Florida Teacher Blames Firing on Support for Terri Schiavo
By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
December 09, 2003
(CNSNews.com) - A Pinellas County, Fla., teacher -- who is
disabled and works
with disabled students- - claims she is being fired because she voiced
her support for another disabled Florida woman: Terri Schindler Schiavo.
Rus Cooper-Dowda told CNSNews.com Wednesday morning that the Pinellas
County School Board voted six-to-one to fire her Tuesday night, citing
"job perforrmance" as the reason. The veteran teacher claims
she was terminated in retaliation for sharing her opinion about the
Schiavo case in response to a reporter's question.
She also said that some school board members wanted her to provide more
information about her claims but were discouraged from asking questions
at Tuesday night's hearing by an attorney for the board.
Terri Schindler Schiavo is the 39-year-old woman who suffered a severe
brain injury under questionable circumstances in 1990. Doctors hired by
her husband, and a court-appointed expert who reviewed Terri's medical
records, believe she is in a "Persistent Vegetative State,"
while doctors employed by her parents and unpaid experts have said that
Terri's condition could improve with therapy and rehabilitation.
Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, received court permission to have
Terri's feeding tube removed so she would die by dehydration and
starvation. But the move was blocked, initially through legal actions
brought by Terri's parents and, then, by a law passed by the Florida
legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.
Schiavo is currently challenging the constitutionality of the
legislation, dubbed "Terri's Law" by its supporters.
After a Florida court gave Schiavo permission to let his wife die in
early October, Cooper-Dowda responded to a question from a local
television reporter about the judge's decision.
"I did a very brief interview, offsite, on my own time, not
identifying as a teacher, where I said, 'As a disabled Floridian of
faith, female, with disabilities, this is scary,'" Cooper-Dowda
explained. "And I was really clear that 'you cannot say I am a
teacher' and the reporter was disappointed because I teach special
ed[ucation], but agreed."
What the 26-year-veteran teacher could not have known at the time was
that many of the students at Bay Point Middle School - where she taught
children with behavioral, emotional and learning disabilities - were
watching the local news that evening for extra credit. Word of Cooper-Dowda's
"stardom" traveled quickly.
"The next morning I came in [and] there was a [regular monthly]
faculty meeting, the Christian faculty who saw it ... said it was 'a
really great, life-affirming interview,'" Cooper Dowda explained.
"Then, for the first time, I started hearing, 'Well, you don't fit
in. Teachers with public opinions like that don't fit in.'"
Cooper-Dowda said she was also called a "religious wacko" on
more than one occasion, even though she only mentioned her religious
beliefs in passing during the interview.
"The principal, various teachers, my supervisor, aides,
paraprofessionals, everyone was saying, 'Teachers aren't allowed to have
opinions, especially about Terri Schiavo, and especially if you're
already a seminary grad[uate],'" Cooper-Dowda alleged. "And
I'm thinking, 'Wow! I thought this was America?"
The situation went from bad to worse, Cooper-Dowda claimed, when several
copies of a booklet she had written detailing the similarities between
her experience and that of Terri Schindler Schiavo appeared on campus.
At age 30, the teacher contracted a severe case of lupus that left her
unable to speak and with very little control over her motor functions.
She listened helplessly as doctors incorrectly diagnosed her as being in
a Persistent Vegetative State, the same condition some physicians
believe afflicts Terri, and described her chances for recovery as
"hopeless."
"I could hear all that," Cooper-Dowda recalled. "It took
a huge effort to finally communicate, 'I'm in here!' And I barely
survived."
Though she could not speak, Cooper-Dowda would use her finger to write
the word "no" in the air when doctors discussed removing her
life support. Those same doctors diagnosed her attempts to communicate
as "seizure activity" and sedated her. According to Cooper-Dowda,
the harder she tried to communicate with her caretakers, the more
heavily she was sedated.
The curiosity of one nurse saved Cooper-Dowda's life, she said.
"She refused to believe that the systematic pattern of tapping and
blinking and moving and moaning was not communication," Cooper-Dowda
recalled. "So, when I went to Terri Schiavo's October 2002 hearing
... I saw the videos for the first time and I was writing about it and I
thought, 'That could have been me,' and then I thought, 'Oh, it was
me!'"
That nurse put ink on the incapacitated woman's fingertip. Cooper-Dowda
was then able to write the letter "y" for the word
"yes," and "n" for "no," proving that the
doctors had been wrong about her condition.
Since then, Cooper-Dowda has completed a second master's degree and
given birth to a son, who is about to enter college. She told CNSNews.com
that after 25 years of teaching at private schools, she finally realized
her dream of working with disabled students in a public school system.
She began work at Bay Point Middle School on Aug. 1.
But after the television interview and the unexpected arrival of her
writing about Terri Schiavo's case appeared on campus, Cooper-Dowda said
it became almost impossible to do the job she so loved.
"After that I couldn't get the most accepted basic support like
needed room supplies, memos about meetings, campus police help when any
of my kids needed to be removed for violence or assistance for students
hurting themselves regularly," Cooper-Dowda alleged. "Finally,
I was given less than a day to hand deliver a resignation for 'personal
reasons' or be fired for 'not fitting in.'"
Ron Stone, associate superintendent for human resources and public
affairs for Pinellas County Schools, told CNSNews.com that
Cooper-Dowda has no recourse other than Tuesday night's scheduled appeal
to the board.
"She is a probationary employee and under Florida law all teachers
are hired under a 97-day probationary contract as at-will employees and
at any point during that 97-day period, the principal can make a
recommendation to discontinue the probation," Stone explained.
"Essentially, that's what's happened here, and we don't have to
have reasons for that."
Cooper-Dowda believes that her termination is being expedited to make
sure that it is completed before her probation expires, but she has been
in contact with several public interest law firms who say that the
appeals process will move her past the probationary period and make her
eligible for the protections afforded to regular staff teachers.
She also said Wednesday morning that the Florida Department of Education
is investigating her firing at the request of the governor's office.
The Pinellas County School Board meeting, at which Cooper-Dowda was
fired, was telecast live on the local cable system. Because of the
abbreviated holiday programming schedule, it's expected that the meeting
will be replayed several times over the next four to six weeks.
"They threatened me with this. They said, 'If you don't resign for
personal reasons, you're gonna get fired over and over and over' because
the school board meeting runs on TV through the December holidays when
everyone turns to them for the student concerts," Cooper-Dowda
alleged. "They thought I would go, 'Oh, geez, I'd better resign.'
"Instead, I went, 'If Terri's supporters talk, their witness is
going to run over and over and over through December," Cooper-Dowda
said cheerfully. "There's a reason this is happening to me."
Cooper-Dowda hopes the public and media focus will quickly shift from
her story to Terri's plight, but she acknowledges that the altercation
with Pinellas County school officials has changed her life forever.
"I'm going to be so sad. I've wanted to be a public school teacher
since I was five and I finally got in, in August. It took me 43 years to
get here," Cooper-Dowda said. "I probably will not teach
again."
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