We ask you to sign this [petition] as a last resort cry for help, in hope that you, as do we, believe that people with physical or mental disabilities have the right to fully participate in all aspects of society. We have exhausted our resources in this matter and are appalled while we witness an individuals human rights violated and freedom of choice and dignity are stripped away by the very people and organizations that are charged with protecting them.
In April of 2008 we took into our employ a young lady with Down's syndrome. Over the past four years she has become a part of our family to the extent of actually residing in our home. She was an integral part of our business team as are all of our employees. She developed relationships and friendships with all of her co-workers and many customers and was well known and loved in our local community.
In March of 2012 she was hit by a car while riding her bicycle. While in the hospital she underwent back surgery which required a stay of more than a week. As her discharge date neared, we learned from hospital staff that her immediate family was not willing to take her in, thus she had nowhere to go. At this point we decided to take her into our home to care for her during her recovery. She stayed in our home from March 19, 2012 until May 16, 2012. We began shortly thereafter to seek services for her that would enable her to stay in our home. The battle that followed was not only unexpected but unbelievable.
The local CSB (Community Services Board) would not provide waiver services to help keep her in the community unless she was homeless, which is a term they themselves could not define. In order to get the services in which she was entitled we were forced to surrender her to the CSB at which time they placed her in a congregate setting. She was traumatized of course because for 28 years she had enjoyed the same freedoms, enjoyed by every other citizen, provided by the Constitution of the United States. She communicated on numerous occasions her expressed desire to leave and return to our home. Her communications expressing that desire to be released were rewarded by the facility staff taking away her phone, computer and denying her access to the facility phone.
When we were finally able to communicate with her again we gave her a number to an attorney that was able to rescue her from the facility. Shortly after coming back to our home she was summoned to a guardianship hearing initiated by her stepfather. Although a continuance was granted, the intent of the hearing was clear as she was hauled off by court order to yet another facility, against her will, to remain in limbo while she waits for her freedom of choice to be fully abolished.
By no fault of her own this individual because she has a disability has been removed from her friends, is no longer employed, enjoys none of the freedoms and opportunities offered by the community and is completely segregated and kept with people that are deemed like her miles away from her home.
SIGN THE 'Justice for Jenny" PETITION
