I've had several questions asked about the resolution to my husband's
problem regarding his supervisor who wanted to place him at a school for
medically fragile children who were visually impaired rather than providing
him with transportation to visit his regular schools to teach visually
impaired and blind children in the regular classroom throughout the district
as they had last year....(please request information from me personally if
you missed the summer saga on this one...)
Believe it or not, we could NOT find an attorney in this area who wanted to
take on the case...we were frustrated with that aspect and I finally
contacted the only "radical" group I knew about....the National Federation
for the Blind http://www.nfb.org/. (I say radical because they are very
"independent thinkers" regarding visual impairments and the rights of the
blind and visually impaired. I don't agree with everything they do, but I
admire their spunk in getting attention drawn to things that they believe
damage the image of the blind--which I can relate to as a librarian who is
often referred to as not being "stereotypical" in my profession.) They
provided us with the names of the national president and the state president
of the NFB, as well as information regarding a group called the National
Organization of Blind Educators
http://www.accesstechnologyinstitute.com/lists/nfbnet/nobe.html (this was a
new group for me...and I'd been in education for the blind for over 10
years). They also told us that they would be able to provide us with the
names of attorneys who would be willing to take the case since they deal
with these issues all the time. We weren't ready to attack that avenue yet
since we knew it would be an "all or nothing" situation through the court
system.
Without any recourse, we contacted the EEOC to complain, but they told us
that unless the employer "specifically told you that you had been placed in
a new work environment because of your handicap" they couldn't help
him...(give me a break...this is the government telling you that unless your
boss tells you that "gee, duh, we're going to demote you this year because
we don't want to, duh, deal with your handicap problems, so duh, like it or
leave it!" My husband was about to blow a gasket on this one!!
Finally, we figured that we'd have to move back to Oklahoma to find jobs, so
we traveled back there for a few weeks...we searched, found jobs, but the
offers came late...we received several different job offers, but all came
during the week of July 30th and we would have had to begin work today if
we'd moved (only two weeks to execute this strategy)...a little too soon to
sell houses, buy houses, move three kids, and decorate classrooms before
school starts!! ---However, kudos to Oklahoma for offering my husband
several positions and NEVER asking about his visual impairment or how it
might affect his teaching ability (something that was questioned each time
my husband interviewed here in Texas--even though he'd been teaching for
almost 10 years already.)
So, we came back home beaten down and depressed. My husband decided to put
his anger aside and call the supervisor to discuss the situation. They came
up with a solution (we'll see if it actually stays this way) of allowing him
to work only three days at the school and then work two days with the other
VI teachers at the main office. He'll also have to take additional students
if he wants to stay with the other VI teachers...which brings his caseload
to around 38 students (normally they get between 20-25 students each). The
district will be "able" to provide him with a driver for only ONE day during
the week. Meanwhile, when he finishes the day at his school (which is
across town from the main office and from the school where I will teach) he
will have to sit and wait outside for 1-2 hours until I can drive across
town to pick him up (I get out later than he does).
We were finally contacted this week by the Teacher's Union and we told them
the scenario. My husband plans to join the union this year (he is not an
advocate of controversy and believes in the philosophy that we can "work
things out together" -- which aggravates him to death when he finds people
who do things with his schedule, his life, his money, his world... without
talking to him about it first--he lives in another world sometimes, I
think...*grin*). In the meantime, we are waiting. He begins work next week
and isn't a "happy camper"....if controversy arises and we find no
solutions, we will be contacting the NFB to bring this situation to
"national attention."
Thanks for your support, your ideas, and your advice. We pursued each
angle. I'll keep you posted on events.
~Shonda Brisco
Trinity Valley School
Ft. Worth, TX
sbrisco021@charter.net
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