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Disabled students to protest Garrett decision in April 17 action
Note to readers: links to news articles may not work after a few weeks, as news media remove current stories to their archives. The link may take you to the archives section, where, for a fee, you can view the article.
Apr. 10, 2001 -- Disabled students mobilizing in the wake of the Feb. 21 Supreme Court Garrett decision have formed the National Disabled Students Union; on April 17, the anniversary of the 1960 founding of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), NDSU is calling for students and others across the nation to participate in a national "Leave Out": disabled students and "allies" "will leave their schools and places of business "to remind the government that when business as usual means discrimination, we want no part of it."
The events are slated to take place at a concurrent time nationwide -- 1 p.m. Eastern Time, noon Central Time, 11 a.m. Mountain Time and 10 a.m. Pacific Time.
"SNCC became a major civil rights force in the United States, but the legacy of SNCC and other civil rights groups is being eroded by a Supreme Court insistent on weakening our rights in the name of 'states' rights,'" says the National Disabled Students Union in a statement.
"The people's right to equality comes before the states' right to discriminate," says the NDSU's website at http://www2.uic.edu/stud_orgs/pol/dsu/index.htm. NDSU is using the slogan as the central message of their "Leave Out" action.
"Whose rights are next? How long will we have the guarantee of equality?" asks the group in its material for the media.
"Patricia Garrett got breast cancer. Then she got fired. This is a story that's all too familiar to people with disabilities. If you're disabled, other people assume it's okay to pass you over, turn you down, and leave you out. They assume you're not quite as equal as everyone else and it's okay to treat you that way."
Stories about NDSU and its April 17 action can be found at the I Can Online website at http://www.icanonline.net/news/fullpage.cfm?articleid=2DE1494A-E9EA-47F3-A95C053255F46E6C&cx=news.news
and at Enabled Online (at http://www.enabledonline.com/real3.html).