[nagdu] Fw: [nabs-l] Discrimination in Oakland

Tue Feb 16 17:39:21 UTC 2010

Unless it is the back seat of a police car, is it possible to get locked 
into a vehicle? I mean, couldn't that couple somehow open the door on the 
buss and get out? Also there is an emergency exit in busses, I would assume, 
that can't be locked.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 10:29 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Fw: [nabs-l] Discrimination in Oakland

> Good grief!  Yes, a lot of why's.
>
> I have another question:  Since disability is now included in hate crimes
> legislation, does that apply?  I mean, there was false imprisonment (or
> whatever it's correctly called) involved when the driver locked the couple
> in the bus and walked away.  Isn't that tantamount to minor kidnapping?  I
> haven't read the hate crimes legistlation word for word, but I seem to
> remember hearing the word "assault" in the news reports.  Would all of
> yelling and arm waving and door slamming and other aggressive behaviors by
> the driver constitute assault, even though it didn't technically escalate
> into battery?
>
> Whatever the finer legal points are, that is a very disturbing story.
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Nicole B. Torcolini
> Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 5:34 PM
> To: NAGDU
> Subject: [nagdu] Fw: [nabs-l] Discrimination in Oakland
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Anne Ward" <inland2wards at att.net>
> To: <Undisclosed-Recipient: ;@smtp127.sbc.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
> Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 12:29 PM
> Subject: [nabs-l] Discrimination in Oakland
>
>
>> This was sent to me this morning by Judith Lesner, who asked me to
>> distribute it widely.
>>
>> Anne Ward
>>
>>
>>
>> Discrimination in Oakland?
>>
>>
>>
>> Last night my very good friend Marvelena Quesada was told that she had to
>> "sit in the back of the bus".  In this case, an East Bay ParaTransit bus.
>> The person givithng the order was the bus's dispatcher.  Marvelena's
>> status that led up to the banishment to the back of the bus was her
>> traveling with Darla.  Marvelena is blind and Darla is her seeing eye 
>> dog.
>>
>>
>>
>> To start at the beginning, Marvelena and her husband Chris Gray came to 
>> my
>
>> house for dinner.  They are both blind and Chris is the past president of
>> the American Council of the Blind which is a national consumer group.
>> They had arranged to be picked up by East Bay ParaTransit for a ride 
>> home.
>
>> At about 9:15 they got a call that their ride was outside.  I walked out
>> with them to bus number 352.  The driver asked if the dog was going along
>> too.  Marvelena replied that it was.  The driver then decided that her 
>> bus
>
>> was not positioned correctly and drove about a half block down the 
>> street.
>
>> By the time we got to her she was on her cell phone and refused entry to
>> Chris and Marvelena, yelling at them through the partially opened door
>> that no one had said anything about a dog and that she had "issues" with
>> dogs.  She said they had to wait for another paratransit  bus to come and
>> take them.  Chris said that they had a legal right to get on the bus with
>> the dog and forced his way through the partially opened door and got on
>> the bus.  The driver slammed the door and wouldn't let Marvelena and 
>> Darla
>
>> on the bus.
>>
>>
>>
>> Meanwhile the driver was speaking to her dispatcher on a speaker phone.
>> That was when the dispatcher made her Solomon like decision to end the
>> impasse, "Go take the dog and sit in the back of the bus".  I informed 
>> the
>
>> driver and dispatcher that it was no longer the 50's where they could get
>> away with that.  Chris and Marvelena said that she would not move to the
>> back.  While this was going on, Marvelena and Darla managed to get on the
>> bus.  Marvelena was calling paratransit and she and I and another friend
>> were conferring through the open door.  At that point the passenger on 
>> the
>
>> bus said that she had had it with waiting so long and would walk the rest
>> of the way home.  She got off the bus and left.  The driver reported that
>> the passenger had left the bus because of the dog which was a baldfaced
>> lie.  The driver then said that the company was sending another bus to
>> take them home.
>>
>>
>>
>> This all went on for some time when the driver closed the doors so that 
>> we
>
>> could no longer talk to Chris and Marvelena, turned out the lights and
>> left the bus.  Marvelena and Chris were left alone in a locked bus while
>> the driver walked half a block away and spoke on her cell phone.  Chris
>> then called 911 and two Oakland policemen arrived shortly there after.
>>
>>
>>
>> One of the police asked my friend and I what was happening.  I explained
>> the situation.  The policeman said something to the effect that it
>> depended on the bus company's policy.  I said that was nonsense.  That it
>> had nothing to do with the bus company, it was a federal law called the
>> ADA.  Marvelena and her dog had the same right of access to public places
>> as Marvelena did on her own.  He seemed unaware of the law.
>>
>>
>>
>> Finally, after the police arrived, another bus arrived to take them home.
>> The altercation took about an hour and involved the waste of two bus
>> drivers' time as well as that of two Oakland police personnel.
>>
>>
>>
>> Questions that arise:
>>
>>  1.. Why when so many people with disabilities are using service animals
>> does a company whose sole clientele are people with disabilities hire a
>> driver who will not drive a bus with a dog on it?
>>  2.. If the company feels compelled to hire folks who are afraid of dogs,
>> why do they not routinely ask passengers if they are traveling with
>> service animals so that they can send a not-afraid driver?
>>  3.. Why were the driver and the dispatcher not trained by the company to
>> know the laws about access and seeing eye dogs?
>>  4.. Why was the driver not trained in basic courtesy?  She routinely
>> yelled at us, slammed doors and at one point told me to "move him."  She
>> was referring to Chris.  I explained that he was a person and he moved
>> himself, I did not move him.
>>  5.. Why are the Oakland Police not trained in the fundamentals of ADA
>> access laws?
>>
>>
>> Issues to note:
>>
>>  1.. Darla was wearing a regulation Seeing Eye harness, did not make any
>> noise, did not show any aggression despite the shouting of the driver and
>> lay on the floor of the bus near Marvelena's feet the entire time.
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