Printed in Olathe News in December 2007
Wichita Deaf Man Shot with Taser Gun
By Leonard Hall
Wichita police shot a hard of hearing man with a taser gun when he was leaving his bathroom wearing a towel and not wearing his hearing aid. The incident attracted national attention and blogs from the deaf community.
The blogs blasted the Wichita police department for the use of the taser. One blog gave the police department its weekly award for “most outrageous abuse of a Taser.”
Another blog listed the Wichita police as “The Barney Fife Police Academy” named after the deputy sheriff who starred in the old television series of “Mayberry.”
The incident began several weeks ago when the police department received a cell phone call about shots fired in a residence.
Believing there was a shooter and victims in the house, two police officers went into the residence and saw Donnell Williams, a 39 year old hard of hearing man, leaving the bathroom wearing a towel around his waist.
When Williams turned the corner, he saw guns pointing right at him.
Without wearing his hearing aids, Williams pointed to his ear and said “I can’t hear” several times.
The officers repeatedly shout at Williams to put his hands where they could be seen. Williams walked out of their field of view and came back.
William still would not comply with their orders. Then the officer shot Williams with a taser gun.
At the time when the taser gun was used, the officers said they did not know of Williams hearing condition.
Once the officers realized the call was a false report, they apologized numerous times for the breakdown in communication. Williams was not hurt and he has not filed a complaint with the City.
Recently, Wichita police department met with local deaf advocates from Wichita Association of the Deaf.
The local deaf advocates met several times with the Wichita police department over several years on complaints for failing to provide qualified interpreters when deaf people are arrested for various violations.
The local advocates wanted the City to retain a full-time interpreter and maintain a list of qualified interpreters. City of Wichita still does not have a full-time interpreter nor keep a list of qualified interpreters to use.
Fortunately, the City of Olathe has a full-time interpreter and keeps a list of qualified interpreters referral agencies to use. Due to the shortage of interpreters, it is not always possible to provide interpreter upon short notice.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column for the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
More Deaf Students with Severe Disabilities
Printed in the Olathe News in December 2007
More Deaf Students with Severe Disabilities
By Leonard Hall
Across the country and Kansas, schools and programs for deaf children continue to be challenged in their efforts to meet the needs of those children with additional disabilities.
Some estimates indicate that as many as 40% of deaf students have disabilities in addition to deafness. These may include developmental delays, learning disabilities, sight impairments, autism, emotional and behavioral issues.
There are currently an estimated 72,000 deaf students enrolled in public schools in this country, with about 15 percent or 10,800 of them in state schools for the deaf. While expertise on deafness is more concentrated in state schools, they struggle along with their colleagues in public schools to obtain and/or develop the expertise needed to address the additional challenges of the multiply disabled child.
Schools and programs for the deaf have always provided services to deaf children with other disabilities at some level. The key factors have been the severity of the disability and the extent to which the student could benefit from visual communication.
There seems to be an increase in the number of deaf students with severe disabilities challenging school programs. Autistic children are an example of such a population.
I have interacted with several deaf students with different degrees of autism. This can be a severe cognitive disability. The deaf student with severe autism may or may not be able to partially understand me and my sign language. His ability to respond with voice or sign is limited.
An environment with sign language may not be the highest priority for deaf students with such severe cognitive disabilities.
There is a big debate as to whether state schools for the deaf should accept deaf students with moderate to profound disabilities who cannot communicate in sign language effectively or otherwise benefit from an environment in which sign language is the primary mode of communication.
However, until deaf children with severe disabilities, such as autism, are placed in a visually accessible environment, such as KSD, where they can learn sign language, we can’t be sure whether the student will adjust and improve.
A recent lawsuit in California has required the California School for the Deaf in Fremont to establish a special program for autistic students. Everyone will be watching this program to see how this program will work for autistic deaf students.
One major problem is the shortage of qualified teachers in deaf education as well as special education in general. Recently, Kansas University cut back on its master deaf education program and merged it with the special education program. There may be less teachers specializing in deaf education graduating in the near future.
It will continue to be a major challenge for state schools for the deaf and local deaf education programs to provide an appropriate and meaningful education for those deaf students with moderate to severe disability.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column for the Olathe News and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
More Deaf Students with Severe Disabilities
By Leonard Hall
Across the country and Kansas, schools and programs for deaf children continue to be challenged in their efforts to meet the needs of those children with additional disabilities.
Some estimates indicate that as many as 40% of deaf students have disabilities in addition to deafness. These may include developmental delays, learning disabilities, sight impairments, autism, emotional and behavioral issues.
There are currently an estimated 72,000 deaf students enrolled in public schools in this country, with about 15 percent or 10,800 of them in state schools for the deaf. While expertise on deafness is more concentrated in state schools, they struggle along with their colleagues in public schools to obtain and/or develop the expertise needed to address the additional challenges of the multiply disabled child.
Schools and programs for the deaf have always provided services to deaf children with other disabilities at some level. The key factors have been the severity of the disability and the extent to which the student could benefit from visual communication.
There seems to be an increase in the number of deaf students with severe disabilities challenging school programs. Autistic children are an example of such a population.
I have interacted with several deaf students with different degrees of autism. This can be a severe cognitive disability. The deaf student with severe autism may or may not be able to partially understand me and my sign language. His ability to respond with voice or sign is limited.
An environment with sign language may not be the highest priority for deaf students with such severe cognitive disabilities.
There is a big debate as to whether state schools for the deaf should accept deaf students with moderate to profound disabilities who cannot communicate in sign language effectively or otherwise benefit from an environment in which sign language is the primary mode of communication.
However, until deaf children with severe disabilities, such as autism, are placed in a visually accessible environment, such as KSD, where they can learn sign language, we can’t be sure whether the student will adjust and improve.
A recent lawsuit in California has required the California School for the Deaf in Fremont to establish a special program for autistic students. Everyone will be watching this program to see how this program will work for autistic deaf students.
One major problem is the shortage of qualified teachers in deaf education as well as special education in general. Recently, Kansas University cut back on its master deaf education program and merged it with the special education program. There may be less teachers specializing in deaf education graduating in the near future.
It will continue to be a major challenge for state schools for the deaf and local deaf education programs to provide an appropriate and meaningful education for those deaf students with moderate to severe disability.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column for the Olathe News and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
Holiday Season and Gifts for Deaf People
Printed in the Olathe News in November 2007
Holiday Season and Gifts for Deaf People
By Leonard Hall
The holiday season is always one of the busiest times of the year for the deaf community with several Christmas parties and New Year’s Eve parties.
Nearly every deaf club in Kansas, including those in Olathe, Hutchinson, Topeka, and Wichita, will have a Christmas party. Olathe Club of the Deaf (OCD) will have its Christmas party with a deaf Santa Claus on Saturday afternoon on December 8th.
It is a delightful event to see several dozens of deaf and hearing children having a chance to sign with a deaf Santa Claus who knows sign language. OCD will start off with a pot luck dinner at 1 p.m. and Santa Claus will come at 3 p.m.
There are some interesting Christmas gifts that deaf and hard of hearing people can use. One is the PDA which can send and receive text messages.
The two most popular ones are the BlackBerry PDA offered by Sprint and the Sidekick offered by T-Mobile.
These PDAs has a miniature keyboard which the deaf person can easily type email message with their thumbs. They may end up with BlackBerry thumbs from overusing these PDA devices.
The PDAs can also work as cell phone for the hard of hearing users. BlackBerry PDA tends to work well for hearing aid users.
Another good Christmas gift is to buy a smoke alarm with a light to be installed in the bedroom. However, this gift is no substitute for the electric smoke alarm with strobe light, which is more expensive. There is a smoke alarm with a strobe light that can be plugged into the bedroom electrical outlet.
A smoke alarm with a light is better than having no smoke alarm that would work for the deaf or hard of hearing person in the bedroom.
Another good gift is the alarm clock that works by turning on a light fixture or lamp in the morning. Adding a small connector that allows the light to blink will wake up anyone in the morning.
There are some alarm clocks with built-in light features that will make a good gift.
For those deaf or hard of hearing people who have a hard time waking up, a good gift would be a bed vibrator or shaker that will shake the bed. It is hard to sleep when your bed is shaking.
Another gift is a web cam that allows deaf people to communicate with other deaf people by sign language through their computer.
Many of these gifts can be purchased on-line at www.harriscomm.com.
Have a happy holiday season!
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column on the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
Holiday Season and Gifts for Deaf People
By Leonard Hall
The holiday season is always one of the busiest times of the year for the deaf community with several Christmas parties and New Year’s Eve parties.
Nearly every deaf club in Kansas, including those in Olathe, Hutchinson, Topeka, and Wichita, will have a Christmas party. Olathe Club of the Deaf (OCD) will have its Christmas party with a deaf Santa Claus on Saturday afternoon on December 8th.
It is a delightful event to see several dozens of deaf and hearing children having a chance to sign with a deaf Santa Claus who knows sign language. OCD will start off with a pot luck dinner at 1 p.m. and Santa Claus will come at 3 p.m.
There are some interesting Christmas gifts that deaf and hard of hearing people can use. One is the PDA which can send and receive text messages.
The two most popular ones are the BlackBerry PDA offered by Sprint and the Sidekick offered by T-Mobile.
These PDAs has a miniature keyboard which the deaf person can easily type email message with their thumbs. They may end up with BlackBerry thumbs from overusing these PDA devices.
The PDAs can also work as cell phone for the hard of hearing users. BlackBerry PDA tends to work well for hearing aid users.
Another good Christmas gift is to buy a smoke alarm with a light to be installed in the bedroom. However, this gift is no substitute for the electric smoke alarm with strobe light, which is more expensive. There is a smoke alarm with a strobe light that can be plugged into the bedroom electrical outlet.
A smoke alarm with a light is better than having no smoke alarm that would work for the deaf or hard of hearing person in the bedroom.
Another good gift is the alarm clock that works by turning on a light fixture or lamp in the morning. Adding a small connector that allows the light to blink will wake up anyone in the morning.
There are some alarm clocks with built-in light features that will make a good gift.
For those deaf or hard of hearing people who have a hard time waking up, a good gift would be a bed vibrator or shaker that will shake the bed. It is hard to sleep when your bed is shaking.
Another gift is a web cam that allows deaf people to communicate with other deaf people by sign language through their computer.
Many of these gifts can be purchased on-line at www.harriscomm.com.
Have a happy holiday season!
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column on the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
ASL Language Courses Is Growing
Printed in the Olathe News on November 16, 2007
ASL Language Courses Is Growing.
By Leonard Hall
American Sign Language (ASL) is the third most common used language in America after English and Spanish. Many high schools offer ASL classes.
Hundreds of colleges and universities offer ASL, too. More than 70 universities and colleges accept ASL as a foreign language requirement.
Many foreign language departments resisted making ASL a foreign language course since the departments preferred focusing on literature. To these professors, foreign language is speaking and reading. That view has changed considerably during the past several years as the linguist academic community has recognized ASL as its own language.
A Kansas law designated ASL as a foreign language.
A recent press release indicated that enrollment for ASL in college and university has reached 5% of all language courses being offered in 2006. Approximately 79,000 students took ASL courses that represented a 30% increase since 2002.
52% of language courses are offered in Spanish, followed by French (13%) and German (6%).
I remembered that Emporia State University in the 1970s required at least two classes of foreign language for many majors. Fortunately, my Business degree did not require any foreign language.
In 1965, 16.5% of university/college students took a foreign language course. Due to many majors dropping foreign language course as a requirement, currently 8.6% of students now take a foreign language course.
While many students viewed ASL as being an easy or an interesting course, it is not easy to learn. ASL has its own grammar structure; most of the vocabulary is composed of words with meanings.
The students have to learn an entire new language from scratch. Students have to use ASL for several years before becoming fluent.
Sign Language is not the same throughout the world. ASL is much different than German Sign Language or Chinese Sign Language.
One surprising fact about ASL is that deaf people communicated faster through ASL than English speakers. When an interpreter is translating ASL between two deaf people, it is at twice the speed of a conversation between two hearing people.
While many deaf people communicate well in ASL, they can read and write well in English. English is a second language for many deaf people.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column on the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
ASL Language Courses Is Growing.
By Leonard Hall
American Sign Language (ASL) is the third most common used language in America after English and Spanish. Many high schools offer ASL classes.
Hundreds of colleges and universities offer ASL, too. More than 70 universities and colleges accept ASL as a foreign language requirement.
Many foreign language departments resisted making ASL a foreign language course since the departments preferred focusing on literature. To these professors, foreign language is speaking and reading. That view has changed considerably during the past several years as the linguist academic community has recognized ASL as its own language.
A Kansas law designated ASL as a foreign language.
A recent press release indicated that enrollment for ASL in college and university has reached 5% of all language courses being offered in 2006. Approximately 79,000 students took ASL courses that represented a 30% increase since 2002.
52% of language courses are offered in Spanish, followed by French (13%) and German (6%).
I remembered that Emporia State University in the 1970s required at least two classes of foreign language for many majors. Fortunately, my Business degree did not require any foreign language.
In 1965, 16.5% of university/college students took a foreign language course. Due to many majors dropping foreign language course as a requirement, currently 8.6% of students now take a foreign language course.
While many students viewed ASL as being an easy or an interesting course, it is not easy to learn. ASL has its own grammar structure; most of the vocabulary is composed of words with meanings.
The students have to learn an entire new language from scratch. Students have to use ASL for several years before becoming fluent.
Sign Language is not the same throughout the world. ASL is much different than German Sign Language or Chinese Sign Language.
One surprising fact about ASL is that deaf people communicated faster through ASL than English speakers. When an interpreter is translating ASL between two deaf people, it is at twice the speed of a conversation between two hearing people.
While many deaf people communicate well in ASL, they can read and write well in English. English is a second language for many deaf people.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column on the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
Halloween, Dart and Poker Games
Published in the Olathe News in November 2007
Halloween, Dart, and Poker Games
By Leonard Hall
Halloween, dart tournament, and poker tournaments are popular activities for deaf people in October and November.
Halloween was a popular as Olathe Club of the Deaf (OCD) and Wichita Association of the Deaf each had a lot of children and deaf adults coming to their annual Halloween party last Saturday. Kansas School for the Deaf had several Halloween parties for its students.
It is great to watch people wearing creative costumes at these parties. The children were better than adults at creating wild costumes to wear.
Another popular event is the dart leagues, which dozens of deaf players played dart at OCD every week.
This Saturday, OCD will have its 5th annual dart tournament that will attract many deaf players from throughout the Kansas City area. The tournament with several different events will last from noon to midnight.
Another popular activity is playing poker games. Many deaf people, including myself, would watch those poker tournaments and poker lesson programs on cable television when there is nothing else to watch.
At a local bar on one Sunday night, I attended a poker tournament packed with many hearing poker players and a few deaf players.
During the tournament, deaf people would sign to each other giving tips on playing poker while playing their cards. It was a learning process for me as I never played in a poker tournament before.
Throughout the night, nearly all of the deaf poker players were winning. Hearing players would cursed quietly and were amazed at the deaf players beating them.
In the championship round, 2 out of the 6 final players were deaf. The winner of the poker tournament was a young deaf female visiting Olathe from California.
She played showing no emotion throughout the night. No-one could figure if she was bluffing or not.
She was good at figuring out the other hearing players’ style of playing. She would tell us in sign language how the other hearing person is bluffing.
When I asked several local deaf players how they did in local poker tournaments, they won several poker tournaments winning prizes of $100 to $500 over the past year.
Several local deaf players would play regularly in several national deaf poker tournaments held on the coasts and would often finished in the top 10 out of hundreds of players.
At a regional deaf conference, I had a chance to play one night in my first poker tournament with 24 deaf players from throughout the Midwest. After 3 hours of playing pokers, I took 2nd place to the deaf chef.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column on the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
Halloween, Dart, and Poker Games
By Leonard Hall
Halloween, dart tournament, and poker tournaments are popular activities for deaf people in October and November.
Halloween was a popular as Olathe Club of the Deaf (OCD) and Wichita Association of the Deaf each had a lot of children and deaf adults coming to their annual Halloween party last Saturday. Kansas School for the Deaf had several Halloween parties for its students.
It is great to watch people wearing creative costumes at these parties. The children were better than adults at creating wild costumes to wear.
Another popular event is the dart leagues, which dozens of deaf players played dart at OCD every week.
This Saturday, OCD will have its 5th annual dart tournament that will attract many deaf players from throughout the Kansas City area. The tournament with several different events will last from noon to midnight.
Another popular activity is playing poker games. Many deaf people, including myself, would watch those poker tournaments and poker lesson programs on cable television when there is nothing else to watch.
At a local bar on one Sunday night, I attended a poker tournament packed with many hearing poker players and a few deaf players.
During the tournament, deaf people would sign to each other giving tips on playing poker while playing their cards. It was a learning process for me as I never played in a poker tournament before.
Throughout the night, nearly all of the deaf poker players were winning. Hearing players would cursed quietly and were amazed at the deaf players beating them.
In the championship round, 2 out of the 6 final players were deaf. The winner of the poker tournament was a young deaf female visiting Olathe from California.
She played showing no emotion throughout the night. No-one could figure if she was bluffing or not.
She was good at figuring out the other hearing players’ style of playing. She would tell us in sign language how the other hearing person is bluffing.
When I asked several local deaf players how they did in local poker tournaments, they won several poker tournaments winning prizes of $100 to $500 over the past year.
Several local deaf players would play regularly in several national deaf poker tournaments held on the coasts and would often finished in the top 10 out of hundreds of players.
At a regional deaf conference, I had a chance to play one night in my first poker tournament with 24 deaf players from throughout the Midwest. After 3 hours of playing pokers, I took 2nd place to the deaf chef.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column on the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
Better Hearing With Cochlear Implant
Printed in Olathe News in October 2007
Better Hearing with CI
By Leonard Hall
Four months after receiving my cochlear implant in my right ear, the wonderful technology has allowed me to hear more than I ever did in my life.
During the first days of wearing the implant, my right ear could not handled any kind of sensitivity of the sounds entering the implant. My right ear was simply deaf which I have never worn a hearing aid out of.
Like most deaf people who never had any hearing, my brain would not process any sound from the implant. It was a process of training my ear, nerves, and brain to hear and understand sounds.
Through the first 2 months, I went through 11 different mapping levels of volume and sensitivity adjustments before reaching the hearing level to hear, but not understand, voices. Each level brings painstaking adjustment to my brain and nerves of the louder volume and exposure to more sounds.
At each level, it was simply learning how to hear electronically at an increasing volume and sensitivity of sounds. There are different sounds coming at me in every kind of environments.
In talking with deaf friends wearing cochlear implant, some could not go beyond the 6th or 7th levels due to the maximum sensitivity the person can handled. They are not to reach the levels to hear or understand spoken words.
I wore a hearing aid and understood 25% of verbal communication for many years. My hearing in my left ear has decreased to the point of almost being profoundly deaf.
One part of my brain using my left ear has the ability to hear and understand verbal communication. It is the other part of my brain using my right ear that needed training.
At the 12th level of mapping, I was able to hear voices, but the spoken words sounded jumbled.
My audiologist, Kristen, had a surprise. Among the three different cochlear implant brands, she and Dr. Luetje recommended Advanced Bionics (or AB Harmony), which came out last year.
The three brands have 16 to 22 electrodes to allow the device to process the sounds. The AB Harmony processor can be adjusted to work at the sound spectrum of up to 120 spectral bands.
When Kristen adjusted my AB Harmony processor to 120 spectral bands, I begin to hear the distinction between spoken words to understand verbal communication better.
Over the past two months on the 13th and 14th level, I am getting better at hearing and understanding spoken words from some people. Using my hearing aid and the implant, I am able to hear and understand most verbal communication.
In the near future, I hope to hear most verbal communication through my implant without the use of my hearing aid.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column on the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
Better Hearing with CI
By Leonard Hall
Four months after receiving my cochlear implant in my right ear, the wonderful technology has allowed me to hear more than I ever did in my life.
During the first days of wearing the implant, my right ear could not handled any kind of sensitivity of the sounds entering the implant. My right ear was simply deaf which I have never worn a hearing aid out of.
Like most deaf people who never had any hearing, my brain would not process any sound from the implant. It was a process of training my ear, nerves, and brain to hear and understand sounds.
Through the first 2 months, I went through 11 different mapping levels of volume and sensitivity adjustments before reaching the hearing level to hear, but not understand, voices. Each level brings painstaking adjustment to my brain and nerves of the louder volume and exposure to more sounds.
At each level, it was simply learning how to hear electronically at an increasing volume and sensitivity of sounds. There are different sounds coming at me in every kind of environments.
In talking with deaf friends wearing cochlear implant, some could not go beyond the 6th or 7th levels due to the maximum sensitivity the person can handled. They are not to reach the levels to hear or understand spoken words.
I wore a hearing aid and understood 25% of verbal communication for many years. My hearing in my left ear has decreased to the point of almost being profoundly deaf.
One part of my brain using my left ear has the ability to hear and understand verbal communication. It is the other part of my brain using my right ear that needed training.
At the 12th level of mapping, I was able to hear voices, but the spoken words sounded jumbled.
My audiologist, Kristen, had a surprise. Among the three different cochlear implant brands, she and Dr. Luetje recommended Advanced Bionics (or AB Harmony), which came out last year.
The three brands have 16 to 22 electrodes to allow the device to process the sounds. The AB Harmony processor can be adjusted to work at the sound spectrum of up to 120 spectral bands.
When Kristen adjusted my AB Harmony processor to 120 spectral bands, I begin to hear the distinction between spoken words to understand verbal communication better.
Over the past two months on the 13th and 14th level, I am getting better at hearing and understanding spoken words from some people. Using my hearing aid and the implant, I am able to hear and understand most verbal communication.
In the near future, I hope to hear most verbal communication through my implant without the use of my hearing aid.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column on the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
Racial Incident at Deaf School in D.C.
Printed in the Olathe News in October 2007
Racial Incident at Deaf School in D.C.
By Leonard Hall
Another national new event came out about a shocking racial incident occurring at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) last September. MSSD is located on the campus of Gallaudet University in Washington D.C.
It started as a friendly horseplay event between different racial groups of students with the names of “Nazi” and “Black KKK”. The event later turned into an ugly incident which six white and one black deaf student took another black student into a dorm room and used markers to write “KKK” and swastikas on the black student.
The black student was held again his will in the room for about 45 minutes.
As the only deaf liberal university in the world, Gallaudet University started to rebound from the week-long students campus protest that ended in the selection of another deaf President last year, the MSSD dormitory event shocked everyone and attracted national media attention.
Gallaudet did not hide the incident and called the police to investigate the crime.
Because of the race of the victim and the symbols drawn on him, the police are investigating the incident as a hate crime. No charges have been filed.
The high school students participating in the event were sent home. It was doubtful that these students were aware of the serious consequences for their actions.
Gallaudet officials were quick to denounce the incident. Gallaudet President Robert Davila said the game was “destructive and represented a kind of evil that existed in society.
Gallaudet Provost Stephen Wiener said the school does not tolerate any kind of action, any kind of behavior of this type.
MSSD has a student population of 170 students with approximately 100 students living in the dormitory. Gallaudet and MSSD have a wide racial diversity of staff working at both schools.
Upon entering the real world, deaf students would face discrimination and prejudice in education, social, and employment as they would never dreamed of while in school.
The students at state school for the deaf and even those attending mainstreamed school programs are often isolated from the real problems of prejudice and discrimination in the world.
At nearly all deaf schools, deaf clubs and sporting events across the country, deaf people from all diverse backgrounds such as white, black, Hispanic, and Asians are good friends and mixed well at most events.
Most deaf people would never dream that any deaf person or student would do racial insults against another deaf person as what happened at MSSD.
State schools for the deaf would be wise to follow Gallaudet and MSSD actions in educating their own students that these types of behaviors are not acceptable in school or in the real world.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column on the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
Racial Incident at Deaf School in D.C.
By Leonard Hall
Another national new event came out about a shocking racial incident occurring at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) last September. MSSD is located on the campus of Gallaudet University in Washington D.C.
It started as a friendly horseplay event between different racial groups of students with the names of “Nazi” and “Black KKK”. The event later turned into an ugly incident which six white and one black deaf student took another black student into a dorm room and used markers to write “KKK” and swastikas on the black student.
The black student was held again his will in the room for about 45 minutes.
As the only deaf liberal university in the world, Gallaudet University started to rebound from the week-long students campus protest that ended in the selection of another deaf President last year, the MSSD dormitory event shocked everyone and attracted national media attention.
Gallaudet did not hide the incident and called the police to investigate the crime.
Because of the race of the victim and the symbols drawn on him, the police are investigating the incident as a hate crime. No charges have been filed.
The high school students participating in the event were sent home. It was doubtful that these students were aware of the serious consequences for their actions.
Gallaudet officials were quick to denounce the incident. Gallaudet President Robert Davila said the game was “destructive and represented a kind of evil that existed in society.
Gallaudet Provost Stephen Wiener said the school does not tolerate any kind of action, any kind of behavior of this type.
MSSD has a student population of 170 students with approximately 100 students living in the dormitory. Gallaudet and MSSD have a wide racial diversity of staff working at both schools.
Upon entering the real world, deaf students would face discrimination and prejudice in education, social, and employment as they would never dreamed of while in school.
The students at state school for the deaf and even those attending mainstreamed school programs are often isolated from the real problems of prejudice and discrimination in the world.
At nearly all deaf schools, deaf clubs and sporting events across the country, deaf people from all diverse backgrounds such as white, black, Hispanic, and Asians are good friends and mixed well at most events.
Most deaf people would never dream that any deaf person or student would do racial insults against another deaf person as what happened at MSSD.
State schools for the deaf would be wise to follow Gallaudet and MSSD actions in educating their own students that these types of behaviors are not acceptable in school or in the real world.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column on the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)
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