Letter - Sacramento Bee 4/2/1997

Sacramento Bee

LETTERS

Wednesday, April 2, 1997

Section: EDITORIALS

Page: B7

-- Rights for the disabled

As father of the lead plaintiff in Coffelt vs. the Department of Developmental Services, I would like to respond to the March 6 editorial "The disabled in the community," in which The Bee called for a slowdown and re-examination of downsizing California's developmental centers. The issue is not that the state has proceeded too quickly, but that it has proceeded too slowly and in the wrong direction.

By failing to develop a clear-cut policy of downsizing and closing institutions, the state has attempted to appease those whose interests are best served by maintaining the status quo. With strong leadership, this failure could easily be corrected by a commitment that people with developmental disabilities will receive the services and support they need to live as close as possible to the way people without disabilities live.

It was The Bee that published the article "Retarded children neglected, abused at Sonoma center" (Oct. 9, 1989) that served as the impetus for Coffelt vs. DDS. The Bee also published the article "Settlement will boost home care" (Jan. 27, 1994), which described the lawsuit settlement and featured my son, Bill, in his Sacramento foster home, a living arrangement that was developed in response to the issues raised in the lawsuit. Bill will soon move to his own home in Sacramento under a program called Supported Living, again a program that might not have existed but for the lawsuit.

I think The Bee and other newspapers have been duped by a well-organized effort by lobbyists for state unions and parent organizations that want to maintain jobs and their children in the state institutions.

Bill Coffelt

Pollock Pines