Deaf couple find shocking note on lost luggage

Vanessa8

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A deaf Houston couple is demanding an apology from American Airlines after discovering an insensitive note attached to their lost luggage from a Hawaiian vacation.
Angela HuckabyandJames Moehle told ABC’s KRTK
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someone wrote Please text. Deaf and dumb,” on their lost luggage so the couple could be reunited with their bags.
Huckaby and Moehle, a successful tradesman, said they were offended.
"It was just outrageous and cruel and unnecessary," said Moehle's mother, Kay Moehle, told KRTK. “That person needs to be fired.”
They have written a letter to American Airlines asking for an apology and disciplinary action.
In a statement, the airline said it was investigating:
"We apologize to Mr. Moehle and Ms. Huckaby. It was clearly a very poor choice of words. We're confident there was no ill will, but we'll be looking into this further and will be following up with our team members at IAH and the contractor that provides our baggage delivery services."
 
It's sad that the term deaf and dumb is still going around. People are clueless. I was called 'deaf mute' when I was small by an older woman. I left it alone knowing she's old and clueless.
 
educating people about that one. i used to get upset over it when i was younger. Now i realize that lots of hearing have different perspective on words "dumb". :dunno2:
 
educating people about that one. i used to get upset over it when i was younger. Now i realize that lots of hearing have different perspective on words "dumb". :dunno2:

According to the article, 'dumb' it's an ancient word that means they can't talk. There's a word for that - mute.

I find it hard to believe that. I wonder how old this person is that wrote that down. If he's young, then I would bet he means dumb and not the mute term. Hard to say what exactly was going through his mind whether it was intentional or not.
 
According to the article, 'dumb' it's an ancient word that means they can't talk. There's a word for that - mute.

I find it hard to believe that. I wonder how old this person is that wrote that down. If he's young, then I would bet he means dumb and not the mute term. Hard to say what exactly was going through his mind whether it was intentional or not.

Right. Thats why they must have been educated by elder people who say that all the time. I ve met a few elder people who are very polite and yet they use "dumb." of course I was politely asking them not to use that word. if they insist that term then they can use the word for mute or they didn't speak well. So elder people teach children by using a word for "dumb". ARGH!
 
Last week I had to correct and educate my doctor for saying "deaf and dumb." He's from another country.
 
Speaking of the devil, Oh my bro in law texted me a while ago. "are you going to ever fly on america airline that was not nice what they done".
 
I wonder if it will work. If I call a COP and report on people for a voice assault??? :hmm:
 
It happened to us, we went to the office in Hospital to prepared for delivery baby. We required for a interpreter if I was in the emergency. The nurse, filled up thru the computer and automatic said , Deaf and mute. We told her, please polite to say Deaf not mute.. The nurse was nothing wrong, just the computer database itself.. I wish someone fixing database to change correct was Deaf and remove mute.. It still the same.. tsk!
 
Airline Apologizes for Insulting 'Deaf and Dumb' Note

James Moehle and Angela Huckaby returned to Texas this week from a beautiful Hawaiian vacation, but the trip home was marred slightly by lost luggage but even more so when the luggage turned up with an insulting note attached.

"Please text, deaf and dumb," were the instructions left on the American Airlines lost baggage receipt on how best to reach the couple.

The couple is deaf, but "dumb" is an archaic way of describing people unable to speak, an expression that is now considered offensive.

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In a letter to American Airlines, James Moehle, an air conditioning and heating technician wrote, "I assure you that neither of us are 'Dumb!' Rather, we are both hard-working individuals and responsible parents. We certainly deserve to be treated with dignity and respect."

Moehle ended the letter saying, "We demand not only an immediate apology from American Airlines, but also that disciplinary action be taken against the employee who wrote the unacceptable note."

American Airlines quickly apologized.

"We apologize to Mr. Moehle and Ms. Huckaby. It was clearly a very poor choice of words. We're confident there was no ill will, but we'll be looking into this further and will be following up with our team members at IAH and the contractor that provides our baggage delivery services," American Airlines said in a statement to the couple.

Both James and his mother, Kaye Moehle, want more.

"To me, it's not enough. They have not satisfied me, nor have they, to my knowledge, satisfied my son either," Mrs. Moehle said. "So far their messages have been dismissive. I want to hear something like 'we take this seriously, we are investigating, and we will get back to you."

"I don't even know if they take it seriously," James Moehle said. "I just want them to not ever do that again to someone else."

Moehle lost his hearing when he was just 17-months-old due to spinal meningitis. The doctors told his mother that he was likely to die, but after 14 days and nights in the hospital, Moehle survived but suffers from hearing loss. His girlfriend, Angela Huckaby, is also deaf.

"I cannot describe how I felt," James Moehle, 34, told ABC News via text message. "I felt lost, angry, confused, and mistreated."

Moehle said that this was the first time he has encountered such offensive behavior towards the deaf.

Until receiving that note, the Hawaiian trip had been a thrill. It was Moehle's first ever plane ride and first vacation in 16 years.

The couple zip-lined over the waterfalls of Hawaii's Hilo island, visited state parks, saw volcanoes, had a tremendous time with wonderful pictures to show, Kaye said. "I picked them up from the airport and both of them were beaming with joy," Kaye Moehle, 64, said.

To come home to this kind of offensive behavior, put a sour note on the couple's island getaway, she said, recalling that her "heart broke" when her son texted her an attachment of the insensitive return note.

"I found it to be like a slap in the face to my son," she said.

"It was extremely unacceptable, hurtful, and cruel," Mrs. Moehle said. "People don't understand. If they don't have a deaf member in their family, they don't understand what they have to go through. They have to go to work just like you and I, and we are so fortunate that we have our hearing. Hearing people aren't ever called 'hearing and dumb.'"

http://news.yahoo.com/airline-apolo...dumb-note-192821207--abc-news-topstories.html
 
Last week I had to correct and educate my doctor for saying "deaf and dumb." He's from another country.

You would think a doctor would find out if acceptable to use the term 'dumb'
when talking about deaf and hoh people in USA. That was very 'dumb' of your
doctor. What did he say when you corrected him? Did he get a red face :Oops: ?
 
What's wrong with just writing 'please text deaf'? Did he have to spend additional few seconds to write 'and dumb'? :hmm: Or better yet, "text only".
 
What's wrong with just writing 'please text deaf'? Did he have to spend additional few seconds to write 'and dumb'? :hmm: Or better yet, "text only".

That is why I think the person who wrote dumb did it to be rude as it was so unnecessary and uncalled for. It don't care what country they came from , we do not live in the dark ages anymore .
 
among hardcare deaf, sometimes you "deaf-mute" is like a badge of honor. Slang "for my boy". I see that among deaf bikers groups.
 
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