Healing war wounds with papermaking, writing

The Martha's Vineyard, Mass., Times reports that two dozen Iraq War veterans will arrive on July 21, for the Combat Papers Project, where they will learn papermaking and be involved in writing workshops.

"The veterans will bring their uniforms with them, which, after being torn or cut up, will be transformed into paper to be used to record some of their experiences, in art and/or words," The Times reports.

The project is a kind of "a healing ritual, a way to help put demons to rest. It has also become a movement spreading around the country, and next week it comes to the Vineyard," according to The Times.

A documentary is underway about the Combat Papers Project called "Iraq Paper Scissors." It is by documentary filmmaker Sara Nesson who says her father, Bob Nesson, a Boston-area documentarian who has been working on a project on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Iraq vets, gave her direction her documentary.

"All of this -- cutting up uniforms, making paper, writing -- was healing. I saw transformation right before my eyes," she says.

She plans to continue to film the veterans in New York state and northern California this fall, as they teach papermaking to disabled veterans and other vet groups.

Parents protest move from nursing home to group home for their children with MR

From The Boston Globe July 17:

Parents of 31 profoundly mentally retarded residents of a skilled nursing home here are protesting the state's plan to move them to small group homes, as required by a recent legal settlement involving more than 600 of the mentally disabled across the state.

The parents say the lack of round-the-clock care at the group homes would not meet the needs of their children, who suffer from serious medical conditions, cannot talk or walk, and have a mental age of less than one year.

"He would die," said Frank Voss, of Andover, about his son Eric, if he were forced to move from the Seven Hills Pediatric Center, a Groton nursing home, to a group home.

Voss said he and his wife fear that Eric, a 27-year-old quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, could unexpectedly suffer a medical setback and not receive adequate care in the new setting. "There's no doubt in our minds that this would be the end of him," Voss said.

The June settlement requires the state to move 640 residents with mental retardation or other mental disabilities. State Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Jean McGuire said the state is obliged to heed the agreement, but noted the moves are also part of a $20 million initiative by Governor Deval Patrick, called Community First, to provide community homes to more than 30,000 disabled and elderly, some of whom now live in nursing homes.

"It's all about giving people - even people with intellectual impairment - a choice," McGuire said.

The Vosses don't see how a move helps their son. They represent one side in the clash of views over how to care for the disabled. Some believe they should be placed in small group homes with four or five residents. But others - particularly advocates for the profoundly retarded with multiple life-threatening medical conditions - say they need the specialized care of a skilled nursing home.

The legal settlement stems from a 1998 case filed in US District Court in Springfield by the Center for Public Representation, a nonprofit law firm representing people with disabilities, on behalf of Loretta Rolland and others with mental retardation or other mental disabilities in nursing homes.

At the time, there were about 1,600 such residents across the state, according to the settlement. About 1,000 since have been placed in community homes.

The lawsuit hinged on the argument that, according to federal law, the mentally retarded must be provided with the opportunity to exercise personal choice, participate in and contribute to the community, develop and sustain varied and meaningful relationships, and acquire skills that increase self-reliance. That kind of treatment is offered in small group homes but only rarely in nursing homes, the lawsuit says.

The agreement says that by 2012, the state must create 640 new community placement slots for the mentally retarded and disabled and transition that number of nursing home residents into them. The 31 Seven Hills residents are on the list to be transferred.

Some Seven Hills parents said they believe the state is complying with the agreement in a bid to find less costly care.

AARP reports that large majority of older people with disabilities want to stay in their homes

From AARP July report titled "A Balancing Act: State Long-Term Care Reform:"

The overwhelming majority of people with disabilities age 50 and older (87 percent) want to receive long-term care (LTC) services in their own homes. People want choice and control over everyday decisions.

Yet the Medicaid program—our nation's single largest source of funding for long-term services and supports (LTSS)—does not provide the range of choices people want. Instead, it continues to allocate a disproportionate share of its resources for institutional services.

Seventy-five percent of Medicaid LTC spending for older people and adults with physical disabilities paid for institutional services in 2006.

On average, Medicaid dollars can support nearly three older people and adults with physical disabilities in home and community-based services (HCBS) for every person in a nursing home.

To the extent that states redirect resources to provide HCBS instead of nursing home services, their programs and services can be increasingly cost-effective and responsive to the preferences of people with disabilities.

Findings:
In 2006, only seven states spent 40 percent or more of their Medicaid LTC dollars for older people and adults with physical disabilities on HCBS: Alaska, California, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.

There is great variation among states, ranging from 5 percent or less to more than 50 percent of Medicaid LTSS funds for older people and adults with disabilities going toward HCBS.

As a whole, the nation made progress in balancing its growth of Medicaid LTC expenditures for older people and adults with disabilities from 2001 to 2006 by increasing HCBS spending by $6.1 billion, compared to a $6.6 billion increase for nursing home services.

However, progress in balancing Medicaid spending varied greatly among states. In 22 states, the dollar increase in Medicaid spending on HCBS from FY 2001 to FY 2006 was greater than the dollar increase in spending on nursing home care. Another 27 states added more Medicaid funds to nursing home services than to HCBS during these five years.

The nation made considerable progress by increasing the number of older people and adults with physical disabilities receiving HCBS, compared to the number served in nursing homes from 1999 to 2004.

The number of HCBS participants increased from 1999 to 2004 in 43 states and declined in seven. In 27 states, the number of nursing home participants increased over the same period, while the number declined in 24 states.

Reforming a state's Medicaid LTSS system is a complex process that requires commitment from state officials and cooperation from federal authorities.

Positive transformational change of Medicaid's LTSS system requires a philosophy that embraces the right of people with disabilities to live in the least restrictive environment; effective leadership; a creative problem-solving attitude that can find innovative ways to work within existing laws; and innovative ways to encourage federal policy makers to waive or overturn rules that hinder states' ability to balance their service delivery in favor of HCBS.

Recommendations

• The ability of some states to accomplish substantial reforms demonstrates that obstacles to change can be overcome.
• Change can be accelerated and supported by adopting federal and state policies that: Allow consumers to receive services in the setting of their choice.
• Adopt nursing home diversion programs that prevent people from ever entering
  a nursing home.
• Eliminate waiting lists for HCBS.
• Offer a range of residential choices.
• Support family caregivers.
• Facilitate states' ability to establish a unified global budget for funding LTC.
• Consolidate LTC programs, policies, and budgets in one state agency.
• Put a moratorium on Medicaid regulations that hinder states' ability to help
  individuals leave nursing homes and transition to HCBS.
• Eliminate Medicaid's institutional bias.
• Increase affordable public and private financing options to give people more
  choice and control over the services they need.
• Explore offering states financial incentives to accelerate the pace of change in shifting more Medicaid spending to HCBS.

New Yorkers with disabilities receive assistance with home buying

From the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, NY:

People with developmental disabilities and professional care workers in Monroe and 11 other counties can seek help buying a first home from a new $1 million federal grant announced Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is giving the money to the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) to create a home purchase savings program for income-eligible individuals, their parents or guardians and direct-support workers. The program will be administered by OMRDD's Office of Housing Initiatives and Supports.

For every $1 saved by the individual, the New York State Individual Development
Account Program will match it with $4. The money can be used for a down payment
or for home-buying costs such as application fees or appraisals. Direct-support employees who work full time in a state-run or community agency facility can participate to buy their own homes.

The program will be available to 360 individuals and households in Monroe, Niagara, Erie, Chautauqua, Chemung, Steuben, Onondaga, Oneida, Oswego, Albany, Schenectady and Rensselaer counties. Those counties were chosen for housing affordability reasons. Officials are working to expand the program.

Participants must save for at least six months before making any withdrawal. The typical savings plan will range from 12 to 36 months. In this five-year program, homes must be purchased before December 2013.

Home buyers also must participate in training sessions on such topics as foreclosure prevention, predatory lending and credit counseling, OMRDD Commissioner Diana
Jones Ritter said in a statement.

Since 1996, OMRDD and the state Office of Mental Health have offered the Home of Your Own Program, which provides home mortgages at favorable terms through the State of New York Mortgage Agency.

Home of Your Own is open to individuals with developmental disabilities, mental retardation or mental illness. In 2007, the program was expanded to serve their parents and legal guardians.

The new IDA program is the first Home of Your Own project also open to direct-support workers.

Raising a child with autism in Thailand

Chatpirat Bansanthia teaches her daughter Luck how to make artificial flowers.

The Bangkok Post in Thailand reports on one mother's focus on raising her daughter with autism. The feature tells the story of Chatpirat Bansanthia, 43, who gave up her job as a salesperson to devote her time to her daughter.

"She needs greater care than my elder child, so I didn't hesitate to devote most of my time to her," Chatpirat said of Luck, who is now 10 years old.

Luck has gained many life skills through the nurturing from her family.

"From a child who never responded to others, she has learned to interact and even show some affection for her parents. She inquired about her father when he looked ill, and brought him a glass of water. She learns more life skills daily. Today she can cook rice and make a simple omelet. We feel more at ease to leave her alone at home," her mother said.

British Paralympian publishes autobiography

Stephen Miller

The Evening Chronicle in Newcastle, UK, reports that disabled athlete Stephen Miller, 28, has penned an autobiography about his life: "Born with cerebral palsy, he has overcome prejudices, physical limitations and the death of a close friend to become a record-breaking gold medallist and an inspiration for hundreds of disabled athletes."

“My friends say I’m way too young to have an autobiography yet,” Miller says with a laugh.

He has won gold medals for throwing the club at the Atlanta, Sydney and Athens Paralympic games and is the current world, Paralympic, European and National record holder for the sport.
He has 15 international medals for club and six for discus while nationally he has notched up 19 gold medals and one silver for both club and discus.

“I have achieved so much it is hard to pick out one as my greatest achievement,” says Miller, who works as a web developer for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead. “Each one in itself is a massive achievement for me. Personally, getting working and getting a job is one of the biggest achievements to me.”

Paralympian: My Autobiography by Stephen Miller, published by Tonto Books, will be in bookstores in the UK on July 28.

Computer adapts to disabled person rather than other way around

From Science Daily on July 15:

Insert your key in the ignition of a luxury car and the seat and steering wheel will automatically adjust to pre-programmed body proportions. Stroll through the rooms of Bill Gates' mansion and each room will adjust its lighting, temperature and music to accommodate your personal preference. But open any computer program and you're largely subject to a design team's ideas about button sizes, fonts and layouts.

Off-the-shelf designs are especially frustrating for the disabled, the elderly and anybody who has trouble controlling a mouse. A new approach to design, developed at the University of Washington, would put each person through a brief skills test and then generate a mathematically-based version of the user interface optimized for his or her vision and motor abilities. A paper describing the system, which for the first time offers an instantly customizable approach to user interfaces, was presented July 15 in Chicago at a meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

"Assistive technologies are built on the assumption that it's the people who have to adapt to the technology. We tried to reverse this assumption, and make the software adapt to people," said lead author Krzysztof Gajos, a UW doctoral student in computer science and engineering. Co-authors are Dan Weld, a UW professor of computer science and engineering, and Jacob Wobbrock, an assistant professor in the UW's Information School.

Tests showed the system closed the performance gap between disabled and able-bodied users by 62 percent, and disabled users strongly preferred the automatically generated interfaces.

"This shows that automatically generating personalized interfaces really does work, and the technology is ready for prime time," Weld said.

The system, called Supple, begins with a one-time assessment of a person's mouse pointing, dragging and clicking skills. A ring of dots appears on the screen and as each dot lights up, the user must quickly click on it. The task is repeated with different-sized dots. Other prompts ask the participant to click and drag, select from a list, and click repeatedly on one spot.

Participants can move the cursor using any type of device. The test takes about 20 minutes for an able-bodied person or up to 90 minutes for a person with motor
disabilities.

An optimization program then calculates how long it would take the person to complete various computer tasks, and in a couple of seconds it creates the interface that maximizes that person's accuracy and speed when using a particular program.

Researchers tested the system last summer on six able-bodied people and 11 people with motor impairments. The resulting interfaces showed one size definitely did not fit all.

A man with severe cerebral palsy used his chin to control a trackball and could move the pointer quickly but spastically. Based on his skills test, Supple generated a user interface where all the targets were bigger than normal, and lists were expanded to minimize scrolling.

By contrast, a woman with muscular dystrophy who participated in the study used both hands to move a mouse. She could make very precise movements but moved the cursor very slowly and with great effort because of weak muscles. Based on her results, Supple automatically generated an interface with small buttons and a compressed layout.

"There is a temptation to think that we can come up with a universal design. But if we look at the results, the design that helps one person will actually be hurtful to a person with a different set of abilities," Gajos said.

"From an accessibility standpoint, it's always better to change the environment, rather than use specialized assistive technologies," said Kurt Johnson, a UW professor of rehabilitation medicine who coordinated the tests. "Supple could be useful for many people with limitations in function, ranging from the elderly, to people with low vision, to people with hand tremors."

The program could also be used to create interfaces that can adapt to different sizes of screen, for example on handheld devices.

But deploying this system would require a radically different approach to designing computer interfaces, Gajos said. He predicts the first applications are likely to be for Web-based applications. The researchers also plan to look at adapting interfaces that were designed in the traditional way into ones that Supple can use.

Wheelchair dancing becoming popular in Ukraine

The Kyiv Post in the Ukraine reports on Ilona Sluhovyna and many of her friends who participate in a Kyiv dance club that pairs her, and others like her, with able-bodied dance partners.

Sluhovyna began dancing six years ago and was paired with Oleksandr Ivanov, a professional dancer.

The partners dance so well that they are now in training for the 2008 International Paralympic Committee’s Wheelchair Dance Sport World Championships, to be held from Oct. 24 to Oct. 27 in Minsk, Belarus.

“Sitting in my wheelchair I can dance all the world dances, including five European – slow waltz, Viennese waltz, tango, slow foxtrot, quickstep – and five Latin American – samba, cha cha, rumba, pasodoble, jive,” Sluhovyna said. “Probably the most important is the soul of the dancer."

“When I am dancing I am really the happiest person in the world,” she says.

(Note to Media dis&dat readers: The article has a nice picture of Sluhovyna dancing but I couldn't save it in a viewable format.)

Crispin Glover continues his film trilogy with disabled characters

Crispin Glover's 2005 art film, "What is it?," featured a cast of people with Down syndrome. His latest installment, "It is fine! Everything is fine," focuses on a wheelchair user with a speech disability. The NY Post says: "Glover's aim is to show that people with less-than-perfect bodies are as human as anyone else. It's a worthy and so-far successful crusade."

The Tyee in Canada has an interview with Glover July 16. He is in Vancouver, B.C., showing his films at the Pacific Cinémathèque.

New documentary tackles returning vets experiences with PTSD

From PR Web on July 16:

Las Vegas, NV -- More American soldiers kill themselves than are killed by the enemy, and many others suffer the effects of post traumatic stress disorder. As many as eighteen soldiers a day are committing suicide and most of those soldiers kill themselves after they return home. Their divorce rate has tripled since the beginning of the war and substance abuse among veterans is 4 times the national average. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg according to “Who Will Stand” producer/director Phil Valentine, www.whowillstand4us.com.

The two-hour documentary covers the plights of more than a dozen soldiers who have returned either physically or psychologically wounded, including hard-to-measure effects of post traumatic stress disorder.

“Nobody is surprised that war creates amputees, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, but very few people are aware of the enormous rates of these issues,” said Valentine. “And almost no one is aware of the psychological issues that nearly 100% of combat soldiers suffer with, namely Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.”

Instead of covering the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and whether America should have gone in there, “Who Will Stand” focuses on the plight of returning disabled American veterans.

“Going back and forth on whether or not we should be in this war is like arguing over whether the Giants should have won the last Superbowl. What’s done is done. We’re there,” explains Valentine. Then he adds, “What we can and should do something about is how we take care of these disabled American veterans after they return.”

Phil Valentine and director of photography Michael Bedik began in September, 2007 travelling anywhere they could to find soldiers who were in trouble and were willing to talk.

“We were first hired to do a documentary on amputees returning from the war. But shortly into our research we found that the problem was much bigger than even we thought,” Bedik said. “The funny thing is that everyone in the military thinks that everyone knows what they’re going through but the truth is we don’t.”

A few months into filming Valentine and Bedik went back to executive producer Gerald Gillock, a Las Vegas Attorney, and told him that the only way we could do this story justice was to only interview soldiers, disabled American veterans, families of soldiers and the doctors who take care of them. Gillock told them to do whatever they had to do to find the truth.

Valentine says: “We discovered that the biggest problem was a soldier’s willingness to seek help for psychological issues. Amputations can be fixed with prosthetics but mental problems lead to a myriad of other, more severe, issues like unemployment, homelessness, divorce, substance abuse, child and spousal abuse and suicide.”

The film also addresses why the military and the VA is not doing enough to combat these problems.

“Look, we’re not out to bash the military or the VA,” Bedik says, “We ourselves are patriotic individuals. But being patriotic doesn’t mean turning your back on an issue because you don’t want anyone to know that the U.S. military is hurting. It means just the opposite. It means we care about those who risk their lives to protect us and we will do what we have to in order to protect them.”

“We found organizations that will help these guys at no cost and without the red tape and bureaucracy they often experience with the VA,” explained Valentine. “We also found out that the VA thinks they can’t afford to help 100% of soldiers suffering from PTSD, but we proved that treating them is actually cheaper than not treating them! Treatment would pay for itself in two years.”

The film will probably be shown at film festivals initially. You can see the trailer here.

Stolen adapted trike returned to teen

Allison Babiarz, 13, on her adapted three-wheeler

Newspapers around Illinois reported the return of a stolen, custom-made three-wheeler that allowed Allison Babiarz, 13, a teenager with cerebral palsy, to ride around her Crystal Lake. Ill., neighborhood.

The $2000 adapted trike was stolen from the family's garage last week, leading to a plea by the teen and her parents for its return. A police officer spotted the trike July 14 and returned it to Allison.

"At first it was very confusing," Allison told the Chicago Tribune. "Why didn't they take anything else? Maybe they thought it was an awesome bike or maybe they just wanted to play a cruel joke."

The trike is designed for children with disabilities and had been customized for Allison, who needed the seat raised and the pedals changed so her feet would stay on them. The trike, she said, helps because she doesn't have the stability in her legs to balance on a two-wheeler.

The trike was designed by Hal Honeyman of St. Charles, Ill., a father of triplets, one of whom has cerebral palsy. His company, Creative Mobility, provides children and adults with adaptive bicycles, which are sold at his family's store in St. Charles, The Bike Rack.

Taking on wilderness by wheelchair

Designer Bill Stites with the EZ Hiker

The Clackamas Review in Oregon reports on the development of a wheelchair that makes hiking more accessible. Designed by Bill Stites, owner of Stites Design in SE Portland, the EZ Hiker will hopefully make the camping and hiking more accessible for wheelchair users.

The idea for EZ Hiker came from Tom Ruedy, who is disabled and has been working with a cycle company on the design for about 8 years. When cycle company became too busy with other projects, Stites, an industrial designer, came onto the project.

The EZ Hiker will “allow people with disabilities to go anywhere an able-bodied person can go, and it can be used in search and rescue and other functions,” Stites said.

He says the EZ Hiker has a single wheel powered by a person in front and behind; the chair also has suspension and shock absorbers.

“It is all about access,” he said, adding that the single wheel enables the “mushers” to carry the chair on a single-track trail.

In addition to the wheel, “it has two other attachments, one is a balloon tire for the beach and the other is a ski,” Stites said. “It is so important for people to be able to get out into the woods. On a beautiful day they should not be stuck inside. [Before] they could not roll around in the woods, [but with the EZ Hiker] they can go to the mountain.”

Ruedy added that the EZ Hiker can be easily adapted for a child, so a child’s car seat could be put onto the adult seat.

Job training for blind people affected by California budget crisis

From the Sunnyvale, Calif., Sun on July 15:

The overdue state budget was still held up in political wrangling last week, and some local agencies that depend on it for their funding said that new penny-pinching alternatives to plain old cuts hurt just as much.

"It's actually fairly devastating," said Diana Drews, CEO and executive director of Sensory Access Foundation.

Located in an unimposing building across from Target at 300 W. Iowa Ave. in Sunnyvale, the nonprofit helps blind and visually impaired people throughout the state get professional-level jobs by training them with job search skills and technologies like screen-readers and video magnifiers.

The state Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) recently converted its contracts with SAF and 23 other agencies from flat annual contracts - SAF received $975,000 last year, 60 percent of its budget - to "performance-based services."

"It's ingenious and insidious," said Drews of the new system, which started on July 1.
Now, what was once considered a single service has been broken down into 25 specific services. SAF and others have to apply for reimbursement for each service provided according to a new fee schedule, which Drews said will slow down the billing process considerably.

The DOR expects to save $3.1 million from the state's general fund with this and several other moves, including slightly tightening its employment belt and complex steps to secure federal funds while spending less to "match" them.

It voluntarity made these decisions to prepare for cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to fix an estimated $17.2 billion deficit.

DOR spokeswoman Jennifer Harris said the DOR set new reimbursement fees based on statewide averages. They will result in higher payments for some agencies and lower payments for other agencies because some have not had their rates raised for years, she said.

For her part, Drews said she fears the fees are so low that SAF will never be able to get the same level of funding it did last year, despite the fact that their funding cap is still $975,000.

When the Sun visited on July 9, SAF was not serving any clients because it was unsure how much the DOR would pay for the services.

Canada: Corporate execs unaware of employees mental health needs

From Canwest News Service July 15:

OTTAWA - Approximately 35 million workdays are lost every year in Canada due to mental illness, although senior executives have little awareness of the problem, according to a study released Tuesday.

The survey of more than 450 Canadian organizations conducted by human-resources consultancy Mercer in conjunction with The Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (CAMIMH) said low productivity related to mental illness adds significant cost to employers.

"It's too expensive not to do something," said Anne Nicoll of Mercer. "It actually is costing them more now than what it would if they put in a plan to deal with it."

Survey respondents indicated that mental-health issues are a growing concern for human-resources professionals. Nearly 80 per cent reported that mental-health issues have increased in importance compared with three to five years ago.

Yet in contrast, only 13 per cent of survey respondents said senior executives had a strong awareness of the impact of mental health on the organization.

"We are trying to raise awareness in the executive suite that mental illnesses are costing their companies an awful lot of money" said Philip Upshall of CAMIMH.

"The high ranking that mental health has on the HR priorities list combined with the lack of awareness at the top of the organization is cause for concern," said Nicoll.

But while big corporations are willing to put their logos alongside cancer and heart health-awareness campaigns, it is often much more challenging to achieve corporate backing for mental-health issues, such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.

"It boils down to society stigma," said Upshall. "We still are unable as a society to talk about them even although they are becoming the single most common costly illness that our health-care system faces."

PA teacher sues over alleged disability discrimination

From the Pocono Record July 16:

EAST STROUDSBURG — An art teacher in the East Stroudsburg Area School District has filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming the school district violated state and federal law when it allegedly harassed her because of her mental illness.

Aynne M. Polinski of Canadensis, who suffers from bipolar disorder, contends the district harassed her by requiring her to submit quarterly medical reports for 12 years regarding her disability.

In her complaint, she said she was made to submit these reports to the district in addition to the medical records her doctor had provided, which certified that she was receiving psychiatric care and taking medication. The requirement to submit the reports was "oppressive, burdensome, harassing and humiliating," according to the complaint filed on June 27 by Kimberly Borland, Polinski's attorney, in U.S. Middle District Court in Scranton.

Rachael Heath, the school district's superintendent, referred questions on the case to John Freund, the attorney representing the district. He could not be reached for comment.

Polinski teaches art at J.T. Lambert Intermediate School and started working for the district in 1973, at the J.S. Bunnell School, according to court documents. She said in her complaint that her bipolar condition has limited her ability to think, interact socially, perceive events, sleep and work. But she adds that she has been able to do her job in a "competent, professional and workmanlike manner."

In April 1993, Polinski suffered an emotional breakdown in the classroom, and was required by the district to take off for the rest of that school year, according to court documents. She continued her sabbatical the following year.

Upon returning to work, she was asked to submit quarterly reports every three months. Polinski alleges that this treatment was intended to make working for the district so "burdensome, oppressive and intolerable" that she would quit.

She checked into the hospital briefly in October 2003 for further treatment.

Polinski first filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC found that, in requiring Polinski to submit regular reports in addition to her doctor's clearance, "the evidence clearly show(ed)" that the district harassed her, according to a 2006 opinion by Marie Tomasso, director for the commission's office in the Philadelphia district.

Submitting regular mental health reports is more typically required of doctors and lawyers, especially when they apply for licenses in new jurisdictions, said Jennifer Mathis, an attorney with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. The civil rights organization in Washington, D.C., represents people with mental illnesses or mental retardation, but is not involved in Polinski's case.

"I think it's unlawful, uncalled for and none of their business," Mathis said of the district's requirement that Polinski submit reports. "It's imposing conditions that aren't imposed on the rest of us."

But Mathis added that the district had a right to ask for medical information when it is related to an employee's ability to carry out his or her job, or to determine if he or she needed special accommodation.

Polinski also has alleged that the district — and Patricia Baughman, who was then J.T. Lambert's principal and now serves as assistant superintendent for personnel for the school district — harassed her in three other ways.

Polinski said Baughman prorated her pay as adviser to the Art Club to account for time missed while she was on sabbatical; required Polinski in 2003 to apply and interview for that position, which she had created; and asked a custodian to dump art projects, supplies and personal property from Polinski's classroom at the end of the 2003-04 school year. The district said the room-cleaning was part of a regular, end-of-year process.

The EEOC said it saw no violation in these additional claims, but Polinski cites them in her federal complaint.

Tomasso, of the EEOC, also noted in 2006 that a conflict resolution process had begun, but it is not clear what happened during the period leading up to Polinski's court filing last month.Polinski's complaint cites the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and Pennsylvania disability law under the Human Relations Act. She seeks damages for emotional distress, harassment, disturbance and inconvenience, and payment of legal fees. While the complaint does not specify tangible costs, it states that the matter rises above $100,000 in damages.