Others Standing Up for Ousted Wheelchair Titlist

A new Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin was crowned Tuesday after pageant leaders stripped the original winner of the title after she appeared in a newspaper photograph standing.

The announcement of the new winner came amid a storm of protest over pageant officials’ decision last week to take the crown away from Janeal Lee, 30, a high school teacher and muscular dystrophy sufferer who uses a scooter as her primary way to get around but says she can walk 50 feet on a good day and stand while teaching.

During the furor, the runner-up refused to accept the crown out of protest. Lee’s sister, who also has muscular dystrophy and was named Ms. Wheelchair Minnesota, dropped out of the competition in that state. And the coordinator for the organization’s Minnesota program stepped down from her job to “stand up for Janeal Lee.”

“I no longer feel comfortable supporting an organization that instead of working toward creating a positive change, chooses to perpetuate stereotypes and requests its participants to hide their abilities while in public,” said Lee’s sister, Sharon Spring, 26, of Rochester, Minn.

Pageant officials stripped Lee of the crown after she was shown standing in her classroom in a photograph in a supplement to the Appleton Post-Crescent newspaper. The organization said candidates had to “mostly be seen in the public using their wheelchairs or scooters.”

The eventual winner was second runner-up Kim Jerman of Waukesha. She did not return a call from Associated Press.

The crown went to Jerman after first runner-up Michelle Kearney of West Allis refused to accept it. “Who is to say who is more disabled and less disabled than another person?” Kearney told the Post-Crescent.