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."

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• Columbus Ohio, fall 1999

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