[CT-NFB] Please read and support, Open Letter on Sexual Misconduct and Abuse Experienced through Programs of the National Federation of the Blind and National Blindness Professionals Certification Board

Tue Dec 22 06:13:17 UTC 2020

I appreciate  a respectful dialogue surrounding this issue. I suspect that it could perhaps be  the most important public revelation to rattle the Federation and the organized blind movement.I signed the open letter, not because I agree with every single word,  but because I believe in The premise of protecting the blind,  and holding those accountable for both The unspeakable behavior  and the improper handling of such incidents. these are Hanis, unconscionable, and life – altering crimes committed against the Innocent blind. Predatory or/and perverted behavior must not be tolerated, have excuses made for it, Or swept under the rug.
 A leader who attempts to stop or dissuade the conversation should simmer Lili face consequences. Yes, the topic and conversations  are difficult, but absolutely  necessary.

In solidarity with the survivors of abuse,
Phil

Phillip A Magalnick, Justice Of The Peace , CT de   

> On Dec 21, 2020, at 8:42 AM, liz.bottner--- via CT-NFB <ct-nfb at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> While I believe that whether or not one chooses to sign the petition is a personal decision, I also believe that accountability is very much needed here. For myself, I did sign the petition in support of the victims as well as to call for accountability.
> With respect,
> Liz
> 
>> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>>> On Dec 20, 2020, at 5:17 PM, Deb Reed via CT-NFB <ct-nfb at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> 
>> 
>> Everyone,
>> I really do not feel qualified to comment on any particular aspects of this petition but would like to say how very important I feel it is. I am grateful that National has taken the steps to try and prevent the wrongs of the past from happening again or at least to lessen the likelihood of these great injustices from occurring. Thanks to the brave victims and others who have come forward to create this petition and those at National who are working with them and Professionals to improve the environment at our training centers. A good organization embraces change and is always striving to improve. I am leaning towards signing this petition in support of the victims. I trust that it will be used in conjunction with many others input in finalizing the changes at our centers and affiliates activities.
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>>  Deb Reed
>> Central CT Chapter President 
>> National Federation Of The Blind
>> Phone - 860-973-3679 
>> Cell-860-378-5370
>> Email - deb.reed57 at gmail.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Dec 20, 2020, at 1:36 PM, Maryanne Melley via CT-NFB <ct-nfb at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Very well said Nathanael.
>>> 
>>> Best regards,
>>> 
>>> Maryanne Melley
>>> President 
>>> National Federation of
>>> the Blind of Connecticut
>>> 860-212-5549
>>> mvcmelley at gmail.com
>>> 
>>> “Live the life you want”
>>> 
>>>>> On Dec 20, 2020, at 1:24 PM, Nathanael T. Wales via CT-NFB <ct-nfb at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> WARNING: REFERENCES TO ADULT CONTENT
>>>>  
>>>> Phil,
>>>>  
>>>> Thank you for sharing this petition and your thoughts of how important it is.  Sexual misconduct and abuse, lack of racial and other diversity, and a culture that minimizes these serious issues and covers them up within our Federation family are each heartbreaking.  As President Riccobono did, you and I—and I think at least most of us—wish to do better.  That said, I have a couple of significant concerns about some of the recommendations in this petition: I hope that the parts that concern me arise from the authors’ misunderstanding of our Federation’s adjustment to blindness training philosophy and practice.  I hope in this e-mail to address what I believe these misconceptions are based on my experience at one of the named NFB training centers, and I am confident that it would be useful to get the perspective of listers—and others—who attended any of our NFB centers more recently; their information would also be useful even if it does not agree with mine or shows mine to be outdated.  I will not sign this petition just yet, but I hope that all of us can continue to dialogue to find the very best ways forward.  Having worked on Federation committees with fellow leaders holding varying points of views and priorities, I know we may not get all that each of us wants, but through respectful dialogue and accurate information we will get something we all will be very proud of.
>>>>  
>>>> And we should be proud of our recent work with the Bureau of Education and Services for the Blind to ensure that all consumers can have meaningful access to our NFB training centers.  I would be glad now or at any point to help you attend one as a student; the experience can well raise your expectations of yourself in ways you couldn’t quite envision just yet.  Based on your particular strengths and needs, the center that I attended may not seem like the best fit of the three to choose from for you, I’ll add.
>>>>  
>>>> Let me cite here the bullet points that concern me and provide my perspective and perhaps better information.  I have no issue with any of the rest, but these are significant to me:
>>>>  
>>>> • Effective IMMEDIATELY, consumers at blindness rehabilitation centers must be allowed to say “no” to any activity that makes them significantly uncomfortable, and they should not be retaliated against for doing so by, for example but not limited to, being treated differently by staff, volunteers, and consumers, or having rights to which they are otherwise entitled withdrawn or suspended as a result. No student or staff member should be required to read aloud graphic sex scenes or racial epithets in Braille class. No student should be forced to do an activity through tears. No student should be told that “they signed paperwork saying that they would do whatever the instructors told them to do.” No student should be bullied, forced, or coerced to do something that causes them significant pain or anxiety, or do something that exacerbates existing physical or mental health conditions. We understand that consumers at blindness rehabilitation centers benefit from leaving their comfort zones, but the decision to do so needs to be their choice. Students’ physical, mental, and psychological boundaries must be respected at all times and in all circumstances. 
>>>> 
>>>> • Effective IMMEDIATELY, no policies should exist at blindness rehabilitation centers that discourage consumers from going home on weekends, during the first month of training, or at any other time they are not participating in program activities. Alienating consumers from family and friends is an outdated practice. Concerns about family members “undoing our work” are ableist, paternalistic, and custodial. Consumers are people, not work projects.
>>>>  
>>>> First, I’ll state that I do wholeheartedly agree with the sentence in the first bullet point “No student or staff member should be required to read aloud graphic sex scenes or racial epithets in Braille class.”  I only cited the entirety of both bullet points, including this sentence, to provide transparent context.  I never was a victim of nor a witness to such a thing while at the NFB training center I attended, and I am shocked and horrified that this happened even once at even one of the centers.  My Braille teacher was blind, a Braille reader, and previously a college professor of English.  He maintained an extensive library of Braille books of all kinds, and I am sure that some must have included sex scenes—no different than a college library.  But no student was ever asked to read aloud anything that had content to which she or he morally objected; my teacher respected every student’s moral boundaries and religious beliefs, and he, God rest his soul, was a fine example of a Southern gentleman.
>>>>  
>>>> Now let us move to the parts about which I have concerns.  May I begin by describing a situation of which I have firsthand knowledge that encapsulates most of what the authors are concerned about?
>>>>  
>>>> A student, age 18 and having just graduated high school, is completing his fifth week of training.  He comes from a close family and from a state 2,000 miles away.  His grandfather passes away; this was not unexpected, and the student is happy that he has finally gone to Heaven and is no longer suffering.  The center director certainly allows him to take time away from the training program to attend the memorial service with most family to be present, and his travel teacher lets his travel lesson that day be making his flight arrangements (this was back in the days in which one would call airlines to book tickets).  In home ec class later that day, he, being fairly new to cooking for himself, burns cookies to the cookie sheet—twice.  It is unclear who made the mistake: the recipe which called for an “ungreased” sheet, the home ec teacher, the student—or just bad luck.  Having cleaned the sheet the first time, he becomes very frustrated to the point of tears.  And, remember, that he could very understandably be dealing with many other emotions at this time, even emotions that he might not be able himself to see inside himself.  He gives up after a bit on the second cookie sheet and leaves it and refuses, even to the following day (the day he was scheduled to leave for the memorial service).  What should be done…if these bullet points were to be implemented—in time for the high school class of 2021 in fact?  Keep this story in mind as I provide some thoughts on the training approach I experienced at an NFB center.
>>>>  
>>>> Our NFB centers are fairly unique in that they have a set curriculum of requirements that must be met in order to graduate.  Baking cookies, making full meals for up to 40 people, progressing in Braille, completing travel routes, etc.  Some have compared the programs to military boot camp, and I often agree.  Military boot camp also has set requirements that must be met in order to complete it.  Perhaps you yourself experienced something like this in being trained to be a valued first responder.  I know that the U.S. Army (for which I work as a civilian in the Corps of Engineers) is adjusting its physical requirements—to make them better, not to waive them based on an officer’s or enlistee’s unique characteristics or intersectionality of characteristics.  Woman or man, black or white, gay or straight, Christian or Muslim or whatever or nothing—the requirements apply.  In unique circumstances these requirements may be adjusted.  For example, the Army has considered how men that practice certain religions can still have a beard.  And this is true at our training centers.  For example, one of the students in training with me had major hearing loss and had his travel requirements adjusted to consider that—but our teacher still made sure that he was challenged and would be able to, as we’d say now, live the life he wanted after he graduated.  (This student also led a walk-out of several students, including me, at a Chinese restaurant when the wait staff wouldn’t read a group of us the menu.)
>>>>  
>>>> And just because it is military boot camp or adjustment to blindness “boot camp”, we should all agree that sexual harassment and assault, bullying, hazing, etc. should not be tolerated.  The military has been working hard to eliminate these forms of misconduct.  Certainly the Army has: soldiers and civilians must take many mandatory trainings each year, many of which are “click-through”, but for years the sexual harassment and assault reporting and prevention (SHARP—we love our acronyms) is always live, face-to-face (in 2020 it was by a video conferencing tool similar to Zoom), and led by a trained regional victim advocate.  Such training, led by professionals, would be invaluable at our Federation centers and for leaders at every level, too.  I do expect tough requirements, but I also expect the highest level of ethical conduct from every single administrator and leader.
>>>>  
>>>> I am concerned that the second bullet point, on discouraging students from returning to visit home, especially early in training, imputes negative or selfish motives on center staff and administrators.  Leaving an environment that is indeed challenging to return to one’s comfort zone too early wastes, most of all, the student’s efforts that far.  In order to grow as people, including as blind people, it is often important to spend some time away from our comfort zone—and I have seen this in many contexts outside the Federation such as spiritual retreats.  The practice is not outdated, and it is not ableist, paternalistic, nor custodial.
>>>>  
>>>> Finally, a blind person often chooses to go to an NFB center over another type of center.  If a student only wishes to focus on one skill or just spend some time on some aspect of their adjustment to blindness without a set curriculum, there are many other centers to choose from, likely closer to home (such as the Carroll Center).
>>>>  
>>>> All that said, what should that home ec teacher, and if needed the center director, have done about that young, probably meeting the petitioners’ criteria of vulnerable, student with the cookie sheet with cookies burnt to it?  I will tell you what was done.  The teacher continued to ask that he clean the cookie sheet, and after a while the student relented and reluctantly did so, upset and grieving as he was.  And I’d like to think that the student was not a victim in this instance; it made a small impression in helping him to be a better person.  Ah, and in case you haven’t yet guessed, as the United States vice-president elect said at one point to the president-elect on whose ticket she later ran, that student was me.  I suppose you might say that at best we have to take the high road and take responsibility when fault is unclear and do the work needed to fix the problem; perhaps this is what leaders do.
>>>>  
>>>> I hope this information is helpful to you or someone as we consider this particular petition and ultimately our work ahead in the Federation.  I invite the dialogue that this petition should be continuing, and I look forward to building a better Federation and even better NFB training center programs.  And I welcome other information, perspectives, and thoughts.  Perhaps good leaders will enjoy the awesome cookies at our National Center in Baltimore soon—or have them shipped to participants to enjoy during Zoom meetings.  It is how we will build the National Federation of the Blind and turn blind people’s dreams into reality.
>>>>  
>>>> My best to you,
>>>> Nathanael
>>>>  
>>>>  
>>>> From: CT-NFB [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Phillip Magalnick via CT-NFB
>>>> Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2020 5:14 PM
>>>> To: ct-nfb at nfbnet.org
>>>> Cc: Phillip Magalnick
>>>> Subject: [CT-NFB] Please read and support, Open Letter on Sexual Misconduct and Abuse Experienced through Programs of the National Federation of the Blind and National Blindness Professionals Certification Board
>>>>  
>>>> Please see the attached letter/petition from victims and their supporters with respect to the sexual misconduct within the blind community.  examples Of abuseof abuse, and requested policy  changes and suggestions,  Are included. Adult content.
>>>> This is both  chilling  and absolutely necessary  to bring forward to our membership.
>>>>  
>>>> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdhi5MUB_4Vqz7Kzy6vGyN20S6pmuSJqn3IeK4zMfHdhhko4A/viewform?fbzx=4546204174529020775
>>>>  
>>>> 
>>>> Respectfully,
>>>> P.A. Magalnick,JP
>>>> 203-912–5783
>>>> Justice of the Peace, State of Connecticut
>>>>  
>>>> Vice-Chair, Stamford, CT Committee on Accessibility
>>>>  
>>>>  
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