[acbny-l] Re: Blind child dies in Minnesota
- From: "Donald Moore" <dmoore01@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <acbny-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 18:51:03 -0400
They do seem to have a tradition of believing that their "salvation" of
blind people is more important than the lives of the blind themselves.
----- Original Message -----
From: "K M Lyons" <khaki@xxxxxxxx>
To: <acbny-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2003 6:45 PM
Subject: [acbny-l] Re: Blind child dies in Minnesota
It makes me really sad that a child died due to the stubborn pigheadedness
of NFB ers.
Kathy Lyons
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald Moore" <dmoore01@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <acbny-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2003 5:14 PM
Subject: [acbny-l] Blind child dies in Minnesota
> 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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