Monday, December 6, 2004

AMERICAN COUNCIL OF THE BLIND

PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE

16509 NE 20TH STREET

VANCOUVER, WA 98684

360) 892-9229

FAX (360) 892-7727

ralphsanders_1@juno.com

For Immediate Release

December 4, 2004

Adelina Zepeda delivered a healthy baby boy, Rivaldo Zepeda, at 4:06 a.m. Friday at the Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, Calif. What should have been a joyous occasion for the parents turned into the worst nightmare the parents could imagine. By day's end, the California Department of Child Protective Services had intervened and had already made plans to take the child into foster care when he left the hospital Sunday.

This is the first child born to Adelina and Marco Zepeda, a Hispanic couple. The problem? The parents are both blind.

Marco Zepeda, the child?s father, frightened and angered by the actions of Child Protective Services, Friday evening turned to his friends in the blind community for help.

The American Council of the Blind (ACB), the nation?s largest consumer based advocacy organization of blind and visually impaired individuals, in tandem with the California Council of the Blind, its California affiliate, have responded by sending a representative to the hospital to assist the parents.

Margie Donovan, herself a blind parent from Millbrae, Calif., has been in meetings at the Sequoia Hospital with the parents and social workers, representing ACB and the CCB. The meetings have included Nancy Coxwell, a social worker for the hospital, and Nancy Nieves, the on-call CPS social worker for San Mateo County this weekend, attempting to reverse the state?s position without involving court actions.

Christopher Gray, President of the 25,000-member American Council of the Blind, said, "The ACB has already contacted attorneys in the Bay Area and has promised all necessary legal support of the Zepedas to protect their rights as blind parents"

Gray is himself a resident of San Francisco.

Donovan, who works as a Visually Impaired Services Coordinator for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and serves as coordinator of guide dog services for the ACB, says that it is clear that the reason for the state?s behavior is the parents? blindness.

Donovan recounts the events as they unfolded. She says the mother, Adelina, entered the hospital on Wednesday. Eventually labor had to be induced, but that the child was born in a normal delivery procedure early Friday morning.

Later that morning, Adelina Zepeda asked the hospital?s lead social worker, Nancy Coxwell, if she knew of any visiting nurse programs that could visit her home to assist her with child care for the first few weeks. According to Donovan, Coxwell could not find any visiting nurse program in San Mateo County so she called the Department of Child Protective Services to see if they knew of any such services.

Instead of working on visiting nurses, CPS social worker Claudia Sanchez came to the hospital to interview the parents.

"They asked Adelina Zepeda if she had anyone to assist her with the baby and she told them that her aunt and uncle were available to help, as well as the manager of her apartment building and friends from the church," Donovan reports.

"Then they asked the father to demonstrate his ability to change a diaper," she said. "Like virtually all first-time fathers, blind or sighted, he didn?t know much about changing diapers"

"Then they asked him to sign a form," Donovan continued. "Marco Zepeda, who recently moved to California from Mexico, has very little English language skills, so he did not know he was signing a form releasing the child to foster care"

In addition to giving the social workers background on the abilities of blind parents to raise their children like all other parents, Donovan says that she has pointed out to them that what they are trying to do is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, California law and human decency.

"One can imagine this happening in some remote community where people have had little or no experience in working with blind individuals, but it is unthinkable that a blind couple in San Mateo County should face such blatant discrimination and disregard for them as people," said Jeff Thom, President of the California Council of the Blind.

Donovan reports that Child Protective Services is now asking the mother and her baby to remain in the hospital until Monday so they can have yet a third social worker evaluate the parents? ability to care for their child.

"On many occasions throughout its history the American Council of the Blind has been required to provide emotional and legal support for blind parents around the country in dealing with Child Protective Services in many states," Gray said. "These cases have become rarer in the past decade but they are by no means nonexistent as this case demonstrates"

The American Council of the Blind has more than 70 state and special-interest affiliates throughout the United States. The National Office of the organization is located in Washington, DC. For more information about the ACB visit our web site at www.acb.org.