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</v:background></xml><![endif]--><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>Peggy Chong<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>The Rocky Mountain News (Daily), Volume 115, Number 68, June 29, 1973 <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>Teacher</span></b><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'> files suit against board on hiring of blind<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>By DON LYLE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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, <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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.”’ <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p></div></body></html>