
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990                   TAG: 9003092538
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                                 LENGTH: Medium

BLIND WOMAN'S SUIT SAYS CO-WORKERS HARASSED HER

A worker at Norfolk Naval Shipyard has sued the yard, claiming she was the target of "constant petty harassment" by co-workers because of her repeated complaints that she was denied job transfers and promotions because she is blind.

Betty R. Davis says in the U.S. District Court lawsuit that co-workers confused her by changing the carefully arranged contents of her desk. She says they shuffled the order of telephone messages on her desk, causing her to give the slips to the wrong people. And when she headed for the restroom, she says, co-workers rang her intercom, then hung up after she returned to her desk.

She said someone put roach poison in the lid of a peanut butter jar and placed it under her desk, a daytime haven for her Seeing Eye dog, Bingo. The golden retriever ate the poison, began to vomit and had to be taken to a veterinarian.

"The biggest problem most handicapped people have is others who go out of their way to help when we might not need it," Davis said in an interview. "I never dreamed anyone would play mean tricks on me because I'm blind. They want to make me so frustrated that I'll give up and quit."

Davis, a secretary, said it is all the more surprising because the shipyard has touted her as an example of its dedication to helping the handicapped.

For instance, she was nominated for a national award for handicapped federal employees in 1983. In 1984, she was chosen as the state's blind worker of the year by the Virginia chapter of the American Association of Workers for the Blind.

The suit names Navy Secretary Lawrence Garrett III as defendant and seeks $55,000 in damages: $50,000 for back pay she claims she would have earned had she been promoted and $5,000 for the psychological counseling she sought after Bingo was poisoned.

by CNB