8A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2003
Student devoted to helping disabled
By Megan Hickerson
mhickerson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Courtney Bates is not afraid of challenge.
The Chicago senior cares for children with disabilities when she's not taking classes to finish up her psychology and human development and family life majors.
"He still had to deal with things that other 17-year-olds were dealing with," Bates said. "Things like sexuality come up — it's just so much more difficult when a child can't communicate."
Dan Nelson/Kansan
Bates has worked with disabled children in both Kansas City, Kan., and Lawrence and has had an interest in helping them since she was young.
— which we thought was a little strange," Rose Bates, her mother said.
"She used to watch a Saturday morning program about sick children after the cartoons were over
Although she's worked with kids with various disabilities, her time spent with a 17-year-old boy with limited speech and mobility skills was the most challenging. With the boy having no self-help skills, such as going to the bathroom on his own, Bates' patience was as good as gold.
Although this job must test her patience, Anthony Brown, Bates' boyfriend, said she made it look easy.
Courtney Bates, Chicago senior, is working on a bachelor's degree in psychology and human development and family life. "I find it very rewarding working with children with disabilities," Bates said.
"I don't know how she does it," said Brown, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore. "I don't have the patience."
"It was pretty cool because
Bates isn't the soft-spoken person that she may seem to be. In February 2001, she was instrumental in staging a protest against The University Daily Kansan. Bates, members of the Black Student Union and other organizations on campus were disappointed with the Kansan coverage of the Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government. With about 100 other students, Bates walked down campus and into the Kansan newsroom, dropping copies of the newspaper article marked with failing grades.
nobody made a sound." Bates said. "The door is now open for an exchange of ideas."
Her mother was not surprised at her actions.
"We were usually one of the only African-American couples who lived in a predominately white setting," Rose Bates said. "She wanted the whole story told. She worked so
hard to make it a success."
This was not the first, nor the last time that Bates had voiced her opinion. In high school, she was involved with gay rights and AIDS education. After the protest, she served as the Black Student Union president.
- Edited by Anne Mantey
Mystery illness creates U.S. concern
The Associated Press
An airliner briefly halted on a West Coast tarmac yesterday was the most dramatic sign yet that a mysterious illness that has killed more than 60 people worldwide is provoking worry in the United States.
Nobody in the United States has died from the illness, severe acute respiratory syndrome, called SARS. But about 70 cases have been reported in the country out of some 1,800 worldwide.
Health officials here are not considering quarantines so far
because the disease is not spreading as rapidly as in Asia and the related outbreak in Toronto.
In Hong Kong, for example, some 240 residents of an apartment complex where SARS has spread were taken away to quarantine camps yesterday. But such measures don't yet appear warranted in the United States, said Tommy Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"We are in the business of protecting the public health of all citizens," Thompson said yesterday in Atlanta. "If there is a virus that is
explosive ... and the only way to control it is by quarantine, we have to consider it. But we're not there yet."
Health officials say there's no sign that SARS is spreading freely throughout any American community. The disease, which originated in Asia, seems to be confined mostly to international travelers, to health care workers who have taken care of SARS patients and to those in close contact with SARS patients.
They also say the SARS germ, not yet firmly identified, appears to spread mostly from droplets spewed out through coughing or sneezing.
But it's possible it might also spread more broadly by airborne transmission, or by lurking on surfaces like doorknobs that other people later touch, the experts said.
Short of quarantine, authorities around the country have taken other steps.
In San Jose, Calif., an American Airlines flight from Tokyo was held on the tarmac after five people on board complained of SARS-like symptoms. The disease causes a fever, sometimes with chills, headache and body aches and can lead to a cough and shortness of breath.