[Colorado-Talk] From out of our past

[Peggy Chong]

Since we all like a bit of trivia, here is a trivia post and a challenge for
you all to do a bit of mystery solving. 

 

I was looking through some old records and found an article about Colorado
and blind teachers.  The article is pasted below.  To learn what happened,
how the lawsuit turned out, and then, find out who Judith Miller is today, I
ask you to go back and read the February Braille Monitor for the year 1974.

 

Peggy Chong

 

The Rocky Mountain News (Daily), Volume 115, Number 68, June 29, 1973 

 

Teacher files suit against board on hiring of blind

By DON LYLE

News Staff A blind school teacher filed suit Thursday in Denver U.S.
District Court against the Denver School Board to throw out a rule which
prohibits blind persons from teaching in Denver schools. 

 

Miss Judith A. Miller, 26, of 1726 S. Magnolia St., and the National
Federation of the Blind of Colorado Inc. filed the class action suit against
Howard L. Johnson, superintendent of schools, and the Denver School Board, 

 

The school board has a rule that no one with less than 20-40 vision or with
a disease which could theaten vision will be allowed to teach in Denver
schools, even if they have a valid teaching certificate, according to Robert
Keating, attorney for Miss Miller and the federation. 

 

There are 4,299 teachers in Denver Public School, Keating said, and none are
blind. But there are 22 blind persons in the state who are either teaching
or are qualified to teach. Keating said, "'Six are employed as teachers in
colleges and universities in the state, four are employed as teachers in
rehabilitation programs, two have previously taught and are now working in
other fields, three are not teaching by choice and three are not teaching
but are qualified to teach and are actively seeking employment."' 

 

There are 400 working blind teachers in the United States, he continued, and
3,400 known blind persons in Colorado. The visual acuity requirement of the
Denver School Board has no rational connection with the requirements of
teaching, Keating said, and doesn't reflect a person's fitness to handle the
job. 

 

Miss Miller holds a bachelor's degree in speech from the University of
Colorado with minors in social studies and English. She has a teaching
certificate from the State Department of Education showing she is qualified
to teach junior and senior high school students. 

 

Miss Miller applied for a job in Denver schools in March 1970 but was
refused by Eugene L. Garner, director of secondary education, because of a
policy of not hiring blind persons, Keating said. 

 

She went to work in September 1970 in an elementary school in Walnut Hills
in Arapahoe County. Her contract was renewed the following year. When she
again asked for a job in Denver schools in April 1972, Garner refused to
hire her. She tried again in November with the same results. 

 

Keating said Miss Miller repeatedly has been assured by the school
administration that it would review its policies toward the blind and would
conduct studies in other states that have employed blind teachers, but no
action has been taken to eliminate the discrimination against blind
teachers.

 

He referred to the state civil rights law which says that blind persons
should be employed on the same basis as persons with full sight unless their
blindness prevents performance of the work involved. The Denver School Board
is obligated to follow the rules of the State Board of Education, he
continued, and that board has no restrictions on sight in qualifying
teachers. 

 

The suit asked for an injunction to stop the school board from hiring any
new teachers until it offers equal employment to blind teachers or until the
court determines whether the vision requirement is discriminatory. It also
asked for an order directing the school board to recruit blind or visually
handicapped teachers. And it asked for orders declaring the rule
unconstitutional which requires 20-40 vision and prohibiting the school
board from enforcing that rule.

 

 

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