Service Dogs and Schools

Victor sent me this link - a newspaper article from my hometown Springfield News-Leader about a young woman with chronic hip displasia who is not allowed to bring her specially trained service dog to school.

The girl's mother believes that the school's refusal to accommodate Karen's condition is in violation with the Americans With Disabilities Act. I tend to agree. Here's why.

1) Service dogs are not disallowed in this school. Animals are not disallowed in this school. The article makes both of these points.

2) Although the article does not mentioned how the dog, Zeus, was obtained, a sidebar contains an interview with a professional service dog trainer. I'm going to go ahead and make the leap that Zeus is appropriately trained and that the organization that oversaw his training found him to be a good match to aid the young lady's condition.

3) The law. I'll just quote the section of the article.

Under Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act, any public entity — which includes schools — is guilty of discrimination if it does not make reasonable accommodations for the needs of the disabled.

The law's provisions include permitting a person to be accommodated by an assistance animal, which is defined as "any guide dog, signal dog or other animal individually trained to work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability including, but not limited to, guiding individuals with impaired vision, alerting individuals with impaired hearing to intruders or sounds, providing minimal protection or rescue work, pulling a wheelchair, or fetching dropped items."

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a school would be in violation if it had a blanket policy restricting students from using necessary methods to aid with their disability, said Cecilia Callahan, director of advocacy for Missouri Protection and Advocacy Services, a watchdog group based in Jefferson City.

Klatt said the school does not have a policy prohibiting animals from being brought onto district property.

If no such policy exists, an accommodation plan must be constructed, ensuring that students with disabilities have the same access to a quality education as other students, Callahan said.

Another law that may apply is the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination by a school district because a student is disabled. According to the federal act, disabled students are defined as those who have a "physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities such as walking, learning, hearing, caring for one's self, performing manual tasks, speaking and breathing."

Michael Jungers, an assistant dean of students at Southwest Missouri State University, oversees the university's office for disability services. He said if a case like Karen's arose at the university level, officials would confer with the physician to determine whether a student was qualified to use a service animal.

If school officials agreed such an animal was needed, it would be permitted to be used in all aspects of university life, Jungers said.

"The law would pretty much apply at the elementary and secondary levels," he said.

Karen's case isn't very clear cut. I'm fairly sure that if she were visually impaired, this would be a non-issue. The school's response seems knee-jerk - as if the dog would disrupt school, but I doubt that would be the case for more than a day.

One last thing - one of my favorite childhood books was about a boy who was injured with a firecracker and lost his sight. Follow My Leader - worth checking out.

hln

Posted by: hln at 12:29 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 596 words, total size 4 kb.

GMO Wheat Postponed

Roundup Ready wheat is in a holding pattern.

St. Louis-based Monsanto has been doing field tests of Roundup Ready wheat, which has been genetically modified to tolerate applications of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, for six years and spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the project.

The company already has successfully commercialized Roundup Ready corn and soybeans, key feedgrains, and had hoped to spread its herbicide-resistant technology into the vast wheat-growing industry, starting in the United States and Canadian markets.

But the company's efforts have ignited an outpouring of opposition by environmentalists, farmers, consumers and religious groups, as well as foreign wheat buyers. Concerns include worries about possible human health hazards, increased weed resistance and fears that Monsanto is gaining control over key world crops.

It's an instance of of what the market will bear (which is good) driven by the perceived (and probably likely so) lack of demand by foreign countries. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know here.

What materials do Europeans and Asians use to form opinions about biotechnology? The Canadian Wheat Board is administering an ad campaign to oppose GMO wheat. I see packaging on some of the foods that I eat that proclaims said products to be GMO free. No print ads, though, and nothign in the limited television I watch. Suppose I should wait for the GMO-bashing pop-under ad. And then Brian can mock it.

Wait...I know why it's far less of an issue here. Nobody eats wheat anymore. But that soy...

hln

Posted by: hln at 06:30 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 256 words, total size 2 kb.