“I am convinced that my life’s work will vindicate itself.”
Vidkun Quisling
We live in strange times indeed. 2025 does feel as if it is a cursed year. This is the era when Trump 2.0 has come to power, when all the laws of normal politics and morality say that he should not have triumphed. This is the era when people who call themselves LGBTQ wave flags and chant slogans in support of a brutal government that would execute them all if it were able. This is the era when measles are on the rise in the US, thanks to HHS Secretary RFK. It is the era of zombie rabbits, another tepid Superman reboot, Chat GPT term papers and an assault with a deli weapon in DC.
I admit it…I borrowed that last one from Twitter.
Anyway, it’s a wild and whacky time. So it was the perfect time for Stacy goddamn Cervenka to come roaring back into the midst of the blindness rehabilitation community.
In case you don’t have the time or energy to flip back through these hallowed blog pages, here’s a refresher. You’ll remember that Stacy Cervenka was the controversial figure at the center of the sexual misconduct scandal that rocked the National Federation of the Blind in 2021. Stacy lead a group of brave, outspoken victims of assault as they demanded that the NFB make fundamental changes to their three training centers in the name of safety and security for all students. Their demands were crystallized in an open letter that took to task, not only the practices of the training centers with regard to sexual misconduct, but criticized many of the practices at the very core of the structured discovery curriculum itself.
Four years later, from my outsider’s perspective, it looks like the survivors won the battle, but the NFB won the war. To my knowledge, no one of consequence was fired or resigned over the scandals. It did appear that Cervenka was relegated to relative obscurity. Her husband quit his job as director of the Orientation Center at the Nebraska Center for the Blind one step ahead of being terminated. Many believe that Carlos Servan, the director of NCBVI, was retaliating on behalf of Fred Schroeder, who was the only major casualty in the campaign of the #MarchingTogether Movement. Stacy went to work for some organization I’ve never heard of as a policy wonk. The word in the virtual back alleys of the blindness world was that Cervenka had been blackballed by the professional disability community over her actions in 2021. Rumors also abound that, after he was removed from the NFB, Fred Schroeder is still a shadowy figure pulling strings behind the scenes. I know that sounds kind of Alex Jonesy. I’m just repeating the rumors I’ve heard.
Meanwhile, the NFB put some boiler plate language on their website in the form of a “Code of Conduct.” Some of the victims got justice. Many did not. There was an actual lawsuit against the NFB winding its way through court, but I can’t find any information on its current status.
And that’s where things stood as of June, 2025, when I saw a stunning Facebook post proclaiming that Stacy Cervenka had been appointed as the new director of the Iowa Department For the Blind. To say that I was gobsmacked by the news would be an understatement.
In some ways, I’m glad Cervenka got the job. My reasons are purely selfish. My shocked reaction to the announcement proves that I am not past all surprise. In my current disheartened, dispirited condition, I’m glad I can still be jolted out of my lethargic morosity by such happenings. I also admit to a streak of dark amusement over this turn of events. Cervenka’s sudden comeback is very Trumpian in nature. A lot of people probably thought, “That bitch played her hand and she lost. See ya, beyotch! Wouldn’t wanna be ya.” And…here she comes, back from the dead, more powerful than ever, like Freddy freakin’ Krueger.
The news of Cervenka’s appointment left me with many questions. The only one of interest to all two of you who read this blog is, how in the holy hell did she get the job? Governor Kim Reynolds is not a progressive. She’s not even a moderate Democrat. Hell, she’s not even a moderate Republican. She’s MAGA, which makes her hated in leftist circles. Why would she give a revolutionary wannabe the job. All one has to do is Google Stacy Cervenka and it takes about 30 seconds to figure out that she’s way to the left of Angel Ramirez. Was it blackmail on Cervenka’s part? Maybe mind control as performed by the dark arts. Maybe Cervenka is a closet conservative and Reynolds knows it.
It is far more likely that Governor Reynolds saw Cervenka’s name on a resume, saw the name, Sam Brownback, and gave her the job. It seems like a trite, pat explanation, but remember that this is 2025.
Cervenka had barely assumed her new post when rumors began swirling on social media like Cornflakes in a toilet bowl. Frantic posts claimed that Stacy Cervenka was going to abolish the sleepshade policy from the IDB’s orientation center. Furthermore, she was going to strike structured discovery from the curriculum altogether. So much for circumspectly settling into the job.
This was the backdrop of a tense meeting that occurred between Director Cervenka and the NFB of Iowa chapter last Monday night, August 11. I came across the Zoom link and decided to go hang out like a kitty cat in the corner. It turned out that the lurker’s corner was pretty crowded. There were cats there from Colorado, Minnesota, Louisiana and even a few from Baltimore. All of them wore kitty collars that had a tag with the letters, NFB, engraved on them.
Helen Stevens (a former employee at the IDB) ran the meeting. She was about as endearing as a crocodile in a Jacuzzi. Cervenka comported herself with the bearing of a woman who carries an expensive purse with a cute little .32 concealed in it. Helen read questions that had been written in advance. There was very little follow-up after Cervenka answered each one.
The gist of the questions were, “Are you really gonna get rid of the sleepshades? And what is your criteria for making that decision? And did you include center staff in the discussions? And are you gonna stick with the long white cane? And how the hell did you even get this job? I mean really? You’re a policy wonk, not an administrator!”
Cervenka deftly lobbed back retorts such as, “We need more bodies at our center. IDB staff claims that clients won’t come unless learning shades are optional. We’re still in talks. And people with multiple disabilities might be triggered if they wear those shades. And I’ll look at the data before making a final decision. And if you don’t keep a civil tongue in your head, I’ll open up my Louis Vuitton and put ya down.”
Sidebar: Stacy sounds like a character out of Fargo. When she says the word, “down,” it sounds like she’s saying, “Doane,” which is a college in Nebraska.
After Helen read through her questions, the cats slunk out of the shadows and padded over to the table to get their licks in. I couldn’t help but notice that some of the interrogators were from Minnesota, which had a (ahem) liberal presence on the IDB staff under Cervenka’s predecessor. The dynamic was clear. They all wanted to shred Cervenka. She is threatening the very curriculum on which the NFB has built its identity for the past six decades. The Q&A was a civilized game of cat-and-mouse. Cervenka, the successful insurgent zealot versus the entrenched, stuck-up members of an elite clique who used to run the department for the blind in the former home of Kenneth Jernigan. God, the irony was scrumptious.
The meeting wrapped up around 8:30. Anyone hoping for blood sport went to bed with an empty soul. Anyone hoping for declarative or inflammatory statements from the new director of IDB didn’t get much meat in their dish. The meeting was all about posturing and subtle line-drawing. My only other stray thought is that I found it odd that Carly Prinds, the director at the IDB orientation center, did not speak once during the call.
So, here we are on a muggy weekend in August, 2025, still muddling our way through a foggy landscape with more questions than answers. Will Director Cervenka succeed in transforming the sleepshade policy? Will the NFB stand for any changes Cervenka attempts to implement? Will Minnesota ever get another Blind Inc. so that some of those creatures of the clique can get jobs? And seriously…how the hell did Stacy Cervenka really get her job? Did Governor Reynolds use AI in her job search? We will probably never know.
For my money, no blind person will choose the sleepshades if given the option. Their natural tendency will be to use their residual vision whenever they can. I appreciate the argument that the center needs more bodies, but at what cost? If the question is one of a lack of compulsory shade use, no one ever chooses blindness.
Connie Mendenhall, the Chief Information Officer at the IDB, kept comparing the IDB to a business. I would respectfully suggest that a government agency is different than a business. In fact, it’s usually conservatives that tend toward the idea that government should be run like a business. How’d that work out for Elon?
I’m also curious what Cervenka’s limiting principle would be. If IDB allows the reservations of students over the sleepshades to impact policy, where would it end? Would IDB eventually make allowances for a guide dog user who did not want to use the cane? What about someone who wanted only instruction in text magnification software as opposed to a screenreader? What about someone who wanted to learn cane travel, but not braille or cooking? Where does Cervenka draw the line? In her view, was Stephanie Dohmen in the right or in the wrong 23 years ago?
It’s already a well-established fact that my crystal ball is about as accurate as a weather man’s forecast, but I’ll make a prediction anyway. Cervenka won’t last in the job. She’ll either flame out, get fired, or perish at her desk; possibly at the hands of Helen Stevens. Kevan Worley recently called Cervenka, “a thug,” on Facebook. Considering the source, this is another piece of chocolate cake irony. She’s not a thug. She’s crazy…like a fox. That said, I give her a year before her house of cards comes crashing down. I know many people champion Cervenka and want her to succeed, but I think she’s nuttier than a jar of Chunky Jif. I’ve never met her, but every time I hear her speak, I get a distinctively Taylor Lorenz vibe from her.
Sidebar: Taylor Lorenz is a so-called journalist who resigned from the top two print publications in the country under a cloud. She now spends her time on Substack, freaking out over masks while simultaneously stroking Luigi Mangione.
On the other side of the fence, it’s clear that the NFB learned nothing from the scandal four years ago. This sad truth is high-lighted by an example from my old stomping grounds at the Colorado Center for the Blind earlier this summer. During the annual summer program, the residential manager had loud sex with his girlfriend in his apartment. I am certainly not opposed to loud sex. In fact, I applaud it, but not when it is within the hearing of underage summer students. Some of their parents objected as well. Three of them were pulled from the program early and went home.
To my knowledge, the residential manager has faced no consequences for his actions. His girlfriend still has full access to the apartment complex. Julie Deden is still running things over there.
To quote Billy Joel, “And so it goes…and so it goes.”
In other news, I still miss my dad. Now is the time when I should be at the cabin with him, smoking a cigar and drinking a beer on the back deck, listening to the lake ripple nearby, not talking to him about blind politics. Miss you, Dad.
