Former IVH employee announces departure in surprising fashion Friday

T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM
Former Iowa Veterans Home social worker Wyatt Manship organized and led the July 17 protest against a restructuring plan that was announced earlier that month and took effect Aug. 15. Manship quit his job at the facility on Friday and departed with a speech over the campus emergency broadcast system.

Wyatt Manship, the organizer of the July 17 protest against the Iowa Veterans Home restructuring that eliminated some positions and reduced others from full-time to part-time, left his employment at the state-run facility with a surprise announcement on Friday morning.

Manship was a social worker and arrived at IVH to submit his resignation letter (See today’s Op-Ed page) and collect his personal belongings. He brought a friend and former IVH employee with him to videotape the events.

After Manship submitted the letter, he made the announcement over the public access system, which was audible throughout the entire campus. Drawing everyone’s attention, Manship asked everyone to stop and listen, making sure to identify himself.

“We the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful,” he said. “We have done so much for so long with so little. We are not qualified to do anything with nothing.”

Manship expressed his love for the employees but said it was time for him to go down a different path and said goodbye to them and to the residents.

“In good conscience, I cannot continue to stand by and witness the hostility, low morale and sheer ingratitude the state and this administration is showing to both its employees and the veterans we serve,” he said. “I will miss you with all of my heart and soul. You are what makes this place great. Continue to fight the good fight. Organize, resist and vote out those that continue to silence you and take your freedoms. Injustice you tolerate, you also encourage. The residents and staff standing as one have the real power. Don’t let them fool you.”

Manship also apologized to residents and staff who were offended by the July 17 protest and the discussions that occurred afterward.

He had written the speech down and read it verbatim, until the ending, which was off-the-cuff. Manship ended it with a wish for IVH Division Administrator/Licensed Nursing Home Administrator Penny Cutler-Bermudez and employees who support her to “eat a bag of f****** d****. Peace and taco grease peeps. Much love. Catch you on the flip side home-slices. Caw caw, biznatches.”

Residents and staff were cheering, he said.

“One of them said, ‘Go get ’em, Wyatt,’” Manship said. “I am proud of it. I did what I needed to do. I sent the message I wanted to send.”

Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs Spokesman Karl Lettow said the system is intended for general announcements and emergencies.

“They accessed the public address system, voicing lewd messages,” he said. “Many residents and staff reported feeling disturbed and alarmed by the act. We do not condone this behavior, and the intentional agitation of residents is a clear ethical violation of most healthcare professions.”

Accessing the public address system was easy, Manship said. All it required was a code.

Following his farewell and driving away from the campus, he had to pull over and calm down as he was very anxious. His phone started “blowing up” with people thanking him, Manship said.

Then he learned that Marshalltown Police Department officers were called to the campus.

MPD Captain Kiel Stevenson said they were notified by IVH about an upset employee who was on campus during his last day of employment.

Manship contacted the department and met the officers at his house. According to Manship, IVH administration was treating the incident as a threat.

“I am not charged with anything,” he said. “I did get a warning that if I go back to IVH, I will be charged with trespassing. They are treating me like I was an active shooter and telling the cops I scared the residents. I did not see any residents who were scared. I am no threat. I did nothing threatening of any kind. They are trying to spin it.”

Stevenson said he did not know what the threat might have been.

“They were worried something might happen,” he said. “When we got there, he had already left, and there was no issue. We left and everything went back to being peaceful. We did give him a trespassing warning. He is no longer welcome back there.”

Lettow said the MPD is taking all appropriate measures to ensure the disturbance is not repeated.

“A no trespassing order is issued,” he said. “Nothing further has been determined at this time. IVH operations continued as normal and all residents and staff are currently safe.”

Manship was not expecting the reaction his broadcast received.

“I know I wanted to spread hope and I wanted the chance to say goodbye,” he said. “I wanted to let them know to keep fighting. Ninety-nine percent of my message was love, except for the ending.”

With his employment at IVH behind him, Manship said he is going to focus on spending more time with his family, maybe opening a business or purchasing and flipping homes. He knows he wants to enjoy life with little stress and spend it in a caring environment. Manship added that he would have spent the next 10 years at IVH, but the layoffs announced in July were the last straw.

“My fight is over,” he said. “I can’t do it any longer. I hand over the watch to the people who are left.”

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.