DENVER SCHOOL PLAN EVACUATES ALL STUDENTS -- EXCEPT THOSE WITH
DISABILITIES
By Dave Reynolds, Editor
Inclusion Daily Express
June 8, 2000

DENVER, COLORADO--Joseph Ford is afraid. The West High School sophomore, who
has cerebral palsy, told
the school board last week that he is afraid because the Denver School
District's emergency evacuation plan calls for students in wheelchairs to
remain in "designated assistance rooms" to wait for rescuers rather than
leave the building.

His mother, Penny Ford, is also afraid and has been asking the district for
two years to purchase an Evac-chair, a device that transforms from a
wheelchair into a kind of sled for moving somebody quickly in an emergency.

The Fords were not reassured when officials told them that the Fire
Department can get to any place in the city faster than school personnel
could get Joseph onto an Evac-chair and out of the building. Penny pointed
out that during the shootings at Columbine High School last spring, those
who escaped did so on their own, and that rescuers did not enter the
building for several hours.

Ford also was not reassured when the school's principal suggested that
during a fire the students would be safe in the three-story school's
designated assistance rooms.

"The walls, as far as I know, are thick enough so that somebody could stay
there for a reasonable amount of time and be safe in a fire situation," said
West principal Irene Jordan.

The district said it will look into getting the Evac-chairs, which cost
about $900 each. The policy regarding designated "safe" rooms will likely
not be altered any time soon.

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Dave Reynolds, Editor
Inclusion Daily Express
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