Management Versus Attitude

The Washington Post has published a profile of Fernandes that is clearly sympathetic to her. Her life experience growing up deaf and discovering herself as a deaf person, is one that is common to many in the deaf community. Many culturally deaf people started out as former "pure orals."

The Post states that her "no-nonsense" management style has rubbed many people the wrong way, and that she had alienated many faculty and parents with her reorganization of the Clerc Center. When Fernandes denied my child a teacher at the Clerc Center, that was not a no-nonsense "management decision." That was a bad attitude, plain and simple. She demonstrated a lack of caring, and I was a parent, not a child or a Gallaudet student. There is nothing wrong with a "no-nonsense" management style. But the future president of Gallaudet also needs to have a heart.

I wrote early Saturday morning to every member of the Board of Trustees and told them my story. I prefaced it with, "It may have been long ago, but if she didn't care then about the needs of a small group of young deaf children, how could she care for the needs of thousands of Gallaudet students of all ages?!"

In addition, the Post refers to the former Special Oppportunities Program as a "remedial program." This gives me the opportunity to remind readers that the SOP program was not merely a remedial program. The word "remedial" implies otherwise normal deaf students who are just behind academically. Joseph Rainmound's description of the kids who had been in that program (at the end of his blog post), is a must read. I had also found this description of the SOP program on an archived Clerc Center web page from 1996, "Special Opportunities Program (6 to 15 years) Comprehensive program including academic readiness, functional academics, independent living skills, and employment education for deaf students with special needs."