Arkansas Reporter
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Dexter Suggs, new superintendent of the Little Rock School District, has a military background, so teachers and staff weren’t wholly surprised when he instituted a staff dress code for this school year. Dress has not been a part of employee contracts, except for an employee handbook requirement that employees dress “appropriately” and in “good taste.” Suggs’ rules were far more specific. No T-shirts. No jeans. No open-toed shoes. No tennis shoes. They were put into effect with some differences in enforcement from building to building. Teachers complained. Enter Cathy Koehler, who heads the Little Rock Education Association, the union for district employees. She took concerns to the superintendent, fearful in part of a fight over clothes that could overshadow a more important new contract on pay and health insurance benefits. The result was a compromise. Employees were advised that as part of the new culture Suggs wants to institute a greater attention to appearance. And he distributed a new dress code, but said it wouldn’t take effect until the 2014-15 school year. You get the idea he’d like to see it honored in spirit before then. Some changes were made. There’ll be some days when jeans are acceptable. Tennis shoes will be allowed in some places, sandals, too. But there are many admonitions about “message” clothing, revealing clothing and other requirements. One teacher objected to the need to explicitly say “foundation garments” were required. Really, she asked. The superintendent needs to tell female employees to wear a bra? Some teachers complained that the details should have been negotiated. In a letter explaining what had happened, Koehler responded: “Working with administration, I was able to include in the Dress Code that it not become Policy for a year so that employees have an opportunity to adjust. In my mind, the worst thing that could have happened was to receive a directive saying as of a certain date all employees had to comply or face immediate disciplinary action. I thought it best to be ‘at the table, not on the menu.’ ” CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 12
SEPTEMBER 5, 2013
ARKANSAS TIMES
State offers health screenings for Mayflower residents Five months after an ExxonMobil spill, those who say it made them sick will get free medical attention. BY ELIZABETH MCGOWAN
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s it too little, too late? That’s the question Mayflower residents are asking now that the state is finally offering them access to free health assessments five months after a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline emptied 210,000 gallons of heavy crude into their city. Since the SPECIAL March 29 spill, REPORT many people have continued to suffer from dizziness, headaches, nausea and vomiting — classic symptoms of short-term exposure to the chemicals found in crude oil. While 22 homes in the Northwoods subdivision were evacuated on that Good Friday afternoon, people who lived nearby were allowed to remain in their homes. If the smells or symptoms were overwhelming, they could leave their homes voluntarily, they were told. “Five months out is a little late, but people are still sick,” said Ann Jarrell, who wasn’t evacuated and is still suffering from respiratory problems. “I’ll continue to scream from the tallest tree that we need help.” Until Gov. Mike Beebe announced the assessments last Thursday, officials with the state Department of Health had said repeatedly that Mayflower residents shouldn’t worry about lingering fumes. Those with symptoms were directed to call the Arkansas Poison Control Center and to attend public meetings the department organized. The assessments were to begin Tuesday. After an initial screening by a public health nurse at the Faulkner
BRIAN CHILSON
Dress for success
JARRELL
County Health Unit in Conway, residents may be eligible for further evaluation or treatment from specialists with the Health Department and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “We’ve been listening to people and trying to figure out what our role can be,” Health Department spokesman Ed Barham said about the decision to offer the assessments. “It seems that we needed to do more. This is what we’ve come up with.” Arkansas isn’t the first state trying to
protect residential neighborhoods from health problems connected with an oil spill. Since 2010, health experts in Utah and Michigan have also been forced to cobble together their own guidelines, based on a patchwork of scientific and regulatory recommendations. Federal guidelines on oil spills don’t clearly state when or if the public should be evacuated, or what should be done to assess public health in the weeks and months after a spill. CONTINUED ON PAGE 18