HARRISBURG, PA. Blind activists protest firing of popular agency head

Boone said it was untrue she declined to obey an order from her superior.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Chanting "reinstate, reinstate," supporters of the woman fired last month as director of the state Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services protested in the Capitol building.
Christine L. Boone, who is herself blind, headed the agency for three years before she was terminated Aug. 14 after being accused of insubordination.
She said the main allegation against her, that she declined to sign a policy that would have cut aid to college students who are blind, was untrue. If she had been ordered to sign it by the man who fired her, Stephen Natusi, executive director of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, she would have, Boone said Thursday.
Calling her firing "wrong in every way," Boone vowed to "pursue this to the fullest extent of the law."
The crowd of about 60 supporters, most blind or visually impaired, praised Boone for reforms they said have made Pennsylvania a national model.
Along with Boone's reinstatement, rally leaders also sought an independent state commission for the blind.
Little comment
Barry Ciccocioppo, press secretary for the state Department of Labor and Industry, which oversees Boone's former agency, declined to comment on the circumstances of her firing, citing personnel-privacy rules and the possibility of a lawsuit.
"The decision was not made lightly, and the decision was made with the best interests of the blind and visually impaired community in mind," Ciccocioppo said.
Many of the improvements at the Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services began in 1999 when the agency was transferred out of the Department of Public Welfare, he added.
Judith Jobes, vice president of the National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania, said Boone "breathed life into our services."
Boone expanded efforts to aid the elderly and children, boosted pay and improved training in the program that employs blind vendors at snack bars and other similar businesses, and cut chronically high unemployment rates, Jobes said.
"It's no wonder that people are looking to Pennsylvania and say[ing], 'Wow, look what's happening over there,' instead of, 'Oh, those poor people,'" Jobes said.
Boone's replacement, interim director Pamela Shaw, took office Wednesday. She also is blind. The agency has a $23 million budget and staff of about 160.