[Nomc] Assisting in a Parental Rights Case

Justin, A few years ago the State of New York had me to come out to do an assessment on a young lady who had lost her kids to the State because of Blindness! The judge had me to work with her for two weeks, and write up a report of my findings in order for her to get her kids back! I would be happy to help out in this situation. Just keep me posted . Best, Ron Ron Brown Cane &Able Orientation and Mobility Service MA/ NOMC p. 317-213-7031 From: NOMC <nomc-bounces at lists.nbpcb.org> On Behalf Of Justin Salisbury Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2021 3:12 PM To: Edward Bell <ebell at pdrib.com>; 'NOMC Mailing list' <nomc at lists.nbpcb.org> Subject: Re: [Nomc] Assisting in a Parental Rights Case Hi Dr. Bell, Thank you for this reply. I think you bring up some really good points. I am already out there in public advocating for a parental rights bill in Vermont, so it would be difficult for me to appear impartial. Ironically, I published a parental rights op-ed in the local newspaper in the town of the incident 13 days before her baby was taken. It makes me wonder if I gave them the idea. As the only NOMC in Vermont and 1 of 2 NOMCs in New England, I am definitely happy to be her instructor as often as our schedules align. What I might be struggling to convey is that there is possible interest in me, after having taught her, being able to attest to what she has accomplished personally through instruction and what I believe she is capable of doing. For example, after teaching her, I might be asked to issue some kind of statement saying something like, "I am confident that she will be able to locate a vehicle with her cane while pulling a stroller behind her, thus keeping her baby safe." Maybe it would be broader, talking about general travel safety. That is part of what I am trying to figure out on this list. I don't want to be too reductionist so that it leads people to wonder "what about this other thing," but I also don't want to be too holistic to the point where people don't feel like she can prevent the situation from happening again. Are you thinking that someone else brought in from the outside, like Ron Brown, would assess her after I have taught her and say something like, "this young lady is fully capable of traveling safely enough to care for her child?" There is also the general question of whether or not we have any limits on what we can say from the platform of being an NOMC. I don't know of any, but I don't want to cross a line without knowing it. Mahalo and aloha, Justin Justin Mark Hideaki Salisbury he/him/his Phone: 808.797.8606 Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-salisbury https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-salisbury ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin_Salisbury https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin_Salisbury "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore." Cesar Chavez From: Edward Bell > Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2021 2:03 PM To: Justin Salisbury >; 'NOMC Mailing list' > Subject: RE: [Nomc] Assisting in a Parental Rights Case Justin, Very sad case. My advice to you is to avoid the dual role relationship if you can at all help it. You should become her primary cane travel instructor for now but find an outside person to serve in the expert witness capacity. You will look biased if you are the teacher and also the witness. If your plan is to serve as the witness, then find someone else to do the teaching part. You can be the teacher and you can be an advocate, but when it comes to legal matters, an expert witness is supposed to be an impartial, objective expert regarding the matter at hand. If national is involved, they can pay to bring in someone like Ron Brown, Fred Schroeder, or another person who has been in the field a long time but who is outside the specific situation. My $.02 for your consideration, glad to talk further. Edward C. Bell, Ph.D., CRC, NOMC, Director, Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness Louisiana Tech University 600 Mayfield Ave / 210 Woodard Hall PO Box 3158 Ruston LA 71272 Office: 318.257.4554 Fax: 318.257.2259 ebell at latech.edu www.pdrib.com http://www.pdrib.com ************* "I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." -- Stephen Jay Gould From: NOMC > On Behalf Of Justin Salisbury Sent: Friday, August 20, 2021 8:50 PM To: NOMC Mailing list > Subject: [Nomc] Assisting in a Parental Rights Case Hi everyone, We have a parental rights crisis in Vermont, and I have the opportunity to assist. Our national office is involved, and we are working on all the legal processes that we can. I am going to describe the scenario and why I am helping as an NOMC. I want to ask you all to share any wisdom or experiences that you may have, either on or off list, that may help me to be effective. I'd like to ask that list members avoid talking about this with others off list as much as possible. I'll let you know when the baby is back in her mother's custody and when it becomes another public story. This is my understanding of the situation. A blind woman, about my age, has recently lost her vision. She's been largely in denial and trying to function with her residual vision. She has never used a cane and has never been offered any kind of blind services, even after her eye doctor diagnosed her legally blind. She was walking the front of a business, in the fire lane, with her 3-month-old baby in a stroller. A semi truck, moving at about the same pace as her, was driving parallel to her. Somehow, they merged together, and the front wheel of the stroller got crushed by the tire of the semi truck. The baby was fine, but ultimately the state child welfare agency found out about the incident from the police and raided her home to take the baby. She gets to visit her daughter twice per week as they wait for an October 7 hearing. There is no reunification plan yet. The child welfare agency is claiming that, because the mother does not use any kind of mobility device, the baby is in eminent danger, and thus they cannot allow her to keep her child. She wants to use a cane, but she has not had the opportunity to receive instruction. We do not know what else they will throw at her in the hearing, but one thing is for sure: someone needs to teach her how to use a cane. That person will be me. Here is my plan for tomorrow: We will meet up at a small indoor shopping mall about the size of the Pecanland Mall in Monroe, LA. We will eat lunch at the attached Applebee's first, my treat, and just talk about life, hopes and dreams, and basic blindness philosophy. Part of my job here is welcoming her into a family of 50,000 blind people who will have her back. I will also talk with her about VR and the possibility of attending an NFB training center. Her sister, who she lives with, has been a huge support and could possibly care for her baby while she is in training if she decides that. Then, we'll begin working on using a cane. Thankfully, I have one to give her. I am thinking to do this much like we would a cane walk at national convention. It's a crash course with the goal of getting her comfortable with a cane so that she will keep using it. We might even go shopping for a new stroller, one that she can pull behind herself. Shopping will be a nice activity to do with the cane once she gets a little practice, including the part about going up to people in public spaces with a clear identifier that she is blind. We can do indoor and outdoor travel, especially good when the forecast is about a 50% chance of thunderstorms. I'll give her a few extra cane tips and show her how to change them. If any of you have extra thoughts on this, I'm happy to hear them. The part where I start to feel more uncertain is where my limits are on how I can help in an expert witness capacity, formally or informally, to advocate for her in her process of getting her kid back. The remedy for this situation should not have been to take her baby; it should have been to call a cane travel instructor right away. I believe that, as an NOMC, I am qualified to speak to the realities of blindness and how blind people can walk safely and independently, including with a stroller. I even know of some blind people who get strollers with an awning so that they can pull it like a sidecar on a motorcycle, but I think this new traveler is better off pulling a stroller behind her. We'll see how she does. What will be more important, I suspect, is being able to speak to this particular blind person's capacity for safe travel. I think I know how to articulate my thoughts and feelings about a student's abilities. Have any of you ever written some kind of formal statement of your understanding of a student's cane travel skills to justify them to a court or government agency? I feel like I will be asked if I've done an assessment. I think the answer will be yes because we are always assessing our students as we are working with them. The NOMA is really aimed at kids right now, unless I'm behind on some updates, so I don't really have any other assessments that I should use. If someone has an idea on this, I would be especially grateful. My hunch at the moment is to say what I just said, that we as instructors are always assessing our students, and my professional credential says that I know how to construct a wholistic understanding of the capacity of my students. I don't want to wield the NOMC inappropriately, but I think it makes me the right kind of authority figure to help this newly blind mother get her baby back. I won't mislead anyone, and I expect that the truth will set her baby free. Thanks, everyone, for reading and offering thoughts. Again, our national office is helping with all of the legal parts. Aloha, Justin Justin Mark Hideaki Salisbury he/him/his Phone: 808.797.8606 Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-salisbury https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-salisbury ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin_Salisbury https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin_Salisbury "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore." Cesar Chavez