Firing over marksmanship program protested

[ejames01]

Firing over marksmanship program protested: Supporters want former blind training center director reinstated

By Chris Killian | Special to the Kalamazoo...

February 24, 2010, 12:30PM



KALAMAZOO — Roxanne Mann had never shot any kind of gun until she took a class at the Michigan Commission for the Blind Training Center last year.

On her second try, she pulled the trigger on her spring-loaded pellet rifle and hit the bullseye on the target.

“I was amazed,� said Mann, 46, who has had vision problems most of her life and has been nearly blind for the past three years. “I’ve done more here than I ever thought I’d be able to do.�

That sense of achievement was what brought Mann and several of her fellow students to a protest at Kalamazoo training center for the blind Tuesday to demand reinstatement of former director Christine Boone, who was fired for creating the marksmanship program.

The program, conducted in a wooded ravine behind the Oakland Drive facility beginning last September, was canceled in November and Boone was fired Feb. 4 for allowing firearms on state property.

“It’s a safety-work-rule violation, a serious work-rule violation,� Mario Morrow, director of communications for the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth, said last week of Boones’ firing.

“The class was run safely, effectively and professionally, just like every other program here,� Phill Kelly, 26, who was enrolled in the class before it was terminated in November, said from Tuesday’s protest.

“They took all the appropriate safety measures into consideration. It’s not like we were shooting .22’s or shotguns out here.�

Boone, who has 30 years of experience in the rehabilitation field, said she saw the activity as one that empowered students and boosted their self-confidence. She said she received verbal consent in March to begin the program from Patrick Cannon, director of the Michigan Commission for the Blind in Lansing, and has appealed her dismissal.

The Kalamazoo Gazette has been unable to reach Cannon for comment.

Several students at Tuesday’s protest praised Boone, who became director of the training center in 2006, for her progressive programs.

Miles Matie, 35, had a career in computer programming before losing his eyesight four years ago. Although he’s only been at the training facility for a month, he said he’s learning a lot thanks to programming that Boone started.

Boone replaced outdated typing classes with computer training, introduced specialized technology to level the playing field between blind professionals and their sighted colleagues, and established a peer-support system for blind college students, according to Matie.

“I’m out here picketing for my fellow students,� he said.

“When you get rid of programs, you are subtly saying blind people can’t live a productive, normal life,� said Larry Posont, president of the of the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan, which organized the protest.

“We say the average blind person can do the average job,� he said. “We are in the right and we will continue to fight.�

[Jimaz]

It sounds like a story from The Onion but I found it on MLive.

Blind marksmen? Are spring-loaded pellet rifles considered firearms? Surely some safety precautions were taken. What were they? This story raises a lot of interesting unanswered questions!

[Retroit]

Taxpayer funded programs should be limited to teaching skills that will be realistically beneficial to the blind students. I don't think gun skills would qualify. Sounds like a good place for the state to reduce spending.

[Papasito]

The program, conducted in a wooded ravine behind the Oakland Drive facility beginning last September, was canceled in November and Boone was fired Feb. 4 for allowing firearms on state property.

I don't think the issue was about whether or not the program was beneficial to students, it's more about the legality. If the firearms are not allowed on state property, and he did not research the legality of the program beforehand, then he's got to suffer the consequences.

[Mikeg]

If she was fired because firearms are not allowed on state property, then they also need to fire the head of the Michigan DNRE!

[ejames01]

It was VERY beneficial.

Taxpayer funded programs should be limited to teaching skills that will be realistically beneficial to the blind students. I don't think gun skills would qualify. Sounds like a good place for the state to reduce spending.

[Meddle]

Are spring-loaded pellet rifles considered firearms?

Not by any reasonable definition.

[Papasito]

but since when are the hypersensitives associated with government and guns reasonable?

[Retroit]

I don't think the issue was about whether or not the program was beneficial to students, it's more about the legality.

Even if it were legal, I don't want my tax dollars being used to teach blind people how to shoot. What's next...music lessons for the deaf?

[Papasito]

Odor education for the scent impaired! lolol

[ejames01]

It was a confidence building exercise. But of course, you only care about yourself.

Even if it were legal, I don't want my tax dollars being used to teach blind people how to shoot. What's next...music lessons for the deaf?

[gnome]

How am I not surprised by that statement?

[Meddle]

Remember that you can be legally blind and still have some limited sight, so anything that can work on hand/eye coordination can be helpful and beneficial.

What's next...music lessons for the deaf?

Not a bad idea at all:

http://attherimmm.blogspot.com/2009/...-composer.html

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article...23316_20100203

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/8218

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Deaf+c...n.-a0135934301

And then there was Beethoven .......