MissTraverse

Hi all, this is just a rant.

I'm profoundly deaf and I reside in a fairly large deaf community. However, I have to say that I am not happy there. I have worked for several years as a teacher.

I had a job that I really liked with Deaf students and a really good boss up until a few years ago. My old boss - who was really, really good left her job to work in another area and she was replaced by this BITCH who I knew from high school. I tried to make the best of it and work with her despite the stuff that she did to me, but it didn't turn out that way. If you want to know what she was like, she thought she was all that and she was a bully - a friend of mine actually had to change schools twice because of her harrassment.

First, she cut my hours in half, then refused to let me teach night classes because apparently "I am a woman and it wasn't safe." However, the head teacher is female and SHE was allowed to teach. I also subbed one night when the teacher was sick and it was fine. Then she stopped letting me attend orientation days and refused to let me read my feedback, so I had no idea of how I could improve my skills.

The head teacher I worked with was also nearly impossible to work with. She refused to let me teach and when I did, she would "forget" to mail her lesson plans, cut me off or talk over me. When I talked to students, she would cut me off in mid sentence at times and just take over. She was also rude to me several times - when a deaf student asked her who would teach if she was sick, her comment was that she would just get another teacher instead of following protocol, which would be to let me teach. Rude.

Then the new boss finally decided to move and I was thinking - hooray! I applied for her job and was told that I couldn't have it because of one qualification that I didn't have. I was fine with that till I found out that the job was given to a girl who has almost no qualifications at all. In other words, she got it because of who she knows.

I enjoyed the job despite all of this because I really liked the students and I also like teaching. But then this new girl tells me that she and the boss decided to give my job to someone else and when I ask why she actually said that it had nothing to do with me and that she had heard positive things about me, but they decided to "give someone else the opportunity." So I lost the raise that I earned last year and also suffered a big blow to my income because of their childish games???

All I have to say is that I am fed up with this type of discrimination that the deaf community demonstrates. I have high qualifications, experience and am willing to learn stuff for anything new that I have to do for work.

However, most deaf people don't like me or have something against me. I have heard all sorts of stupid rumors about me floating around and a lot of them seem to have something against me when they don't even know me. I have had experiences where I have tried to be friendly - saying hello or whatever and have had people walk away from me for no reason.

These girls and their friends have something against me and have gotten their friends to participate in vicious games against me. Some things they have done over the past few years include - sending me email threats, spreading rumors about me, stealing from my house and my family etc.

I have to admit that I have an outgoing personality and am a little eccentric, but I don't see that as a reason for people to be nasty to me.

All I have to say is it pisses me off how some members of the deaf community get everything they want just because of their friends and who they know. They are spoiled and stupid.

Even in deaf social events, I see the same discrimination occur over and over. The exact same people from the exact same committees always organise all the events and make all the speeches.

I tried to join one of the committees this year and was told I wasn't needed - then they went and got someone else even though I was first to apply.

It is all very depressing how close-minded they are here. I decided to finish some courses this year as an alternative because I still want to achieve something. Now I spend most days at home studying, but am stressed most of the time because of all the work. I am very unhappy because one thing my job allowed me to do was socialise and I was slowly starting to make some friends.

I did find another job, but it is a casual one and I don't like it. I am also very short of money now - all thanks to those jealous assholes.

All I have to say is that it pisses me off how the deaf people here are willing to pass over hard work and dedication for popularity.

Not all of them are like this and I do have deaf friends, but the people who play games like this give me the shits.

All I have to say to these people is that they are total assholes and I have worked 10 times harder than they ever will.

That's the end of my rant. If anyone got this far to the end, then thank you for listening. Good bye.