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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Again, this story isn’t perfect, but I think you will love it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>My fellow journalists still have a distance to go in learning to use politically correct lanugage, but this is a great victory.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Read on and smile.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Deborah<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><div id=ygrp-mlmsg><div id=ygrp-msg><div id=ygrp-text><p style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Blind barber gets his cut<br><br>http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2015/11/blind_barber_gets_his_cut<br><br>Man awarded $100G as firing ruled illegal<br><br>Bob McGovern Saturday, November 07, 2015<br><br>Photo by: Herald Staff<br>Joel Nixon, a barber since 2008, who recently lost his job due to a <br>degenerative eye disease, poses for the Boston Herald. Photo by Chelsea <br>Nixon<br><br>6 comments<br><br>A legally blind barber who honed his craft cutting his siblings’ hair <br>has been awarded $100,000 after a state agency found that he was <br>illegally fired by a shop that didn’t want a sight-impaired scissorsmith <br>on staff.<br><br>“When it comes to hairstyling, I’m an artist and I take pride in what I <br>do,” said Joel Nixon, a barber who has been cutting men’s hair for <br>years. “When you’re in my chair, I don’t let you out of my chair until <br>they’re satisfied. My vision does not compromise my ability to do my job.”<br><br>Nixon, 29, has been diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a hereditary <br>condition that affects his peripheral vision. He has trouble seeing at <br>night, and has been declared legally blind by the Massachusetts <br>Commission for the Blind.<br><br>He was working for Tony’s Barber Shop in Norton in 2011, but a year <br>later his boss, Tony Morales, discovered his malady, according to the <br>decision by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.<br><br>On March 3, 2012, Nixon was working at the shop’s South Easton location <br>when he tripped over a customer’s legs. Later in the day, he tripped <br>over a chair in the waiting room.<br><br>“Morales told him to pack up his things and get his wife to take him <br>home,” the MCAD hearing officer wrote. “(Nixon) understood that his <br>employment was being terminated.”<br><br>Things fell apart for Nixon after that, he said. He couldn’t find a job <br>nearby, and his wife had a high-risk pregnancy that made it difficult <br>for him to work far from home. He was unemployed for three years, his <br>condo went into foreclosure, and he was forced to apply for food stamps <br>and went to charities for Christmas gifts, he said.<br><br>He’s moving his family to a small apartment tomorrow. Nixon also deals <br>with the lingering possibility he may lose his sight forever.<br><br>“I could wake up someday and be completely blind, but my goal is to have <br>a nice home with a nice backyard for my son,” Nixon said, fighting back <br>tears. “I’ve never been to Disneyland, and I want to take him. I want to <br>take him before I lose my vision. I’m trying to do the best I can.”<br><br>MCAD awarded Nixon $75,000 in lost wages and $25,000 for emotional <br>distress in a decision made public yesterday.<br><br>Morales, who did not appear at numerous hearings and parted ways with an <br>attorney who was supposed to help him, said Nixon’s entire story is a <br>lie. He said Nixon was an independent contractor, wasn’t able to carry <br>his weight when he was with his shop and wasn’t a licensed barber.<br><br>“It’s a bunch of lies. It’s sad that people like Joel try to take <br>advantage of their situation and create false accusations,” Morales <br>said, adding that he would hire an attorney and appeal the decision. <br>“All of this is false accusations.”<br><br>Morales no longer owns the Norton shop, but still runs the South Easton <br>business.<br><br>An instructor who taught Nixon how to cut hair at the Massachusetts <br>School of Barbering said he was happy to hear that his former pupil came <br>away from the MCAD hearing victorious.<br><br>“He was a nice kid,” said Chuck Russian, the school’s co-director. “We <br>were a little concerned when he said he was legally blind, but he did <br>the work, passed the course and passed the state board exam.”<br><br>Nixon said he learned how to cut hair from his mother while growing up, <br>using a set of clippers the family bought at Wal-Mart. He fell in love <br>with the trade, “and it became my life’s calling.” Now, his clients ask <br>for him by name.<br><br>“I have a following,” he said. “My clients call me the ‘Blind Barber.’ ”<br><br>©Copyright by the Boston Herald and Herald Media<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>