Welcome to The Roving Activist’s Blog! What are you doing to help make this world a better place for all? Introduce yourself, and tell us your story!
Welcome to The Roving Activist’s Blog! What are you doing to help make this world a better place for all? Introduce yourself, and tell us your story!
CONTINUING THE FIGHT OF JUDY HEUMANN
I am a polio victim from infancy. Until 1996, my primary source of income was from the government for my disability. In 1990, I decided to take a chance after the passage of the ADA. Since 1997, I have been fighting where Judy Heumann left off with the New York City public schools.
As a result of Judy Heumann, the New York City public schools changed its policy of requiring a person with a disability to undergo a medical exam in order to get a teaching license. After Judy Huemann, the New York City public schools went underground. As a result, my teaching licenses were terminated one month after I began working full-time in a high school. This was because the main computer system was rigged to allow termination of my teaching licenses when I asked for a “reasonable accommodation” for my disability. It took me over a year to learn that it happened and over eight years to prove it and learn how it was done. As a result, I have been in the federal district court since 1998.
Recently I won the right to go to trial on my claim that an “R” notation terminated my teaching licenses after I requested a reasonable accommodation from my employer’s medical department. However, the New York City Law Department now argues that I cannot continue with my lawsuit because I didn’t fill out my Bankruptcy Petition correctly. They claim that as a result the lawsuit does not belong to me. This is a fraudulent claim where my creditors were given 90 days to file claims to benefit from the distribution of any assets that I might gain from my lawsuit.
However, my judge is very antagonistic to individuals with disabilities and individuals who act as their own lawyers. His personal opinion is that I am asking my employer to give me special privileges. He also believes that a person who acts as his or her own lawyer must be able to play the legal chess game.
I disagree. I feel that judges should not require laypersons to argue legal points which are well-settled legal principles in the profession. In this case, it is a well-settled legal principle that creditors must follow a court order to claim assets or lose their right to those assets. What is more insane is that I made it a condition of settlement that the creditors be repaid. So it is the judge who is preventing the creditors an opportunity to get their money back.
I have asked the judge to reconsider his decision to close my case. I have also, for the first time, given him legal citations to show that the City of New York Law Department is wrong in its interpretation of bankruptcy law. Yet, this judge often pretends that he doesn’t understand my arguments, so I might have to appeal.
Welcome, Maya!
Wow, I must say that you’ve got one HECK of a fight going on! It seems that if it isn’t one thing, its another. I wish you all the best, and hope that you will be able to hang in there and keep up the good fight to continue the legacy of Judy Heumann. She is truely one of the role models of the Disability Rights Movement.
Let us know how things are going.