- 弗吉尼亚教育协会
富兰克林农场大道8001号，200室
里士满，弗吉尼亚州23229
电话:804-648-5801或800-552-9554
每个人都知道达琳·哈蒙, Chesapeake’s 2010 Secondary Teacher of the Year and a 25-year classroom veteran, 病得太厉害了，在课堂上不能发挥作用吗.
她的学校管理人员知道这一点. After watching her struggle to function while tethered to an oxygen machine, they regretfully went along with her decision to take disability retirement.
她的同事们都知道. “她是我们楼里最好的老师之一,一位同事写道。, 支持哈蒙的残疾退休申请. “Now she is physically unable to do her basic job, let alone all the extras she once did.”
她的学生都知道. “Their attention was always on taking care of me, not on their real business,” says 哈蒙. “我的吸氧机会发出声音, 有时我会缺氧, 我已经筋疲力尽了, 一直以来.”
她的医生知道. Three separate physicians submitted written opinions backing 哈蒙’s case for disability benefits after she’d been hospitalized 19 times in 18 months, 称她为“永久残疾”.”
The only people who didn’t seem to know it worked for the Virginia Retirement System. 他们三次拒绝了哈蒙的残疾退休申请, 让她两年没有收入, 在此期间，她失去了家和毕生积蓄.
直到2013年1月, 在VEA法律人员的干预下, 哈蒙得到了她一直应得的福利.
The breakthrough came during a phone conversation a frustrated 哈蒙 had with a VRS employee after the second denial. “你们都在等我死吗??哈蒙问. In response, the employee asked if she could speak to 哈蒙 “off the record.哈蒙同意了，那名员工问她是不是VEA的会员.
哈蒙, 奥斯卡史密斯高中的特殊教育老师, 在她的整个教学生涯中都在协会工作, 他这么说. “你需要联系他们，”VRS员工回答.
哈蒙说:“这就像我脑子里的一个灯泡熄灭了。. “这一切都是我一个人做的. 我请不起律师. 当你生病的时候，你就不能清醒地思考. 所以我马上打电话给VEA，他们接手了. 他们的第一反应是问我为什么花了这么长时间.”
VRS拒绝了哈蒙的残疾申请，因为, 虽然很明显她的情况在恶化, 没有人确切地知道出了什么问题. 医生一开始只能告诉她，她有严重的哮喘.
她知道事情不止于此. “为什么我要一直进医院??她问道。. “我认识的哮喘患者都在使用吸入器.”
2010年底，哈蒙的健康状况开始急剧恶化, when she began not feeling well while attending an Oscar Smith basketball game. 她回到了家, but she was having such difficulty breathing that her family took her to the emergency room. 医生说她得了肺炎, 给她用药, 告诉她10天后再来做胸部x光检查.
在去医生办公室拍x光片的路上, 哈蒙 was still having such trouble filling her lungs that she put her head “outside the car window, 像狗一样”去呼吸一些空气. Her doctor didn’t like what he saw when she arrived at his office and sent her directly to the hospital, 她在哪里待了10天, 包括圣诞节, 接受呼吸治疗. 她再次被告知患有严重的哮喘.
决心回到学校, 2011年1月中旬，哈蒙终于回到了教室, 但不久后她就接到了肺科医生的电话, 让她再来做一次检查.
“这是一个活生生的考验,哈蒙说, 只走了两三步, 我的氧气含量已经处于“危险”范围.”
她开始全天候使用补充氧气. 奥斯卡·史密斯的工作人员尽其所能帮助她, 包括给她一个靠近前门的新停车位, 帮她把吸氧机和氧气罐带进教室, 而且只允许她在一楼教书. 但很快就发现，这还不够.
不久之后，她的医生建议她辞职. VRS proceeded to deny 哈蒙’s initial application for disability retirement, 然后是她的第一次上诉. 她的医生, 除了哮喘，什么都诊断不出来, sent 哈蒙 to Duke University’s hospital for a lung biopsy in November 2011.
The medical staff there finally figured out what was making life so incredibly difficult for 哈蒙, using the biopsy results to diagnose a condition called chronic lymphocytic bronchiolitis. 可悲的是, receiving the diagnosis did not set 哈蒙’s healing in motion—both the cause and cure of the condition are currently unknown.
有了诊断，哈蒙在VEA的帮助下提出了她的第二次VRS上诉. 尽管现在只能坐在轮椅上，她还是被拒绝了.
“我当时很震惊，”她说. 我哭了又哭. 我想既然他们知道了我的诊断结果，他们还能想要什么呢?”
VEA的法务人员让她放心, telling her that this decision had not been entirely unexpected and that it would serve as a good launching point for making 哈蒙’s case at the final appeal level before a hearing officer. 离析律师, aided by the testimony of several of 哈蒙’s colleagues and three family members, 还有三位医生的报告, made it clear to the hearing officer that 哈蒙 fully met every legal (and common-sense) definition of disability.
几个月后, 当警官的报告下来的时候, 它有14页长, 包括最后一段，包括, “有充分且令人信服的证据表明. 哈蒙’s pulmonary disease and the respiratory insufficiency that result from it.在这段的其余部分, the hearing officer also mentioned 哈蒙’s “obvious poor state of health”—and awarded her full disability retirement benefits.
她是在与VEA法律团队的电话会议上得知这个消息的. “那是我一生中最快乐的日子之一，”她说.
她知道，如果没有协会的帮助，这一天永远不会到来. “如果没有VEA，我不会有同样的结果，”哈蒙说. “他们真的减轻了我的负担. I became a member as a beginning teacher to protect myself—I never thought about how it might help if I lost my health. But now I know that anything can happen at any time, and you’re going to need their help.”
The value of Association membership is now a point she’s eager to make to her colleagues, 近与远. “你需要成为会员,她说。, “如果我的身体允许的话, 我要让人们知道这一点.”
现在, 哈蒙仍然专注于学习如何与她的毛细支气管炎共存, 这可能会让她很快出现在双肺移植名单上.
她也会在新家安顿下来. 当她得知自己已经领到了退休金时, 她微笑着说, “第二天我们就签了一份房子的合同.”
To educators who read Darlene 哈蒙’s story and think to themselves, “Well, that’s an extreme case. 我绝对不需要那种帮助,VEA法律服务主管Dena Rosenkrantz只能笑着说, “我希望你是对的.”
事实上, most VEA members will not be diagnosed with bronchiolitis and end up on oxygen and in a wheelchair. 然而, information and advice from VEA staff and lawyers can help with health-related employment questions such as medical leave, 工作场所住宿或永久残疾退休. And health issues are just a very small part of the help that’s available from VEA.
VEA members get help from VEA staff with questions about all aspects of school employment:
许多学校员工, 包括很多“从没想过会发生在我身上”的人,将需要一名协会律师:
无论你的情况如何, Rosenkrantz urges you to make your local UniServ office your first call—don’t take months to pick up your phone, 就像哈蒙那样. 幸运的是，她的电话来得并不太晚.
“We can be a source of information on a wide range of workplace issues,” says Rosenkrantz,. You can get solid information from your school division’s human resources office, but there are times when you want information and advice from outside source, 或者你还没有准备好与你的雇主分享计划.
当然, in addition to being able to have the ear of VEA staff and reach an Association attorney, VEA membership also provides you with the Educators Employment Liability (EEL) insurance plan, providing secondary coverage to defend actions in school employment in a civil suit, 以及在此类诉讼中对你的损害赔偿. If you successfully defend a criminal charge involving actions in school employment, 你最多可以收回35美元,律师费和诉讼费.
Several of Darlene 哈蒙’s teaching colleagues stood up for her during her appeals process, testifying before a fact-finding officer about the excellence of her teaching prior to her illness and how dramatically she was affected by her health.
“她是老师的老师,塔米卡·戴维森, 奥斯卡史密斯老师和CEA成员, 他在VRS听证会上说. “She was one that could come into any classroom and be able to captivate everyone’s attention. 她不相信坐在桌子后面教书. 她是个亲力亲为的老师.”
戴维森, 和哈蒙共事了10年, 注意到哈蒙生病后，情况发生了翻天覆地的变化. “她的精神崩溃了，”她说. “这是她的使命，她应该做的事情.”
依赖氧气罐，不能移动或离开教室, “她不可能教书,戴维森说. “她不会写字. 她很难回忆起事实, and that’s impossible—you can’t do that when you’re trying to educate someone.”
奥斯卡·史密斯的老师莎伦·威利斯对此表示赞同. “她是一个有影响力的人，”她作证说. “她向我们展示了如何成为更好的老师. 她不知道，但她成了我的导师.”
威利斯, 也是CEA成员, 无助地看着她的导师挣扎, and testified about 哈蒙 laboring just to get into the building each morning, 其他老师在黑板上帮她写功课, 有人在楼里为她跑腿, 对她的学生的负面影响, 以及哈蒙自己的抑郁症, 是由她的健康问题引起的.
威利斯说:“看到她的健康状况让人心碎。.
“我认为这是一个多么了不起的人的见证. 哈蒙 is that we have her colleagues sitting around for hours to make sure you know that she can no longer teach,VEA律师米尔顿·布朗在听证会的结案陈词中说道.
这也有力地证明了真理的力量.
