HOW WE SEE IT

District Shifts FMLA Policies For Fairness

Faced with a recent real-world situation involving a teacher, Rogers School District oft cials demonstrated compassion with a change to the district’s policies regarding the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.

In a decision sure to conjure up some antagonism over the same-sex marriage debate, the board expanded its list of people for whom district employees can access the 12 weeks of family leave guaranteed by the act.

Deb Walter last August was just a few days away from the start of a new academic year as physical education teacher at Kirksey Middle School. She and her spouse were at work on their dream home on Beaver Lake when a cross beam collapsed. Walter watched as her spouse of three years crashed 16 feet down.

The result? A broken spine and confi nement to a wheelchair.

Clearly, this is the kind of cataclysmic circumstance federal lawmakers envisioned when they required employers to grant employees leave to take care of loved ones in a crisis. But Walter didn’t qualify for leave under School District policies.

Why? Her spouse is named Susan Thurman.

They’re both women. Their marriage was legally recognized in Massachusetts, but Arkansas doesn’t recognize any form of samesex marriage, and neither does Rogers School District policy.

Walter missed 11 days of work, an amazingly low number compared to the magnitude of the life-changing injury Thurman suff ered.

She could use only four personal days, but no medical leave use of sick or vacation days. The policy cut into her income at a time when she needed it most. Thurman, who is self-employed, lacked insurance.

On Nov. 19, urged on by Walter’s contention that district’s policy was unfair to cohabitating couples of any kind, the School Board changed its description of immediately family as “spouse, children, parents (including step-family), siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, motherin-law, father-in-law and other persons living in the same household.”

One can argue the change might have unintended consequences, but it took courage for the Rogers School Board to recognize an unfair situation and act to make similar future situations right. They did the right thing. The board isn’t on some crusade about same-sex marriage, as some might suggest. They saw a 15-year employee for whom they could off er little help under policies and decided a revision was necessary to reflect the changing nature of blended families involving their valued employees.

The terrible situation demonstrates how an absolute viewpoint easily held in an abstract debate is much harder to cling to when the person in need of compassion is a friend, a co-worker, someone in our everyday lives.

Let the same-sex marriage debate go on in other arenas. In Rogers, School District oft cials embraced fairness, and we commend them for the decision.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 12/11/2013

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