Blind social worker has big impact
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Paula Katz’s world went dark without warning, shortly before her seventh-grade school year was about to begin.
She hasn’t seen a sunset or smiling loved one in more than 40 years, the victim of a benign brain tumor that affected her optic nerve and left her blind.
But during 20 years as a BOCES social worker, she’s helped countless kids work through difficult situations while giving them clear ways to overcome life’s hurdles.
“I’m so tuned in to energy and tone,” Katz said. “I can tell right away if kids are angry or agitated. If they need space, they get it. That’s really what kids struggle with, ways to handle their anger, frustrations and dislikes.”
First, she spent years dealing with -- and denying -- her own life-altering situation.
“Back in the 70s there were no services when you lost your
sight,” said Katz, 58. “I left sixth grade happy and healthy and went back to school the following February very different, after getting tutored for half a year. Some kids that I was good friends with couldn’t handle it. To others, that I didn’t know so well, it was a non-issue.”
Refusing to attend a school for the blind, she got through her Levittown, Long Island public school with help from a mobility instructor, who taught her the building’s layout; a Braille teacher; and a reader who reviewed lessons with her each night.
“I didn’t want to be any different,” Katz said. “For me, denial was my coping mechanism until I was ready to accept things.”
She even refused assistance from a guide dog, opting instead for navigating with a cane.
One day, however, Katz got disoriented in deep snow, on her way to work, and realized a dog was a necessity. Now she and Stix -- part Labrador, part Golden Retriever -- are best friends.
“Stix sees me as his introduction to society,” Katz joked. “He gets to meet everybody. My first dog, Willis, only had eyes for me. He wouldn’t make a move without me.”
She followed up studies at SUNY Albany with post-graduate work at Adelphi University.
“Really, it was in college that I decided I wanted to work with people,” Katz said. Her career started out downstate, where she worked for an employment assistance program, and also an outpatient clinic for people with drug and alcohol addictions. When a similar job opened at Glens Falls Hospital, she moved back upstate.
“I was familiar with the area through college,” Katz said. “I did community outreach to schools, drug and alcohol evaluations and rehabilitation if needed.”
One of those schools was the BOCES center in Hudson Falls. That’s where another opportunity presented itself, for a social worker, which Katz readily accepted. She now works at the BOCES F. Donald Myers Education Center in Saratoga Springs.
Katz’s specialty is working with kids in the Skills Room, where students sometimes go if their classroom behavior becomes disruptive.
“What makes her effective in the Skills Room is her approach with kids,” said Shawn Hunziker, principal for special programs. “She doesn’t get rattled when they come in. She creates a calm, comfortable, safe atmosphere and regulates their emotions. She responds, she doesn’t react, and really encourages kids and provides emotional support.”
Some situations are potentially volatile.
However, Katz said she’s never been hurt or injured. Quite often, students show her an extra measure of respect because of the personal obstacles she’s overcome in life.
“I definitely credit my parents, Seymour and Bernice, for setting me on the track of no problem is too great,” she said. “Where there’s a will there’s a way.”
The Skills Room’s behavior modification program is patterned after one employed at Boys Town, the Nebraska village set up after World War I to help orphaned boys.
“It’s really quite effective,” Katz said. “It teaches kid there are appropriate ways of getting what they need, instead of ways they’re used to.” Lessons are simple and to the point, such as “asking permission” and “disagreeing appropriately.”
Thanks to Katz, kids not only become better students, but better citizens as well. Because they’ll need things she teaches them in real-world home and work situations, long after they leave school.
“Probably my best trait is that I’m so realistic and I genuinely like what I do,” she said. “People couldn’t last in that room if they didn’t like it.”