Would You Demand This Teacher Be Fired?

With the economy the way it is now, this is no time to lose a job. However, what I just read in the Morganton News Herald (hat tip to MishkaZena as usual) about the NCSD situation is quite upsetting to me as a parent:

"Tasha Houpe, from Statesville, has a son in 10th grade at NCSD. She said the school has changed a lot since he started there when he was 2 years old.She said she doesn’t feel teachers are helping the students as much as they should.Houpe said one teacher told her it doesn’t matter if the students finish a grade because they probably won’t go to college.She said she wants to know someone is there who cares about her son."

If any teacher said that to me about my kid, I would be demanding that that teacher be immediately fired. Unless my kid had a very severe disability and/or was clearly not mentally/academically/emotionally capable of going to college, the school and its teachers should expect that my child would be going to college. Right up to the point of graduation, the expectation should be that a child is going to college.

Assuming that this attitude is typical of all the educational staff at NCSD, I would say that none of them have any business teaching deaf children and perhaps ALL should be fired. This is 2008. We know deaf students, when properly taught, are just as capable as anyone else of going on to college. And in today's economy, a bachelor's degree is practically a requirement for entering the labor force in a decently paid job with a future.

Every Parent of a Deaf Child's Worst Nightmare

Last week, a deaf 13 year old girl who could not communicate with her bus driver was seriously endangered by the bus driver, who was a substitute and did not know sign language. Not only that, the bus assistant who could communicate with her, was not available. As reported by Tampabays10.com, the worst could have happened because this youngster, Heather Catalano, was dropped off two miles from her home in pouring rain despite her desperate efforts to communicate with the bus driver. Not only that, she was confronted by a homeless man as she tried to run home - and we all know the potential danger of that situation.

Unfortunately, she did not have her cell phone with her. However, even having her cell phone would not have guaranteed that she would be able to reach her parents in that emergency. What if the cell phone service went down? The weather was bad, after all. In addition, cell phones may not work in certain locations; T-mobile does not work in the Metrorail tunnels.

This article really hit home for me because if the same thing had happened to one of my deaf kids, they would have been totally helpless. Even if they had a cell phone, they might not have been able to reach a parent. I don't blame the father one bit for his saying he would have hurt the bus driver if he had been able to get ahold of the bus driver. I would have felt the same!! Any parent would have.

I hope that the girl's parents get a good lawyer and sue the district. The district needs to be made to pay a penalty so high that every school district in the country that has the responsibility for the transportation of deaf and other disabled children takes notice and puts procedures in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening. (And it is not the first time either. There have been previous stories of deaf children being discovered left behind on school buses - but Heather Catalano was truly in danger!)

A Spoonful of Sugar...

As I write this, I am at home recovering from yesterday's cochlear implant surgery. When I think about my reasons for deciding to get a cochlear implant, one major reason is a A Spoonful of Sugar.

Long ago, when I was a child, one of my biggest pleasures was to lie on the floor, with the words to songs in front of me. Listening carefully with the headphones, I could follow the songs. If I close my eyes, I swear I can still hear Julie Andrews singing "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down..." Or Dick Van Dyke singing "Chim, chim cheree...chim chim cheroo." Both songs were from the movie Mary Poppins.

My hope is that an implant will allow me to hear voices. I want to be able to hear voices so that combined with lipreading, my ability to communicate will improve. I have sign language interpreters at work, but still miss so much even with interpreters. If the implant works, hopefully it will help to cut down on how much I miss.

If I am able to hear with an implant, and if I can hear music, one of the first things I am going to do is get a music-playing device and listen to A Spoonful of Sugar, with the words in front of me so I can follow along.

As for after the surgery, I am doing fine. Some minor vertigo, balance is a bit off, but I'm pretty able to function independently. Some minor pain, and I don't really need the pain medicine anymore. In fact I did not really need the pain medicine at all, but I used it to make myself more comfortable. No nausea..I was really lucky about that. Going without food a long time (no eating after midnight, and surgery was at 12:30 pm) helped in avoiding the nausea. This vertigo is annoying, but I have experienced far worse vertigo before when I had an ear infection.

I probably can go back to work on Monday or Tuesday but I am thinking of staying out til Thursday to give myself more recovery time and a bit of a vacation...after all, I just had surgery and don't I deserve a little reward? :)

Break Out the Popcorn. It is NAD vs. AGBell.

On my way home today, I got word that the NAD had sent a "scathing" letter to AGBell in regard to their deplorable letter to Pepsi. And to think it all started with a television commercial....

The NAD letter is professionally written with carefully chosen words, but when you look at specific language you can tell the depth of anger that the writer(s) felt. For example:

• "obvious lack of respect for deaf people who use ASL."
• "deplorable that AGBell continues to perpetuate the myth that the use of ASL isolates deaf people from mainstream society"
• "We expect the same respect from AGBell"

Until AG Bell wrote that letter to Pepsi, I thought that AG Bell was a professional membership organization that respected deaf people who chose to use ASL, while promoting oral communication and education. Well, that letter to Pepsi changed everything for me. For the first time, AG Bell publicly revealed its true colors.

Perhaps this brouhaha will lead to the birth of a new AG Bell, a more tolerant AG Bell (or perhaps this is just wishful thinking). As far as I know, the media has not yet reported on the conflict that has arisen out of the AG Bell letter to Pepsi, but as awareness grows, it is only a matter of time before someone does report on it in the mainstream media. Or maybe one of the deaf columnists whose columns are published in regular papers (Right now, I can't remember the name of one columnist, whose name starts with H).

Does anyone plan to contact the mainstream media if AG Bell does not publicly apologize to the deaf community?

Robert Mason, Stop Telling Lies

Robert Mason, this is a warning. Stop telling lies about me and attacking me publicly or my next step may be a legal one. For the record, I am not, and have never been, a member of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf.

Furthermore, Robert Goodwin is not just my boyfriend. He is my fiance.

Attack my ideas. Attack my thoughts. Attack my opinions. Do NOT attack me as a person. And do not attack my fiance, Robert Goodwin.

I have better things to do with my time than deal with people who are short on intelligence and respect.