Montrose - Daily Press

Tasha Black is like any other 16-year-old high school junior. She loves to go to rodeos, thinks school cafeteria food is less than desirable, and jokes that her father is the enforcer.

There’s just one difference. Tasha has been using a wheelchair since she was 11, and getting from one destination to another has been a constant struggle. Little things that most hardly think about — like a crack in the sidewalk, a curb without a ramp, or an accumulation of mud on the sidewalk — are all part of the obstacles that Tasha faces on a daily basis.

But it’s not just around town where Tasha runs into these obstacles. The place where she spends the majority of her time — Montrose High School — has posed more of a problem than any other location.

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Potholes in the parking lot, sprinkler systems and rain causing runoff and a weight room located on the second floor are all part of her daily battle.

She and her father, Chad Black, said they have tried to work with administrators since Tasha’s first day of high school, but have hit a dead end many times.

“We just want her to be able to get around without having so many difficulties,” her father said.

Linda Gann, Montrose County School District spokeswoman, said the district has been making every effort to make sure the high school is accessible for Tasha, and any other student who passes through in a wheelchair.

However, there is one magic word that prevents them from being able to implement more accessible strategies: money.

Gann explained that each year, a head count is taken throughout the school district, which determines how much money the school will receive per pupil.

MCSD receives around $6,000 dollars per student. The catch is, only about $275 dollars of that $6,000 dollar funding can be put towards construction and renovations of the schools. Gann explained that people living within the school district have the opportunity to vote for an increase in capital funds for school improvements. The school board has gone to its voters 13 times in the past 30 years, but a funding increase has only been approved three times.

“We do want to work together, but at the same time, we do have limited funds,” Gann said.

In 2002, the newest addition to the high school was built, and Gann says the newer wing was built with more accessibility benefits than the older portions of the building. Every bathroom, except for one in an older wing of the building, is installed with a wheelchair accessible bathroom stall and lower sinks. Classroom doorways are wider and water fountains are at a height that can be reached by someone in a wheelchair. The school also contains an elevator, which Tasha has been given the key to.

“We’ve been working in all of our schools continually, to make sure elementary schools through the high school are accessible,” Gann said. The school district also works with a state compliance officer on a regular basis to make sure standards and accessibility laws are being met.

“Anything we can do to help Tasha, we’re certainly going to do it,” Gann said. “It’s Tasha, but it’s also community members. We want community members to feel like they can volunteer in our schools and you know if they want to do that and happen to be in a wheelchair, that shouldn’t be something that precludes them from doing so.”

But Tasha says that even with the extension of the newer wing, she still finds it extremely difficult to get from class to class every day.

Because there are so many students in the school, Tasha said just trying to get through crowds in the hallway is a constant challenge.

“It’s pretty much chaos, trying to get through the halls,” Tasha said. “You ask people to move and they don’t. You always have to shove your way through the crowd, and people hate that.”

Another difficulty that Tasha faces is the trip she makes from the school to the agriculture shop located behind the football field.

Last year, a sidewalk was constructed on a portion of the grass field leading up to the ag shop. Prior to that sidewalk though, Tasha could not travel over the grass with her wheelchair, and therefore took a route along Rio Grande to get to her agriculture classes. It seemed like an okay route to Tasha, until one day, with buses and cars behind her, she fell.

“When Tasha fell on Rio Grande last year, it was just not acceptable,” Gann said. A bus had been dedicated to transporting Tasha back and forth between the two buildings, says Gann, but Tasha chose to not use it every day.

Tasha explained that the driver of the bus was a special education teacher, and was busy with other students, making Tasha feel like an afterthought.

“I tried to do that for a while, but the bus was always late getting to the school,” she said. “So that was too much of a hassle.”

In attempts to make the school more accessible, Tasha and her father said they have tried to work with her counselor and school administrators who have taken the complaints to the school board. Some changes have been made, like the sidewalk leading to the ag shop, but her day is still filled with obstacles.

Like physical education class. This year, Tasha said she was looking forward to taking a weight training class in order to build her upper body strength. But there’s only one problem. The weight room and all the equipment is located on the second floor, and the only way to access it is by a set of steps. The elevator does not connect to the weight room and the inside staircase is too narrow for a lift to be placed there, according to Gann.

The suggestion was made to build a ramp on the outside of the building leading to the second floor door. But just getting herself up the ramp would be exhausting, she said, and when it would rain or snow, getting to the second floor would be nearly impossible.

If a lift were placed outside, Tasha said she’d be able to access the weight room, and participate in weight training with her classmates.

Gann said the weight room issue is something that the school is currently looking into.

“We’re trying to solve that problem,” she said. “We originally said we’d move equipment to the first floor, but she said she’d like to take it with her friends, which is certainly understandable.”

Advocating for better accessibility hasn’t always resulted in a dead end for Tasha. Two years ago, she asked the current mayor and city council members to walk with her on the route from her home to the high school. After witnessing her difficulty when it came to cracked sidewalks and curbs without ramps, the city approved the repairs, making Tasha’s daily venture to school less difficult.

As Tasha sat in her living room, speaking of her day to day struggles at school, it became obvious that her father and grandmother, Mary Black, were advocates of Tasha’s attempts to make the school more accessible, and in full support of her.

“People don’t realize, they just don’t realize how hard it is,” Mary said. She said it’s difficult to see Tasha struggle with things that others take for granted every day, like picking up coins off the ground, trying to reach something in a cabinet, or trying to reach the handle of paper towel dispenser in a bathroom.

“It’s just stuff that no one thinks about,” Mary said.

But Tasha’s advocacy at trying to make the high school more accessible for those in a wheelchair is not a selfish act.

“I know there’s going to be people who are in a wheelchair coming through the school after me,” Tasha said. “I don’t want it to be hard for them.”

Tasha wishes that the people she’s been trying to work with on accessibility issues could see things from her angle.

Maybe if school officials were forced to spend a day in a wheelchair, they might have a different view and a better understanding of how difficult it can be, she said.

Chad said he’s proud of his daughter, and knows first hand how much she has pushed herself since the day she found out she’d have to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

“People talk about heroes everyday,” Chad said, as he looked on at his daughter. “She’s a true hero, she’s my hero.”

Contact Marissa Brunner via e-mail at marissab@montrosepress.com

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