[blindkid] Discrimination in Oakland

Tue Feb 9 03:45:57 UTC 2010

The scary thing, to me at least, is not the bus company's part, it is the 
police's.  An airport shuttle once made my mom and I, and her guide dog Katy 
wait over an hour for another shuttle, because they were going on about the 
dog having to be in a crate and muzzled, if we were going to ride with other 
people.  They made a huge deal about having to get a special shuttle just 
for us.  Mom called the NYPD, and no disrespect after September 11th, but on 
this occation, they sucked, in a big way.  They did a whole fat lot of 
nothing, telling us that if we were eventually being provided with 
transpirtation, that we had to just deal and they gave us the impression we 
were wasting their time.  Bus drivers, clerks, etc, are pretty low on the 
food chane, and they will hastle us from time to time, but when the law 
up-holders, the protectors of the peace, of our rights, the police, can't be 
counted on, that scares the crap out of me.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Susan Harper" <sueharper at firstchurchgriswold.org>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Discrimination in Oakland


>I think this is deserving of a complaint filed with the bus company, 
>stating
> what was just stated and a copy to the Office of Civil Rights in your 
> area,
> as well as local representatives (especially the ones on the funding
> committees for services).  This can not be tolerated.  Sounds like it was 
> a
> big mess and the dog was the best behaved in the bunch!  No one with a
> service animal or without one should be treated in this manner by a 
> service
> provider and that is what the bus driver was.  The unfortunate reality is
> that many folks are still treated as second class citizens based on 
> someones
> biased views.  You can legislate rules, but not attitudes.  I am very
> interested to see what follow up occurs and the outcome.  Don't let this 
> go.
>
> Blessings,
> Sue H.
>
> On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 3:29 PM, Anne Ward <inland2wards at att.net> wrote:
>
>> 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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