Wednesday to an immediate "policy change" that requires the city to build wheelchair ramps when a curb or sidewalk near an intersection is dismantled for any reason. Although a controversial 1981 ordinance requires the city to build wheelchair ramps only on new construction sites or upon request, Director of Public Works Lewis Patrick said the city now will build ramps when 50 percent of a curb or 75 percent of a sidewalk is disturbed during routine road or utility work. Building ramps instead of replacing standard curbs could cost the city an additional $500 per ramp, or about $212,478 annually, Patrick said, adding that his department likely will seek a budget increase within the next few weeks to handle the added expense.