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Friday, December 11, 2009

State Appoiinted Guardians


I recently began tutoring a young man who was born with cerebral palsy. At 20 years old, he took some time out from school, is back, and I am tutoring him for his last year of high school. As mentioned in a previous blog, Ethan uses ECOT- Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow- which is frankly one of the absolute worst ways I've seen for students to actually learn and maintain information. But I am focusing now on this young man's life.
Complications during birth caused Ethan to be born with cerebral palsy. He is forever in a wheelchair, has no use of his legs or right arm and has difficulty speaking. After he was born, it was determined that this birth defect was a result of negligence and malpractice on part of the local hospital- Athens, Ohio's Obleness Memorial Hospital. Ethan and his family won a multimillion dollar resulting case. Needless to say. Ethan is financially secure for the rest of his life.
With the money, Ethan's parents purchased a home, littered with expenses- kitchen appliances, stereos, cars- all the workings for a lavish lifestyle. Unfortunately, his parents were interested in themselves. Both parents went to prison for stealing Ethan's money. His mother was even jailed for stealing and trying to pawn the house's oven and range.
For those who are unaware, stealing from a disabled person is a felony, and Ethan's mother and father are on a national list as offenders.
At the time of all this, Ethan was only 16, so when his parent's were jailed, Ethan was in need of a legal guardian- someone to handle this multimillion dollar trust and make sure he was taken care of. He requires an aid daily to fix him meals, clean his home and give him baths.
Ethan was assigned a legal guardian thanks to the great state of Ohio. This guardian is located 50 miles away and also serves as the guardian to over 13 other kids in different situations. If there were ever a case of abuse, this is it.
After being in Ethan's life for over 3 months now, it is apparent that this guardian is neglectful and careless toward Ethan. She quite literally has not returned his phone calls in 8 weeks, no matter how many messages he leaves with her secretary. Ethan would like to purchase a digital camera for Christmas, to take pictures of his friends and family around the holidays- he even emailed his guardian the exact one. It has been 6 weeks and nothing so much as a response has been heard. This guardian sold his home, moved him to a retirement home for 3 months (at the tender age of 20) and gives him absolutely no access to any of his multimillion dollar trust. He lives day to day- rent included- off of his food stamps and monthly SSI check.
There is a laundry list of acts of negligence by this guardian and it is quite simply abuse toward a disabled person. The State of Ohio needs to do an evaluation of her business practices and the trust, because this is the lowest, most irresponsible form of neglect there is.

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