Deaf school closure unfair: parent

[Miss-Delectable]

CBC News - Nfld. & Labrador - Deaf school closure unfair: parent

The mother of a 16-year-old deaf student in St. John's is criticizing the province's decision to close the Newfoundland School for the Deaf.

Government officials announced this month the school would close because no students had enrolled. Advocates within the deaf community, however, have argued that government policy has pushed students into mainstream schools.

Angela Hibbs said her son Roger has been living at the school since he was four.

"It's not fair," she said.

"He needs to have an education with his own people and to put him in a hearing school — I don't think it's fair," said Hibbs.

She fears he will lose contact with friends and with the interpreters at the school who have helped him.

Her son was scheduled to live at the school again this coming fall but will attend Gonzaga High School instead.

Hibbs is worried how her son will fare at a school where he will be the only deaf student.

Hibbs is also upset that she learned the school was closing through the media. She said the province should have given parents notice that the school is closing.

 

[shel90]

Advocates within the deaf community, however, have argued that government policy has pushed students into mainstream schools.

That, I can believe and I think it will happen in the States in the near future.

 

[DDU]

Bad way for the kid to find out there was no more deaf school. But that is how most deaf will be going to school now.
The number of deaf who attend a deaf school has shrunk world wide. It just doesn't make sense to have the physical buildings and staff that go into deaf schools. My friends in rochester ny tell me how few students go to RSD. I know how big the school and it doesn't seem to make sense to keep it open.
I think the grad class was 5 kids. Ok for lower grades but teens mainstream is better

 

[shel90]

Bad way for the kid to find out there was no more deaf school. But that is how most deaf will be going to school now.
The number of deaf who attend a deaf school has shrunk world wide. It just doesn't make sense to have the physical buildings and staff that go into deaf schools. My friends in rochester ny tell me how few students go to RSD. I know how big the school and it doesn't seem to make sense to keep it open.
I think the grad class was 5 kids. Ok for lower grades but teens mainstream is better

I was mainstreamed and it got WORSE when I became a teenager. Much much worse.

 

[DDU]

death of deaf schools

I was mainstreamed and it got WORSE when I became a teenager. Much much worse.

I was mainstreamed before they called it mainstreaming. No terps, no notetakers, no tutors. But I got involved with sports which helped a lot. I still think mainstreaming works best. Young kids can get the culture and confidence in grade school and when they go to high school they will have a lot of support. Plus interaction with hearing people.
There just isn't another alternate these days unless there was a "deaf pill"we can feed newborn babies

 

[shel90]

I was mainstreamed before they called it mainstreaming. No terps, no notetakers, no tutors. But I got involved with sports which helped a lot. I still think mainstreaming works best. Young kids can get the culture and confidence in grade school and when they go to high school they will have a lot of support. Plus interaction with hearing people.
There just isn't another alternate these days unless there was a "deaf pill"we can feed newborn babies

I work at a deaf school and I see deaf children interacting freely without any communication barriers just like they should be entitled to in an educational setting. I do not think mainstreaming works best due to the constant communciation barriers.

 

[somedeafdudefromPNW]

Of course the schools are empty... They were built during the eras where they had more students, tons more. And mainstreaming isn't all what it's cracked up to be either. It's unfortunate that the government see deaf schools as unnecessary expenditures and would rather mainstream their students over trying guide parents to fill up the deaf schools again.

 

[Frisky Feline]

Advocates within the deaf community, however, have argued that government policy has pushed students into mainstream schools.

That, I can believe and I think it will happen in the States in the near future.

yeah they are pushing the parents of implanting foreign object kids' heads too.

I can't image that lots of deaf schools are closing until to zero, then leave the fewer deaf kids who are natural with many reasons so do they neglect them too?

 

[Bebonang]

I was mainstreamed before they called it mainstreaming. No terps, no notetakers, no tutors. But I got involved with sports which helped a lot. I still think mainstreaming works best. Young kids can get the culture and confidence in grade school and when they go to high school they will have a lot of support. Plus interaction with hearing people.
There just isn't another alternate these days unless there was a "deaf pill"we can feed newborn babies

Oh, I see that you are comfortable with hearing people if you can understand what they say and what about jobs? Mainstreaming is not all what cracked up like Souggy said. I would rather be in a Deaf school than being in a mainstream school. I would love to communicate in ASL with Deaf people better than talking with hearing people. It is just difficult in a one way street. I was mainstreamed in both elementary and high school settings and I hate them. I had tried to talk with principal that I want Sign Language in the program so that we can communicate with signs. We did not have no sign language to learn, no ASL interpreter, and no notetakers even no open caption films that showed in the classroom. I had a very difficult time trying to lipread and I don't like lipreading. It is very complicate and why in the world would hearing people think that we can hear with the damn hearing aids or CI if we can not hear enough.

I am just mad at your quotes thinking that mainstreaming is the best way for the deaf people to attend and struggle with speech and lipreading and everything with no accommodations. Geeze.

 

[Miss-Delectable]

Don't close N.L. deaf school: grandparent

CBC News - Nfld. & Labrador - Don't close N.L. deaf school: grandparent

A grandparent says the provincial government's decision to close the Newfoundland School for the Deaf will negatively affect her deaf grandson's education.

Irene Coleman said her grandson Dominic, 9, would have enroled at the St. John's school, but his parents were told in May there was no point in him signing up this year.

Coleman said Wednesday she fears Dominic won't do well in a mainstream school.

"He's so used to his routine and signing and all that, and when there's so many kids together he just gets overcome," said Coleman.

When the province announced the closure Aug. 2, officials said no students were enroled this year and there was no hope of enroling any more in the next five years. In 2003, the province took over admission decisions from the school.

Parents and former staff have told CBC News that admissions have been discouraged for many years, which they believe was part of a plan to close the school. However Education Minister Darin King denied that suggestion on Wednesday.

"It's just far fetched to suggest that our government has had a plan to close the School for the Deaf, we have not tried to do that," King said.

But Coleman can't accept that response.

"I'd like Darin King to come and explain to Dominic that the School for the Deaf is closed. [Tell Dominic] 'You've got to move on'. Let him sign to him," she said.

Dominic has been attending the Newfoundland School for the Deaf since 2006.

He is enrolled to attend Paradise Elementary in September.


Well, you can be assured that the Coleman family and others wouldn't be voting for Darin King and his government at the next election.