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From
The Lincoln Journal Star in Neb.:
When choreographer Heidi Latsky told Lawrence Carter-Long (pictured) she wanted to work with him, he thought she meant in a public relations capacity.
That's his expertise, after all. He's a popular speaker on a wide variety of topics ranging from disability issues to animal advocacy to media literacy.
"I told her I was too busy, that I had more than enough on my plate," he said in a phone interview. "She said, ‘I don't need you for P.R. I want to work with you as a performer.'"
It gave him pause.
Carter-Long has cerebral palsy and walks with a gait.
"Heidi said, ‘I like the way you move. I can't move like that, and I would like to work with you,'" he said.
She placed him and dancer Jeffrey Freeze, the associate director of her company, in a dance called "Two Men Walking," which compared and contrasted their movements.
"We're more WWE than Martha Graham," Carter-Long said, jokingly. "We really throw each other around."
The piece was a hit.
So much so, the eight-minute dance has evolved into an entire show featuring other disabled dancers.
Latsky's "The Gimp Project" will be on stage Friday night at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. The 75-minute dance concludes Latsky's residency in Lincoln with her company as part of the Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium at the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.
The symposium, organized by Rhonda Garelick, is in its second season. "Technology, Prosthetics and the Body in Performance" showcases artists who stretch, alter or question the limits of the physical body through technology.
Latsky is a celebrated dancer and choreographer who received much acclaim as a principal dancer for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance.
She became a renowned choreographer through her collaboration with Lawrence Goldhuber in Goldhuber & Latsky.
In 2001, she formed her New York-based modern dance company, Heidi Latsky Dance.
She created "Gimp" in 2007, and Dance Magazine called it "without doubt a gleaming milestone in the progress of contemporary dance and theater, proving that the term ‘disabled dancer' is an oxymoron."
"This has been incredible," said Carter-Long, who is the executive director for the Disabilities Network of New York City. "If you had told me three years ago I would be doing this, I would have asked what you were smoking and when can I get some. It was the furthest thing from my mind."
"Gimp" has opened all kinds of doors for him and others with disabilities. Latsky uses the dance for workshops, outreach and community building.
"You particularly can see (the effects) in (disabled) young folks who are 16 or 17," Carter-Long said. "They say, ‘Wow, I can do this' or ‘This is an option for me now.'"
As it was for Carter-Long, who began dancing in his late 30s.
"It's still kind of a kick to me when people say, ‘What do you do for a living?' and I say to them, in all honesty, ‘I'm a professional dancer,'" he said. "I watch how they react to that and try to make sense of that."
From
CNA:
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- President Ma Ying-jeou (pictured) vowed Oct. 29 to help a 12-year-old wheelchair-bound girl make her dream come true by improving the country's barrier-free facilities.
Ma said he instructed Transportation Minister Mao Chi-kuo to improve railway facilities first so that disabled persons could lead more convenient lives.
Chen Wan-ping (pictured), who suffers from Nemaline Myopathy, a group of disorders that cause problems with the tone and contraction of skeletal muscles, expressed her aspiration in a letter to Ma written on July 30 before she received the 2010 Presidential Education Award.
"My biggest dream is that barrier-free facilities can be available everywhere in Taiwan, " Chen wrote in the letter, which she was not allowed to present to the president at the award ceremony but which later reached Ma.
Speaking at an anniversary celebration of a Taipei elementary school, Ma said he was deeply moved by her passion for life and "I made my promise and she has my word now."
From The
Sydney Morning Herald in Australia:
"Once I had learned to write with my feet, I knew I could take on anything," says Huang Yangguang (pictured), who at the age of five lost both arms in an accident involving high voltage electrical wires near the family orchard in Guangxi province, China.
The 32-year-old one-time farmer, now a lead dancer for the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe, recounts through an interpreter how his teacher excused him from taking notes while at primary school. It made him even more determined and by the age of eight, he’d mastered writing and painting with his feet, a task that "wasn’t easy," he says.
Next month, Mr Huang will travel to Australia after fulfilling yet another seemingly impossible goal: to become a professional dancer.
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Huang Yangguang taught himself to write and draw. Photo: Donna Demaio
Mr Huang carried his childhood determination into adulthood, continuing his quest for independence by entering a competition held by the disabled troupe nine years ago. The spirited young man says at the time, he really had no inkling if he actually could dance but was encouraged by a local teacher to give it a go. He was accepted into the troupe, which now provides him with a home at its Beijing training centre, rehabilitation, education and most importantly, a career.
Today, Mr Huang feels “ very, very happy” when dancing and has joined the troupe on several international tours, performing the self-choreographed piece The Happy Life in Farmland. He’s happily left behind the fruit picking, tree grafting and watering of his old life.
"From rural beginnings, I now live in a big city as a professional dancer and am completely independent,'' he says.
When founded in 1987, the troupe politely declined the offer of government funding, wanting instead to remain independent on the road to commercial success. There are currently three separate troupes touring the world and 110 artists who live at the training centre.
And at least one Australian can’t wait for the troupe to arrive.
"Bring it on," says Victorian disability advocate John McKenna.
"This is fantastic because it builds on what we are trying to achieve in Australia in regard to being an inclusive society. The troupe is reinforcing a global focus on making life better for those with disabilities”.
From
KCUR-FM:
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Right now, the Kansas legislature has the authority to prohibit someone with a mental illness from voting. Nov. 2 voters will decide whether or not to change that. Constitutional Amendment Question No. 2, as it's called, has not met much formal opposition, but proponents say a victory would still be extremely significant.
Kansans with mental illnesses have been voting without state constitutional protections for decades. It was no big deal. Until about two years ago, when Rocky Nichols, director of the state's disability rights center, was working on a case involving the voting rights of a client with an intellectual disability.
"And I said, well, let me check the constitution. So I went to the suffrage provision and read it, and found out that there's no prohibition for a person with an intellectual disability, but there is a potential prohibition for a person with a mental illness," says Nichols. "And it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I was just shocked."
Section two, article five of the Kansas constitution states 'the legislature may, by law, exclude persons from voting because of mental illness, or commitment to a jail or penal institution.'
Nichols says what ensued after sharing what he learned with others in the mental health community was a groundswell of support to try and eliminate the prohibition. The campaign's been largely funded by the health care foundation of Kansas City, which underwrites health reporting at KCUR.
Kansas is not the only place that includes such language about mental illness in its books. And a century ago, referring to people as idiots or insane within areas of voting restrictions and other legal issues was the norm. In fact, the Kansas legislature removed that language from article five in the mid seventies, but then replaced it with the term mental illness.
Still Lewis Bossing, a senior attorney at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, says in recent years, many states and the federal government have been moving away from statutes that exclude general groups of people - like those with disabilities - from voting.
"As a country, we're moving toward a recognition in our voting laws that people with mental illness should have the same right to vote that everyone else does," says Bossing. "It's a crucial distinction to note that for the most part, people with mental illness at most times are capable to make a choice. And for state governments to take away that right based a categorical blanket kind of concern about the impropriety of voting or some voter irregularity is simply a form of discrimination.
There are a lot of people without mental illness who come into the voting process without a lot of information or perhaps without having given it a lot of thought. I don't think there's a reason to classify people with mental illness as having harder times making the choice than anyone else does."
To date, Kansas has not actually acted on its authority to prohibit people with mental illnesses from voting. Bossing says with the passage of legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act, courts would likely overrule any attempt to do so. That happened several years ago in Maine, after voters twice rejected a measure to amend similar language in their state's constitution.
Local advocates say they still view the language as a potential threat here, and concerns over public perceptions of the issue have many out this campaign season.
Cherie Bledsoe (pictured) faces a crowd of about seventy five at an Amendment Two rally in Overland Park. She says she's struggled with mental illness but, has gotten help and since recovered. She now directs a consumer organization and says it's crucial for the state to clean up the threatening language of the constitution.
"It stigmatizes those of us with mental illness. It furthers the discrimination, the disrespect, fear and misunderstanding that surrounds mental illness," says Bledsoe. "It gives a false impression of our capabilities and makes assumptions that paint a negative picture of people with mental illness."
Mark Wiebe, the rally's M.C., and director of public affairs at Wyandot Center, tells the crowd the issue is one that directly and indirectly affects just about everyone.
"Mental illness can strike anyone at anytime," says Wiebe. "Consider this: one in five Kansans can be expected to have a mental health disorder in a given year. That comes to more than half a million Kansans. It includes people with post traumatic stress disorder and many other disorders. Think about that last illness, PTSD. It can affect anyone who experiences a traumatic incident, but it's most often associated with victims of sexual assault and soldiers returning from combat."
Weibe says the constitution's language is of another era, when people didn't know what they do today about mental health. He sees the change as part of a larger shift in the way society views and cares for people with mental illness.
Whether or not others see it that way, has yet to be determined...at least until next Tuesday, when Kansans take to the voting booth.
From
The Cincinnati Enquirer:
LIBERTY TWP, Ohio -- Kurt and Kristen Feldmann won't have to drive to Mason anymore to find a handicap accessible playground for their wheelchair-bound son Konrad.
Newly installed playground equipment at Dudley Memorial Park will allow his 9-year-old sister Kathryn to push him up a concrete ramp onto a large piece of equipment. It is one of several pieces purchased with a $100,000 Community Development Block Grant.
"Throughout Konrad's life he hasn't been able to walk or run or talk or even play like other children," his father, Kurt, said.
Konrad's cerebral palsy left him non-verbal and with limited use of his arms and legs.
"This is an incredible place to play that reduces barriers and lets him play like other children," said Feldmann, who sits on Liberty Township's Parks Committee. "Ninety percent of this is accessible to Konrad."
His comments came Friday during a ribbon cutting ceremony for the newly installed equipment. It replaced older, non-handicap accessible equipment that no longer meets playground safety standards.
In the past year, similar equipment has been installed in parks in Colerain Township and West Chester Township's Beckett Park.
The new equipment was put together and installed by township workers in a 75-foot by 75-foot area of the 11-acre park. It sits on 12 inches of mulch adjacent to both the parking lot and covered shelter, said Jon West, the township's director of planning and zoning.
West was part of a team of township officials that put together the grant and ordered the GameTime equipment in consultation with Bob Greiwe, who specializes in playground equipment.
"I believe this park will be one of the more popular ones. There are not many blind spots for children to hide in," Feldmann said. "Children don't know it's safe; they just know there's a lot of great playground equipment."
Konrad's sister Kathryn gave the playground two thumbs up after pushing her brother onto the equipment.
"He's heavy," she said with a smile.
From
The Washington Post education blog:
A survey commissioned by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation of New Haven exposes poor understanding among many Americans of what causes learning disabilities.
Fifty-five percent of parents and 55 percent of the general public surveyed agreed that learning disabilities are "often caused by the home environment children are raised in." About 51 percent of those surveyed agreed that "sometimes learning disabilities are really just the result of laziness."
I think we education writers, particularly me, need to take the blame for much of the ignorance. We rarely write about learning disabilities. The subject is complicated. The research is hard to understand. There are no sure cures, and few success stories, which makes editors unhappy.
There are plenty of political and legal battles over special education programs for children with learning disabilities, but they are usually about money, not about the best way to help students. When we do write about disabilities, we often get mail from grateful families. But that doesn't seem to inspire more effort.
The Tremaine Foundation poll has some rays of hope. The portion of respondents who think some disabled kids are just lazy has declined from 57 to 51 percent since 2004. That isn't much, but it's better than nothing.
From
WBRC-TV:
GARDENDALE, Ala. -- A Gardendale mother and father were arrested Oct. 26 and charged in connection with their toddler's death. The little boy, who had Down syndrome, died in April.
Since then, Gardendale Police have been investigating.
The parents, Jeffery and Rebecca Stockton, were indicted by a grand jury Oct. 26 for starving their child to death.
They were arrested on charges of manslaughter and taken to the Jefferson County Jail. They were held on bonds of $30,000 each.
Authorities say in April, 16-month-old Justin Stockton died from severe malnutrition. And a month later, 8 children were taken from the home and placed in DHR custody.
Authorities and the district attorney wrapped up an investigation into the child's death two months ago, which has now led to the parents indictments and arrests.
FOX6 spoke to a woman who knows the Stocktons, but didn't want to be identified.
She says hearing the arrests for manslaughter of their 16-month old little boy was disturbing.
She says they lived a different lifestyle and had an unusual way of raising their children.
"There have been lots of events and things that have happened over the years that were not normal," said the woman. "The family is very strange."
From
University of Toledo:
Most people have a few scars. Whether it’s from falling off a bike or major surgery, most people have had their fair share of bumps and bruises.
Dr. Jim Ferris, the Ability Center of Greater Toledo Endowed Chair in Disability Studies, will look at what our scars may have to tell us in his one-man show, “Scars: A Love Story,” which will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29, and Saturday, Oct. 30, in the Center for Performing Arts Studio Theatre.
“Scars are things that we all have,” he said. “They mark us and distinguish us, but they are something we share. They not only bridge our wounds, they connect us to the human experience — maybe even to each other.”
“Scars: A Love Story” combines poetry, visual arts and music into a form that Ferris calls a “post-contemporary” performance. The show includes photographs of scars that Ferris collected from people around campus.
“Every scar has a story. It’s amazing how asking about people’s scars brings those stories out,” Ferris said. “Scars are universal. They are a part of living.”
The show will look at how scars from years past still impact people today. Ferris, associate professor of communication and director of the Disability Studies Program, contends that scars also can lead to stigma, a simple explanation to human fear and ignorance.
“We make assumptions when we see things, whether it is a scar or a disability. We wind up making judgments, and those judgments can outweigh other characteristics,” Ferris said.
To see how scars impact perception both literally and metaphorically, stop by the free, public performances this week or at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, when Ferris again will perform “Scars: A Love Story.”
From
Channel 4 in UK:
Around 6,000 disabled people have volunteered to help at London 2012.
Britain's most successful Paralympian says it represents a huge change in attitudes from when she first started to compete. London 2012 organisers have dubbed them the Games Makers: the volunteers who will make the Olympics and Paralympics a reality.
Seventy thousand are needed to carry out tasks - from sewing sequins for the opening and closing ceremonies to welcoming athletes to their temporary homes.
London 2012 is less than two years away. The deadline for applying to volunteer is just a few hours away - organisers will stop taking applications at midnight on Wednesday 27 October.
At the last count more than 100,000 people had put themselves forward including 6,000 disabled people.
Britain's most successful Paralympian, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson (pictured), says the number of disabled applicants is very encouraging: "It just shows how comfortable they are with the process and how much they want to contribute, because we want to show the whole world that London is a very diverse city.
"Everybody, it doesn't matter who you are, has something to contribute towards being a volunteer in London 2012."
Some previous Paralympic Games have been under-represented in terms of volunteers.
Out of the 70,000 volunteers required for the 2012 Games overall around 23,000 will work at the Paralympics.
Dame Tanni is confident there won't be a shortage of people putting themselves forward this time: "I think what's happened in the past is that the Paralympics has been something that's come after the Olympic Games.
"With London 2012 it's always been an Olympics and a Paralympics alongside each other and that's why the volunteering programme has been run together...and that's really exciting because London will put the Paralympics on a whole new level, not just in terms of athletic performance but also in terms of the way the Games are organised and run.
"What we want really is for people to volunteer for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games...it's really important we get the right number of volunteers for the Paralympic Games to make sure they run smoothly."
We are thrilled with the response we've had so far from people. Lord Coe
Speaking earlier this month, Lord (Sebastian) Coe, Chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee said: "We are thrilled with the response we've had so far from people and would like to thank everyone who has already filled in their application form and pledged to lend their time to the greatest show on earth.
"The London 2012 Games simply could not happen without volunteers. Whenever I have spoken to previous volunteers, they've all said what a fantastic experience it was."
Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson has won 11 Paralympic gold medals, making her Britain's most successful Paralympian to date.
She told Channel 4 News that the profile of the Paralympics had risen remarkably over the years: "There's been a huge change in attitudes. My first Games was 1988 and nobody really knew the term Paralympics - it was the first time it was used.
"Seoul was interesting, Barcelona pushed it on, but by the time we got to Beijing in 2008 it had changed out of proportion in terms of how hard the athletes were training, the level of sponsorship...But 2012 will set the bar higher than it's ever been before. I'm very excited about that because it will be a lot for any other city which hosts a Paralympic Games to live up to because London is going to be amazing."
From the
Society of Neuroscience:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — People who are blind from birth are able to detect tactile information faster than people with normal vision, according to a study in the Oct. 27 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
The brain requires a fraction of a second to register a sight, sound, or touch. In this study, a group of researchers led by Daniel Goldreich, PhD, of McMaster University explored whether people who have a special reliance on a particular sense — in the way blind people rely on touch — would process that sense faster.
"Our findings reveal that one way the brain adapts to the absence of vision is to accelerate the sense of touch," Goldreich said. "The ability to quickly process non-visual information probably enhances the quality of life of blind individuals who rely to an extraordinary degree on the non-visual senses."
The authors tested the tactile skills of 89 people with sight and 57 people with various levels of vision loss. The volunteers were asked to discern the movements of a small probe that was tapped against the tips of their index fingers. Both groups performed the same on simple tasks, such as distinguishing small taps versus stronger taps. But when a small tap was followed almost instantly by a larger and longer-lasting vibration, the vibration interfered with most participants' ability to detect the tap — a phenomenon called masking. However, the 22 people who had been blind since birth performed better than both people with vision and people who had become blind later in life.
"We think interference happens because the brain has not yet completed the neural processing required to fully perceive the tap before the vibration arrives and disrupts it," Goldreich said. "The more time between the tap and the vibration, the more formed the perception of the tap will be, and the less interference the vibration will cause."
The authors measured the minimum amount of time needed for participants to perceive sensory input by varying the period between the tap and the vibration. They found that congenitally blind people required shorter periods than anyone else. Those same individuals also read Braille fastest. The authors note that each blind person's perception time was approximately equal to the average time that person took to move a finger from one Braille character to the next as they read.
The findings suggest that early onset blindness leads to faster perception of touch. However, whether that advantage is due to the brain adapting to the absence of vision — a change called plasticity — or to a lifetime of practicing Braille is still unclear.
Richard Held, PhD, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an expert in the brain and visual development who was unaffiliated with the study, said the results suggest that a lack of visual experience changes how information acquired by touch is processed.
"The heightened skill of tactile integration seems to account for the remarkable speed of Braille-reading demonstrated by some congenitally blind individuals," Held said. "This work constitutes a solid step forward in our understanding of the interaction between senses."
From
ANI:
A new study has brought scientists closer to solving one of the many mysteries of multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating diseases.
The research by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has revealed a previously unknown connection between two ion channels, which, when misaligned, can cause the many bizarre symptoms that characterize the condition.
The findings have provided fresh insights into the mechanisms underlying MS and suggest a novel target for therapeutic intervention.
"We've discovered a new target that could be efficacious. This particular pathway or ion channel is a key player in this disease, and we think that manipulating it could have a huge benefit for people suffering from MS," said Terrence J. Sejnowski of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who led the study.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system; it is responsible for a baffling range of neurological symptoms, including numbness, tingling, muscle weakness, paralysis, and vision loss.
It is thought to result when the immune system attacks the myelin sheath that insulates axons, the nerve fibres that conduct electrical impulses to and from the brain and between neurons within the brain.
Ordinarily, the myelin speeds up the signals the axons transmit, called action potentials.
When axons lose their insulation, however, either signal conduction fails because the demyelinated axons are unable to generate an impulse, resulting in a loss of sensation, weakness, or blindness, or the axons become hyperexcitable and overcompensate by firing even in the absence of an input, causing twitching.
The first computer model of axonal transmission, developed in the 1950s for the giant axon of the squid, which lacks myelin, tracked positively charged sodium and potassium ions, whose movements across the neuronal membrane generate the necessary electrical signals.
Building on that model, Sejnowski and his team included myelin in their own model, then demyelinated one of the sections and incorporated all the changes known to take place as a result.
"It's been known for a long time that the two most important ions in the axon are sodium and potassium. What we did was use a program that can model every part of the axon by breaking it into little segments so we could we keep track of the ions going in and out of each segment. And what we found really surprised us," said Sejnowski.
The vast majority of prior clinical studies had focused on the sodium channel, which is responsible for initiating the action potential, and many of the targets for MS drugs likewise focus on the sodium channel.
While enhancing the sodium current did boost the signal in Sejnowki's model, it was the ratio of densities between the sodium channel and a previously ignored but ubiquitous voltage-insensitive potassium current called the leak current, which sets the ground state of the neuron, that determines whether neurons can fire properly.
If the sodium level drops, an accompanying drop in the leak current will maintain the signal, whereas if the sodium drops but the leak current doesn't, signal transmission may fail.
Conversely, if the sodium level is too high and the leak current doesn't increase, a patient may experience twitching. The "safe" zone lies between the two limits.
The findings were reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
From
Reuters:
Scientists studying swine flu have found that 70 children died from it in England in a 9 month period during the H1N1 pandemic and death rates were worst among ethnic minority children and those with other health problems.
In a study in the Lancet medical journal, Liam Donaldson, the former Chief Medical Officer for England, said children from the country's Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities had much higher mortality than white British children, as did children with serious pre-existing illnesses -- especially chronic neurological diseases such as cerebral palsy.
These high-risk groups should be a priority for H1N1 vaccination, Donaldson and his research team said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), which declared the pandemic over in August, some 18,450 people worldwide are confirmed to have died from H1N1, including many pregnant women and young people. But the WHO says it will take at least a year after the pandemic ends to determine the true death toll, which is likely to be much higher.
Experts say H1N1 swine flu virus has now taken over as the main seasonal flu strain and health authorities that run annual flu campaigns have included it in regular seasonal flu vaccines.
Donaldson's team said their findings of high death rates among ethnic minorities were consistent with reports from the United States of minorities suffering more severe illness during the H1N1 pandemic.
"This finding might be attributable to clustering of pandemic influenza A H1N1 cases in areas of England with high ethnic minority populations -- such as London and the West Midlands," they wrote in their study.
The findings in England also showed that from 26 June 2009 to 22 March 2010:
* The overall childhood death rate for H1N1 was 6 per million population.
* The rate was highest for children aged under 1 year, at 14 deaths per million population.
* Death rates were higher for Bangladeshi children (47 deaths per million population) and Pakistani children (36) than for white British children (4).
* Of the 70 children who died of H1N1, 21 percent were previously healthy and 64 percent had severe pre-existing disorders.
* Overall, 45 of the children had received the antiviral flu drug oseltamivir, sold under the brand name Tamiflu, but only seven had had it within 48 hours of the onset of their symptoms and only three had it before they were admitted to hospital.
* Only two of the children who died had received an H1N1 vaccine -- too late for it to be effective.
From
The Charleston Business Journal:
A $2.3 million federal grant will be used to support a four-year program to help adults with learning disabilities have a college experience at the College of Charleston.
The U.S. Department of Education awarded the grant to help fund the Realizing Educational and Career Hopes: Foundation, Augmentation, Replication program.
The program at the College of Charleston is a new post-secondary program for adults with intellectual disabilities who want to be included in the academic, professional, residential and social college experiences in a supportive environment, the college said in a news release.
“We view this as an extraordinary opportunity for the college to establish itself as a national leader in inclusive education and to promote inclusion not only at the post-secondary level, but also at primary and secondary levels as well,” said Cynthia May, a professor in the psychology department at the College of Charleston.
The money will be used to extend the core foundations of the Reach Far program, the college said. This includes collaborations with regional educational and professional organizations, promotion of positive attitudes toward disability, and improved student preparation, recruitment and retention.
The program, which enrolled its first students in the fall, offers credit and non-credit programs to students whose quality of life and opportunities to contribute to society hinge on access to educational opportunities, the college said. Money for planning and development of the program came from a College Transition Connection grant.
From
The Stamford Advocate in Conn.:
STAMFORD, Conn. -- The New York woman who used forged credentials to fleece more than $150,000 from families with autistic children and the Norwalk school system was sentenced to three years in prison Oct. 28.
Stacy Lore, 34, formerly of Carmel, N.Y., was given an eight-year prison sentence that will be suspended after she serves three years, followed by five years of probation. She is accused of posing as a board certified behavior analyst and told Norwalk school officials she had two master's degrees and a doctorate so she could work for the public school district as a consultant on autism treatment services.
Victims of her scams said they paid her tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for what they though was specialized treatment for their autistic children. One such parent, Kim Graham, said she uncovered the fraud after moving her high-functioning son to another specialist who had real-life qualifications and effective therapies. She became suspicious and checked the online registry for the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. She could not find certification records for Lore. It took months for school and police officials to act, she said.
Using her forged credentials and a company named Spectrum Kids, Lore billed the Norwalk school system $155,000 for services to children with autism between 2007 and 2008, records show. Families of the special-needs children whom Lore treated without any qualifications spoke out in court in the moments before Judge Richard Comerford handed down the sentence.
All of them urged the court to punish Lore with the maximum amount of prison time allowable, arguing her lack of qualifications with autism treatment stunted the development of their children. They called her a monster, liar and manipulator and said she bought a black Mercedes with the money she made by posing as an autism treatment specialist.
Margaret Bustell, of Norwalk, told the court she confronted Lore when she realized the scope of her fraud. At the time, Lore defended herself and showed her falsified credentials and advanced degrees from New York University.
In reality, she only had a 1993 high school equivalency diploma from New York state.
"They were real children with real problems, and we needed real solutions," Bustell said, choking up at points while reading her statement to the court.
Defense attorney William Pelletreau, of Norwalk, said Lore made no excuses for her crimes and urged the court to accept the recommended sentence of a three-year suspended prison term, saying it was a case that "screams for" psychiatric treatment.
Before handing down the prison sentence, Comerford expressed doubts that Lore was remorseful for her crimes. He also cast blame at those responsible for allowing Lore to pose as a certified behavior analyst for so long.
"There are more people responsible for this than are in this courtroom today," Comerford said.
Bustell said families of the children affected by Lore's fraud plan to sue the Norwalk school district. Attorney Greg Kimmel is representing four families in a civil action against Lore and the city of Norwalk that he plans to file in the next few weeks.
Lore has been charged by Weston authorities on similar accusations and is also the subject of an investigation in New Fairfield, prosecutors said Thursday.
From
The Gazette in Maryland:
John T.C. Yeh (pictured), owner of Rockville deaf services company Viable, and his brother, former Viable executive Joseph Yeh, pleaded guilty Oct. 28 in a federal court in Trenton, N.J., to conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
Authorities said the Yehs conspired to defraud the Federal Communications Commission's Video Relay Service program, which helps deaf people communicate, by paying others to make fraudulent calls. They submitted some $55 million in claims to the FCC, according to a news release from prosecutors.
John Yeh, 63, and Joseph Yeh, 65, who previously pleaded not guilty to the charges, appeared before U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano after signing a plea agreement under which other charges would be dropped. At their sentencing, scheduled for Feb. 9, they each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Paul Kemp, a partner with Ethridge, Quinn, Kemp, McAuliffe, Rowan & Hartinger in Rockville who is representing John Yeh, and Stanley Reed, a principal with Lerch, Early and Brewer in Bethesda who is representing Joseph Yeh, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The Yehs were indicted almost a year ago, two of the 26 people nationwide charged with conspiring to defraud the FCC program. At least 11 other people, including former Viable executives Anthony Mowl and Donald Tropp, pleaded guilty during the past year.
In court documents filed this week, the Yehs said they were "presently unemployed."
John Yeh has long been involved with organizations that advocate for the deaf community, such as the National Asian Deaf Congress and National Deaf Business Institute. He was a trustee of Gallaudet University, a Washington, D.C., institution that specializes in education for deaf people, for more than a decade. Deaf Life, a monthly national magazine founded in 1987, honored him as Deaf Person of the Year in 2008.
A previous business that John Yeh formed, software engineering and integration company Integrated Microcomputer Systems, in Rockville with the help of his brothers, reached $40 million in revenue in 1995 before he sold it in 1996.
Snap!VRS of Pearl River, N.Y., a video relay service company, agreed to acquire Viable last year. But that transaction has been pending, as officials wait to see what occurs with Viable's legal situation.
