Roy Exum
At 6:30 p.m. tonight officials from Tennessee’s Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities will be at the Orange Grove Center to explain new policies that could eliminate facility-based day services that about 250 clients now enjoy. Since I sounded the alarm last week, I’ve had well over 100 emails and phone calls for those whose outrage is similar to mine.
But tonight there is absolutely no room for any raised voices, a temper tantrums or drawn-out pleas.
If ever the Orange Grove family needed to be on its best behavior, what is expected to be a huge crowd is asked to realize this is just the beginning of doing what is the best for our special needs children and adults. Kindness, love, and warmth have been the cornerstones of Orange Grove since it was first built on Main Street.
“Fighting back has no place at Orange Grove and everyone must remember that we requested our state officials to visit us. What we need to do is us tonight as a vehicle to find out where we need to go and what we need to do,” executive director Kyle Hauth told me yesterday. “We must give our guests the courtesy of listening to what they say, asking questions and letting them answer in a civil setting. We are definitely not in the fighting stage at all.”
Yes, Kyle confirmed what the state alleges, that Orange Grove is segregated because only special-needs individuals attend the nationally-renowned special-needs center but that participation is strictly voluntary and open to anyone who meets the qualification standards. One of my readers, Rev. Keith Jones, was kind enough to explain what is really happening here.
He informed me, “Over the past summer, as part of an internship I worked on, I had a chance to research the Olmstead Decision, a Supreme Court decision from 1999 that is only now being heavily enforced. I believe that many decisions like this one affecting Orange Grove are to come in the future, due to fear of litigation as a result of this decision. This case set the precedent that any setting which did not allow for full integration of individuals would be considered discriminatory.”
Keith also advised me, “It would be wise to exhort your readers to read up on the Olmstead Decision and its repercussions in preparation for this meeting and contact with politicians, because it is most likely the root of this change.”
So I went to Wikipedia and typed “Olmstead Decision” in the subject line and came up with nothing. Then I typed “Community Integration” and came up with everything. I would suggest anyone who cares about Orange Grove and the future of the critical day-services do the same thing. The shocker is that you’ll find that you will probably agree with much of it.
For instance, I believe that special-needs citizens should be just as equal as anyone else in where they live, where they work, where they enjoy recreation, and every other freedom you can find in the Constitution. But when I learned last week that the powers-that-be wanted to eliminate Orange Grove’s day programs that is flagrant discrimination in my mind because you are picking on the most helpless segment of our society. That’s not right.
Executive Director Hauth told me “community integration” is a growing national trend and what Orange Grove leaders hope to learn that if indeed the day-services program can be judged as voluntary, what steps must be taken to eliminate the notion that it is a segregated program. What can we, as Chattanooga citizens do, to protect and nurture the lives of our special-needs neighbors who consider “”school” the brightest spot in their lives.
After a memorandum went out from Hauth to inform the Orange Grove family on tonight’s critical meeting, a special-needs person who graduated from Orange Grove to work at the Sports Barn, was found crying in the men’s locker room. “They are closing Orange Grove,” he explained to the men who were consoling him. They assured him, and rightfully so, that will never happen in Chattanooga, Tn., because all the people will never allow it.
But what everyone needs to understand, at this point, tonight’s meeting is just the beginning. In order to fix anything, we first need to understand it. We are fortunate the DIDD people are coming to tell us what steps we must undertake to keep Orange Grove the healthy and happy place it is to train the kids who can to function in the community.
It is the kids who can’t that is the chief worry. Tonight we begin to seek answers. Leave the rocks, the brickbats, and the baseball bats at home. Instead, bring pencils, paper and an open mind. Board chairman Neal Pinkston is our district attorney and a lot of smart people like him will lead us in what we need to do – to keep our day-service crowd right where they choose to be.
royexum@aol.com