New Mexico Update

New Mexico Update

The Braille Monitor

_July 1997

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New

Mexico Update

From the Editor: In the October, 1996,

issue of the Braille Monitor we reported on the distressing events over

the past twenty years and more at the New Mexico School for the Visually Handicapped

(NMSVH). Things have continued to happen during the intervening months. One

of the most hopeful events was that Governor Johnson appointed Jim Salas, a

leader of the National Federation of the Blind, as a member of the school's

board of trustees. The following three news articles, taken from two Albuquerque

newspapers, are self-explanatory.

Principal of Blind School Voted Out,

Regents Let Boss Go After 19-Year Service

(Taken from the May 3, 1997, Albuquerque Journal)

The Associated Press. The New

Mexico School for the Visually Handicapped, undergoing a federal investigation,

will not renew the principal's contract, school regents have decided.

The regents voted 3 to 2 last week in Albuquerque not to renew Diane Baker's

contract, which expires June 30. She has worked for the school for nineteen

years.

"I'm not going to talk about the specific reasons" why the contract

was not renewed, Board of Regents President James Salas said.

"The Board has to do what it thinks is right, just like all of the decisions

of the school," he said.

J. Kirk Walter, school superintendent, said he had recommended that Baker's

contract be renewed.

"She's put in a tremendous amount of time and effort here," he said.

"I feel she's done an excellent job with both students and staff."

Federal agents have been investigating whether the rights of students were violated

at the school, officials have said.

The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department said in a February

26 letter to Governor Gary Johnson that investigators would look into whether

students at the school were physically and sexually abused, whether they had

adequate medical care, and whether the education and habitation at the school

were appropriate.

The school has been under investigation by the state attorney general's Office

since June, 1996, when nine students sued former Superintendent Jerry Watkins

and several current and former school employees, alleging they were physically

and sexually abused.

The allegations covered a time period from 1972 to February, 1996. Six other

students later joined the lawsuit.

The school has an endowment of about $100 million and serves about seventy students

on the Alamogordo campus and about 300 others around the state. It has a staff

of about 180 employees.

School for Blind Target of Federal

Probe

(Taken from the March 14, 1997, Albuquerque Tribune)

The Civil Rights Division of the U.S.

Justice Department has notified Governor Gary Johnson of a federal probe into

rights violations of students at the New Mexico School for the Visually Handicapped.

The February 26 letter said investigators will look for violations of federal

constitutional and statutory rights of students who attend and live at the school.

Although the letter did not say what prompted the federal probe, it said investigators

will look into whether students at the school were subject to physical and sexual

abuse, had adequate medical care, and whether education and habitation at the

school were appropriate.

The school has been under investigation by the state attorney general's office

since June, 1996, when nine students filed suit against former superintendent

Jerry Watkins and several current and former school employees, alleging they

were physically and sexually abused.

The allegations covered a time period from 1972 to February, 1996.

Former Workers at Blind School Told

to Testify, Depositions Ordered in Civil Abuse Case

by Fritz Thompson

(Taken from the May 22, 1997, Albuquerque Journal)

Two key figures in a civil suit alleging

physical and sexual abuse at the New Mexico School for the Visually Handicapped

were told Wednesday they can't keep putting off questions about what went on

at the school before they left.

State District Judge Eugenio Mathis ordered attorneys for former school Superintendent

Jeriel Watkins and former coach and physical education instructor Jack Harmon

to submit to depositions as soon as the plaintiffs' attorney can set up a time

and place.

Watkins has said he can't offer testimony because he is suffering from a mental

illness, and Harmon said he doesn't want to incriminate himself in a possible

forthcoming criminal case.

Plaintiffs' attorney Bruce Pasternak said he foresees the depositions being

taken sometime in July.

Mathis refused to extend protective orders that the two defendants have been

using to avoid giving the depositions.

"We need to make some progress here," Mathis told lawyers in a hearing

that lasted about twenty minutes.

Filed in May, 1996, the suit contains allegations from fifteen former students

at the Alamogordo school that they were physically or sexually abused by fellow

students or school staff members over a twenty-three-year period ending last

year. The suit claims the school administration ignored some instances of abuse

or created an environment in which the abuse was allowed to take place.

Watkins and Harmon, who each were employed at the school for about twenty-three

years, are named as defendants.

Mark Jaffe, the attorney representing Harmon, asked Mathis to extend the protective

order for his client for another six months. He said he was making the request

because of investigations being conducted by the state attorney general, the

Otero County District Attorney, and the U.S. Justice Department.

"If we hold off and allow the investigations to progress, it won't impede

the case," Jaffe said. "Some of the claims (by the plaintiffs) are

exaggerated and sometimes untrue. ""

Later, when Mathis refused to extend Watkins' protective order, one of Watkins'

attorneys, J. Duke Thornton, asked that the deposition of his client be videotaped

and that Watkins be accompanied by a psychologist and a neuropsychologist "in

case he needs medical attention. ""

Pasternak said he has been informed that Watkins "is not in therapy, but

he is on medications."

"If Watkins is mentally ill, that explains everything about this case,"

Pasternak said. "It becomes pertinent to this case."

He did not speculate as to when Watkins, who retired July 1, [1996], might have

become mentally ill.

Mathis ordered that Watkins make himself available for depositions before June

24. Pasternak expects a week or two delay.

Through his protective order, Watkins escaped previously scheduled deposition

dates on January 15,

February 15, and May 15.

The case was filed in District Court in Albuquerque. But when both sides disqualified

judges in the district, the state Supreme Court chief justice appointed Mathis

of the 4th Judicial District in Las Vegas to hear the case.