It is claimed by people who have never experienced Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), that it is the injury that is responsible for the victim committing suicide. TBI survivors are people. How does a person respond to: The enforced social isolation, what it does to the self esteem of TBI survivors, their intimate relationships, their friendships and their life outside of school. The constant belittlement and/or attacks by the staff helping them. Being treated with condescension and mocked because of dysarthria (a speech pattern common to TBI survivors). Substandard educational help. A TBI survivor for 32 years, the first 24 of those years spent in higher education, Anthony has felt hopeless, responsible for his isolation and deserving of mistreatment by those helping him. It is denial of accommodation by college and university staff to save money and mocking of TBI students to make them drop out of school (save money by not educating them) that leads to current (and previous) clients committing suicide. Anthony knows why the emphasis for suicide is placed on the injury, TBI. It is far easier (and less expensive) to blame the victim for not educating them, then to realize the system of education has to be changed. Anthony has a degree in biochemistry. His senior research was analyzing 25+ unpublished chemical experiments for BS. He sees BS all over TBI prognostications. It is really obvious that the system for educating accident survivors is broken and needs to be upgraded to match the new reality. In summer 1982, Anthony was the top student in Organic Chemistry and his brother and he ran from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley (29.9 Miles) in 11 hours. The next summer surprised him with 165 foot rock-climbing fall. He spent nine months in three different hospitals, recovering from his injuries. He returned to UC Santa Cruz for Fall quarter 1984. The head of Disabled Student Services (DSS) bragged to Anthony about how she had been hired to because she promised to save money. She stated explicitly, she did not care what a client thought about the service they received, in response to his comment about the lack of accommodation for his disability. When he kept bringing it up, she called him, “ungrateful” and “unappreciative”. Every time he took class for 24 years, he endured a criminal's reality of, “Social Isolation” and the constant humiliation of, “Learned Helplessness,” and other forms of psychological torture, until he finally gave up and dropped out of UC Santa Cruz. His girlfriend had already left him because of his injuries. Anthony watched most of his remaining friendships and his self-esteem crumble as most of his waking time was spent writing indecipherable and incomplete homework. After a year, DSS's policy of “Social Isolation” from his classmates finally got to him. Anthony began joking about killing himself. He never considered why he would consider suicide funny. He survived the psychological torture by numbing himself to its constant presence (every time he interacted with a staff person and all of his waking reality), by always looking forward and never looking back. He was at the age (29) to think about starting a family, but his girlfriend had left him, he had no income (other then disability) and a terrible self image. He realized the girlfriend/family stuff would have to wait until after he graduated and had a job. Anthony graduated with a degree in Biochemistry in March 1989, in spite of the fact he kept turning in poorly written and unfinished homework for every class he took and he didn’t have the time to prepare for any of his exams either - his degree was worthless. He did not know most of the material material for all the classes he had sat through, because he had not done the homework. He had paid for access to knowledge, but this was what he wound up with. He did not have the skills that were implied with his degree. How could he get a job doing cancer research and have money for another girlfriend and to start a family? He had been aware of what he had been told by every disabled student he had ever talked with, about the humiliation and psychological torture from the staff that were helping them. When he first heard it, he thought they were making it up, but here it was, happening to him. From Fall semester 1990 to Spring semester 2007 Anthony was a client of Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS) at Cabrillo College, nearby. DSPS continued the psychological torture, supplied him with note takers who would quit or ignore him when asked to do a better job and, mediocre to no, lab assistance. It took him more then two decades (23 years) to learn most of the material for his major under these conditions. There was little to no time to socialize with his fellow students, his self-esteem was ruined making another girlfriend impossible, his academic record destroyed; all of this because DSS and, he guesses, DSPS, wanted to save money. He sounded like he was stoned or drunk (dysarthria). Untrained staff treated him like he was deserving of their animosity and condescenion. Why they wasted so much of his time and money is a good question. Evidently some of the staff of DSS and DSPS thought they were above the law and did not have to answer to anyone for their actions (there was no oversight). Anthony returned to UC Santa Cruz for Fall quarter 2007 to begin the 3 quarter Chemistry 183 series, still fantasizing about getting a graduate degree, eventually doing effective cancer research and starting a family. DSS had been renamed Disabled Resource Center (DRC). In 24 years of dealing with DSS, DSPS and DRC he was never told anything positive about his scholastic achievements. For example: In Spring quarter 1986, Anthony was the best student in Biochemistry lab, but DSS said nothing though they arranged for his lab assistant to be his lab partner in Genetics lab. In Fall semester 2005, Anthony solved a calculus integration problem in a manner the instructor did not think possible, DSPS remained silent. In Fall quarter 2007, Anthony scored a 79 (out of 100) on the Chemistry 183A ("Quantum Theory", Physics majors say how difficult this class is) midterm while class average was 59. DRC never mentioned it In Spring quarter 2008, DRC attacked Anthony again, this time for asserting himself by telling his note-taker to write down what was on the board. For the first time in 24 years he emerged from the fog of Learned Helplessness to survey the damage caused by working with DSS, DSPS and DRC. “Social Isolation,” is directly responsible for making Anthony feel suicidal in 1985. DSS was busy trying change Anthony's sexual orientation from staight to gay (he remembers an incident that exposes their intentions), obviously they were not concerned with his wellbeing. DSS, DSPS and DRC made it possible for Anthony to spend 26 years in school for a 4 year degree. DSS, DSPS and DRC are responsible for all of Anthony’s withdrawals, repeats and class failures, but he is the one saddled with the debt they created. Thanks to DSS, DSPS and DRC and their discrimination, the human race will never benefit from Anthony acquiring the education required for effective cancer research. Anthony knows what happened to him is directly due to the staff people helping him and their lack of training for their job. All websites that promised educational help for accident survivors (disabled students) had the same look and feel as those of DRC, DSPS and DSS who had done Anthony so much damage. Without proper training and mandatory feedback, staff will continue to wreak havoc on TBI students and their lives to save money, then fabricate, statistics and feedback, to show support for how good a job they are doing and why they are earning their pay. (DSS) at UC Santa Cruz, has been renamed Disabled Resource Center (DRC) Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS) at Cabrillo College, is now Accessibility Support Center (ASC). Given Anthony's experience with Disabled Student Services, the underlying hostility to TBI survivors requires more then a name change, (DSS) at UC Santa Cruz, has been renamed Disabled Resource Center. Give accident victims access to quality education. Make feedback mandatory. End social isolation. TBI survivors are getting adjusted to a new reality - do not make it worse with psychological torture. Devise a better system to recruit and compensate, quality note takers and quality lab assistants. The people who authorized these staff people to treat American citizens so badly should be held responsible for their actions, fired and prosecuted for dereliction of duty. > 24 years of emotional trauma at the college and university. I was the top student in Organic Chemistry at UC Santa Cruz in the summer of 1982. A year later, in mid-summer 1983, a 165 foot rock climbing fall did not end my life or paralyze me, despite breaking my back. I woke six weeks later to an unforseen lifestyle change. While unconcious, I had been transfomed into a criminal who survived a traumatic accident with a head injury. As I have never been imprisoned: “Social Isolation” and “Learned Helplessness” were two new concepts to me. These two policies would ruin 30 years of my life; leaving me with no way to afford a family, few friends and a terrible self image. After 24 years of schooling, I am disabled, poor, unemployed and unemployable, because I was fooled into believing staff people were interested in helping educate me. Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 An indifferent reality. In Fall 1984, my 24 year educational experience of paranoid loneliness, humilation and social isolation from the people around me was begun at UC Santa Cruz. It appeared the organizations that help disabled students with their education, attempted to make me go away by denying me accommodation for my disability. My diploma in Biochemistry. 24 years of psychological torture, “Social Isolation” and “Learned Helplessness” for the final year of my degree. They had conditioned me in 1984/1985 to get used to being treated badly by them and I no longer protested anything about my treatment after initially being attacked whenever I had. The staff I was forced to work with at the UC campus and the Community College ignored parts of the ADA from its passage in 1990, until Spring 2008 (one of them bragged to me in October 2009), I finally realized these people had no intention of ever doing their job and I finally dropped out of school. Educational Aftermath. My life is really sad, isolated and depressing, because I refused to give up hope for my rehabilitation. I kept looking forwards, trying to ignore the the subtle, but constant, sadism from the staff that were helping me and would not drop out of school for 24 years. Senior research. What these Staff people did to me is not unique to the UC campus and the community college I attended. The attitude they were using to justify their actions was evident wherever I looked on the Internet. Internet research. Decriminalize head injury. TBI survivors are not criminals or freaks - educate us. Toughen and Enforce The ADA. Make feedback mandatory. Make staff accountable for their actions. There is strong correlation between cell phone use and brain cancer. Follow these links (54) to scientific studies and opinions. Links 1 - 27 or Links 28 - 54 As a head injury survivor, I needed help with my education, but that is not what I got. Public employess chose to deprive the human race of a needed, dedicated and intelligent, cancer researcher (me), because they were untrained. These untrained people intentionally ruined my chances to live a normal life and provide for a family because I am a head injury survivor. Please help me expose the need for proper training.. Send links of this website with a brief explanation to every US government agency, US government official, US government employee, anyone and/or media sources or organizations you can think of.