[acbny-l] Blind child dies in Minnesota
- From: "Donald Moore" <dmoore01@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <acbny-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 17:14:39 -0400
Blind, Inc., a Vocational Rehabilitation Center and school for the blind
operated by the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota (NFB),
sponsors a summer camp for blind children and was on a summer outing to Lake
Calhoun for an afternoon of swimming, when one of the 3 councilors who are
themselves blind) lost track of one of the children and alerted the
Lifeguards on duty. The Lifeguards immediately conducted a human chain to
scan the swimming area and pulled a 7 year old blind child up from the
bottom of the Lake. Life saving efforts were conducted but the blind child
was dead having been under water for at least ten minutes according to the
counselors and other witnesses.
The child was attending the summer camp from Michigan and was one of 8 blind
children who were swimming under the supervision of the 3 counselors.
Local news crews were gathering information for the story which was run on
the late night news tonight and I was called as President of ACBM to answer
some questions.
All evening long regular programming would be interspersed with fifteen
second news bites proclaiming, "A blind child dies on Lake Calhoun ...
Story at Ten" since Minnesota is experiencing turbulent weather, with many
tornado warnings in effect, the weather was the lead story. But immediately
following as the top news story, was the story of the blind child who drown
during a swimming outing as part of a summer camp for blind children
attending a program at Blind, Inc.
They interviewed Joyce Scanlan, the Executive Director of Blind, Inc. and
the President of the Minnesota Chapter of NFB who was quoted as saying,
"What do you say to a parent who has just lost their child ?" She went on to
say, "Blind, Inc. and NFB believe this was an unfortunate incident" and went
on to say, "swimming at public Lakes will not be dropped from the summer
camps programming now, or in the future."
The reporter said there were three blind counselors who were there
supervising eight blind children, ranging in ages from six to fourteen,
and that none of the counselors had more than three years experience being
summer camp counselors.
Ms. Scanlan also went on to say that no changes will be made in the way
supervision is handled at the summer camp and that blind people are fully
capable to do everything sighted people do if given the right training, and
this was just an unfortunate incident. At the very end of the segment the
reporter quoted me, as President of the Minnesota affiliate of the American
Council of the Blind, as saying there should have been additional sighted
supervision.
We all know reporters never quite quote exactly what we say and although I
did say what I was quoted as saying, I said a great many things including
"ACBM, along with Blind, Inc. and NFB, deeply mourns the death of that young
child."
When I was speaking to the reporter on the phone he told me when he
questioned the fact about there being three blind counselors who were
charged with the supervision of eight blind children and if this was normal
protocol, he was told very clearly by Ms. Scanlan that she was greatly
offended by that comment. I responded that this was a typical NFB tactic and
response and that one of the differences between NFB and ACB is that we at
ACB are not offended by those types of questions, in fact, we invite all
questions! I went on to say that we may not always have the answers however.
I also told that reporter that another major difference between ACB and NFB
is that we in ACB do very much believe that blind and visually impaired
people have every right and can do just about everything sighted people can
do, but we are reasonable in those beliefs, believing as well, there are
certain things that blind and visually impaired people should *NOT* do,
like, becoming a surgeon,or be a race car driver, or be an air traffic
controller!! Even more applicable to right now, I added we believe we are
reasonable to believe we should not responsibly put three blind
counselors - young adults, as they were - in sole supervision of eight
children, some barely school-aged and far away from home, nor should a
reasonable blind or visually impaired person be a Orientation and Mobility
Instructor, having the sole responsibility for the safety of teaching a
newly blind person how to safely travel in his or her new environment! I
gave him an example from my own life... explaining that I became a
Registered Nurse as a sighted person, working in a hospital as a cardiac
nurse on a busy step-down Coronary Care Unit and lost my sight to a rare
infection of the retina which forced me out of work temporarily. And, even
though I am still a licensed R.N., I would never put myself in the position
of caring for an unstable hospitalized person because I know my limitations.
This doesn't mean I could not still work as an R.N., but only working within
whatever my scope of abilities would allow...
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