                   TEACHING TEACHERS ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS 
                            by Barbara Pierce 

What does one do when one's child is facing a violation of his civil 
rights? Most of us in the National Federation of the Blind are used 
to standing up for our own rights and taking the repercussions of 
our actions, whatever they may be. It gives a parent pause, however, 
when the one reaping the consequences is a child, one's own child. 
This was the dilemma that faced John and Susan Ford, leaders of the 
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri, in January, 1990, when 
their son Brent's teacher called to say that he would not be allowed 
to participate in a school field trip the next day because the teachers 
supervising the expedition did not want the responsibility of having 
a blind youngster in the group. Considering that Brent is receiving 
cane travel instruction and has never given any indication of constituting 
a danger to himself or any other student, this decision struck the 
Fords as a clear violation of Brent's right to participate in an
interesting class activity. He was being punished because the teachers
involved had preconceived and misinformed notions of the abilities of this 
blind student. The irony of the situation (the field trip was to attend 
a presentation about the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr.) 
was heightened by the fact that both the teachers were themselves 
African American. Here is the letter that the Fords wrote to the school's 
principal: 
  
                                 Maplewood, Missouri 
                                 January 9, 1990 
  
Mark Englehart, Principal 
Valley School 
Maplewood, Missouri  
  
Dear Mr. Englehart: 

Today I received a telephone call from Terri Bascom. She explained 
to me that she was sending permission slips home with the eighth graders 
in preparation for a field trip on Friday. She further explained that 
the field trip would be to Keil Auditorium, where the youngsters 
would see a film and read some materials prepared by a coordinating 
committee regarding Martin Luther King, Jr., and his contribution 
to the civil rights of blacks. Ms. Bascom then explained that she 
was not sending a permission slip home with Brent. She said she and 
Ms. Stevens were taking about seventy-five young people and they didn't 
want the responsibility of taking Brent. She said there were lots 
of stairs and she didn't want the responsibility. I asked her if Brent 
had fallen down stairs often at school. She replied that she did not 
know but that she didn't want the responsibility. I said that she 
would know if he had fallen and that so would I. I then said that 
I knew she understood about discrimination and that if she could not 
demonstrate that Brent was unsafe, we would permit him to go. I pointed 
out that Brent takes mobility twice weekly and that he travels throughout 
Valley School, but she reiterated that she did not want the responsibility.

Now Mr. Englehart, here are two of your teachers--both of whom 
are black themselves and should, therefore, understand about civil 
rights and about how demeaning discrimination can be. They propose 
to take a group of young people and teach them about Martin Luther 
King, Jr. How on earth can one teach about Martin Luther King without 
teaching about discrimination? Yet these same teachers propose to 
deprive a blind child (who participates daily in a public school classroom)
of his right to go on this very field trip. How ludicrous! 
I realize that these teachers are trying to protect Brent from possible 
injury. However, discrimination is still discrimination, whether it 
is founded on hate (black civil rights) or upon love (blind civil 
rights). 

Brent has indicated that he would like to go on this field trip, so 
I am sending a note giving him our permission to do so. You will note 
that we are giving this letter some publicity. If Brent is not permitted 
to go on this trip and other students do go, then on January 16 we 
will be contacting the Regional Office of Human Rights Enforcement 
for the Department of Education in Kansas City to file a 504 complaint 
against Maplewood-Richmond Heights School district and these teachers 
in particular. This situation is intolerable to us as blind people; 
and, frankly, it would have been seen as intolerable by Martin Luther 
King, Jr., as well. 
  
                                     Sincerely 


                                     Susan I. Ford 
                                     John D. Ford 
  
cc: Terri Bascom, Teacher 
Anita Stevens, Teacher 
Dr. Jerry Elliot, Superintendent 
Jackie Ess, Special School District, 
Vision Coordinator 
Susan Knecht, Itinerant Teacher 
Laura Zabalov, Mobility Specialist 
Gary Wunder, President, National 
Federation of the Blind of Missouri 
Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, Executive Director, 
National Federation of the Blind 
Mary Tessereau, School Board Member 
Ann Clark, School Board Member 
Patricia Morrow, Editor, Blind Missourian 
Barbara Cheadle, President, 
Parents of Blind Children Division, 
National Federation of the Blind 
 
That is what the Fords had to say, and it wasn't long before there 
were results. Mr. Englehart, the school principal, was predictably 
displeased to find that copies of the correspondence had been sent 
to so many of the people to whom he reported. He assured the Fords 
that if they had come to him with the problem earlier, he could have 
resolved it amicably. The Fords pointed out that they had not known 
about the teachers' decision until the last moment and that they had 
done the only thing they could see to do to protect their son's right 
to attend the school event.  

The Superintendent of Schools, who is himself African American, received 
his copy of the letter on the Thursday before the Friday field trip. 
He immediately called the Fords to inquire whether or not the problem 
had been resolved. It had not, and the Fords said so. He assured them 
that it would be before the day was over.  

The solution agreed upon by the administrators was, as most such
resolutions are, not all the Fords would have liked. The school principal
asked that another member of the teaching staff volunteer to accompany
Brent on the field trip. The resource teacher did so, and she and Brent 
both joined the Maplewood students at Keil Auditorium. Most of the 
eighth grade sat close to the stage, but Brent, who the teachers had 
feared would fall on the stairs, chose to sit at the top of the auditorium.

The resource teacher followed along behind, and, of course, there 
were no misadventures as he climbed the innumerable steps.  
Did the classroom teachers learn anything about civil rights from 
this experience? It is hard to say. They did learn that, like our 
African American brothers and sisters a generation ago, blind people 
today will no longer settle for being passed over and dismissed as 
incompetent and of no account. They probably enjoyed the learning 
of this fact about as little as white Americans did and still do. 
But perhaps they will learn to look at Brent as the real human being 
he is, not as the bundle of myths and misconceptions they have projected 
onto him. If so, they will have grown, and their future students will 
all benefit. 

But the story does not stop here. At fourteen, Brent Ford has until 
now never experienced discrimination in a form that he could clearly 
recognize. When his teacher denied him the right to join the field 
trip, he realized for the first time that all the things for which 
his parents and their Federation friends have been fighting are of 
desperate importance to him and his generation, too.  

The National Federation of the Blind of Missouri had scheduled a
legislative day in Jefferson City shortly after Brent's school adventure.
He expressed interest in attending the event with his parents, so they took
him out of school for the day.  One of the bills about which the
Federationists were to be talking with legislators was the Missouri Braille
Bill, which had been incorporated in a Children At Risk bill, which was
before a Senate committee on the day of the trip to the capital.  
Brent, who has never been very excited about using his slate and stylus, 
was encouraged to write some remarks during the ride to Jefferson 
City. He did so, using the slate, and when the group arrived, he began 
talking with legislators about the issue of the availability of Braille 
to blind school students. They were impressed--so impressed that 
Brent was asked to address the committee which was hearing testimony 
that day. He was the only Federationist allowed to speak, but he did 
his work well. The bill passed the Senate and is on its way to the 
House with a good chance of passage.  

This story is a salutary reminder to us all that we never know what 
effect our work will have on those around us. Sometimes, when we consider 
the vastness of the sea of ignorance about blindness that surrounds 
us, we feel as if we are all alone bailing out that ocean with a teaspoon. 
But there are well over fifty thousand of us, attacking the problem 
at every point, and we are making progress. 
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