Man With Down Syndrome Loses Job Due To "Budget Cuts." He Made $12...A Week

[xchrom]

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/08/man_with_down_s.php


Mark Stanganelli was recently fired from his job at a Wyndham Hotel due to "budget cuts." He made $12 a week.

Times are tough -- and they're apparently so tough for an "education collaborative" in Massachusetts that it can no longer afford to pay a man with Down Syndrome $12 a week to polish silver at a Wyndham Hotel, where he's worked for 15 years.

Mark Stanganelli got the ax last month when the Greater Lawrence Education Collaborative -- a non-profit public entity made up of local school districts, and tasked with providing employment for disabled residents -- sent a letter to his family saying it could no longer pony up the $12 a week to give Stanganelli a sense of purpose.

The reason the organization gave: budget cuts.

Clearly, we have a few questions concerning the "budget cuts" that led to Stanganelli's firing from his $12 a week job, so we sent GLEC Executive Director Kim Oliveira the following email:

hi kim. my name is james king. i'm a writer for the village voice in new york and had a question about the termination of mark stanganelli from his job at the wyndham hotel. i left you a voicemail.

my question is whether this was an isolated firing, or if the funding for whatever program stanganelli is part of was cut completely. further, were others fired, or was he the only one? $12 a week doesn't seem like a figure that would make or break your organization, so that's why i want to know the financial realities of the situation before i write that your organization couldn't cough up $12 a week to keep stanganelli on the job.

thanks

[hack89]

1. State promises job for Down syndrome man fired from $12 per week job

http://www.wcvb.com/health/State-promises-job-for-Down-syndrome-man-fired-from-12-per-week-job/-/9848730/16013652/-/4pml34z/-/index.html

[Courtesy Flush]

2. My godson has Down Syndrome

I hope he makes more than $12 at his job, but believe me, he'd do it for free. He really loves it, and is loved by all the staff at the hospital where he works.

Hard to believe somebody can't toss in $12 of their own money to keep this man on the job.

[rocktivity]

3. The Greater Lawrence Educational Collaborative, which placed and supervised Stanganelli at his job,

Last edited Thu Apr 24, 2014, 07:51 PM - Edit history (2)

wrote that the Wyndham Hotel setting was "no longer an appropriate option for Mark."

What has appropriateness have to do with budgeting? Either Mark did something that got him fired, or a guest saw him, realized he worked there, clutched their pearls, and complained.


rocktivity

[spinbaby]

4. It's really hard for the handicapped

I have a nephew who had a government that he not only loved, but was well suited for because its repetitive nature suited his autistic nature perfectly. Funding got cut, he lost the job, and now he's hanging around the house collecting Social Security disability.

I know a learning-disabled man who had a job bagging at a grocery store for over 20 years. He loved the job and actually earned a good living with benefits because it was a unionized store. He "retired" when his elderly parents could no longer drive him to work. ARC provides rides to work, but he lived too far for them. He's now also hanging around the house collecting Social Security disability and is quite depressed because he misses his job.

[hobbit709]

5. Wonder how much of a cut, if any, GLEC Executive Director Kim Oliveira got.

[TwilightGardener]

6. That's sad--I hope he's hired by someone else, and paid more than $12 a week.

[MattBaggins]

7. On a side note that writer for VV should be fired.

It is not that hard to press the shift key in an email.

[hobbit709]

8. Is that the only thing you can come up with about this story.

saying the reporter ought to be fired because he didn't use the shift key?

[Fumesucker]

13. Frankly if I got that email I wouldn't believe it was from a professional writer..

How you present yourself counts for a lot, both in person and online.

[Historic NY]

9. Thats pretty sad my local supermarket has several...

employee's all with DS. They all do their tasks which many here would consider mundane with a certain uplifting cheeriness. Its always a pleasure.

[ThatsMyBarack]

10. Just a guess:

The "budget cuts" were made to further line the pockets of the wealthy elite, right?

[woo me with science]

11. The new normal does not take human beings into consideration.

Under corporate rule, people are pixels on a computer screen, representing chess pieces 1000 miles away, to be rearranged, shifted, and cut as necessary to make the machine more lucrative. There is no such thing as a human being, only human "resources."

And the budget ALWAYS comes first, down to twelve dollars.

We have been sold, and this is our future.

[Ruby the Liberal]

12. Might be worth giving them a call and asking

If nothing else, it will let them know that this is hitting the internet at warp speed.

Greater Lawrence Educational Collaborative
480 Broadway
Methuen, MA 01844
978-685-3000

http://www.glec.org/about/contact.php

[4th law of robotics]

14. If 12 bucks a week makes a significant difference in your bottom line

you're doing something wrong as a business.

[RobinA]

16. I Doubt GLEC

is a business. They are probably a social service program VERY thinly subsidized. These programs go belly up all the time when funding is cut.

[Odin2005]

15. That is just wrong!!!