Former School for the Deaf Principal Speaks Out

Miss-Delectable

Miss-Delectable

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VOCM.COM|Former School for the Deaf Principal Speaks Out | Article

A former principal says the provincial School for the Deaf may be an expense, but it is a necessity. Charles Harkins has spoken out just days after government announced the facility will officially close its doors at the end of the month. The education department says there are no projected enrolments for the next five years. Education Minister Darin King says come September, all 199 students who are deaf or hard of hearing in the province will be in the public school system.

Harkins was principal of the school from 1978-2001, and says the Department of Education has been strangling the School for years. He says studies show that deaf children will be segregated even more at a mainstream school. Harkins says he was involved in a research project where they studied the interaction between teachers and deaf students in an integrated setting. He says at any age level they found there was almost no communication going on at any time, either to the student, or from the student to the teacher.
 
Miss-Delectable said:
VOCM.COM|Former School for the Deaf Principal Speaks Out | Article

A former principal says the provincial School for the Deaf may be an expense, but it is a necessity. Charles Harkins has spoken out just days after government announced the facility will officially close its doors at the end of the month. The education department says there are no projected enrolments for the next five years. Education Minister Darin King says come September, all 199 students who are deaf or hard of hearing in the province will be in the public school system.

Harkins was principal of the school from 1978-2001, and says the Department of Education has been strangling the School for years. He says studies show that deaf children will be segregated even more at a mainstream school. Harkins says he was involved in a research project where they studied the interaction between teachers and deaf students in an integrated setting. He says at any age level they found there was almost no communication going on at any time, either to the student, or from the student to the teacher.
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He was my principal during most of my stay at the school and he was one of the best things that ever happened to the school.
 
This is what make me sooo mad at the Department of Education when they don't understand about our deafness. I just don't understand why they are trying to get all the Deaf students into the mainstream school and want to close the Deaf school. This is sick. :mad:
 
Bebonang said:
This is what make me sooo mad at the Department of Education when they don't understand about our deafness. I just don't understand why they are trying to get all the Deaf students into the mainstream school and want to close the Deaf school. This is sick. :mad:
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I totally agree with you..it is the bad influences of the medical field.
 
Guess government did twist someone else from department of education's arms to say that like for years. that's so sad!
 
I don't see an article on the webpage. Hmm... are they talking about the one in Newfoundland?
 
Two weeks ago, Education Minister Darin King announced that his government closed the school a few days before we had NSD Reunion. What a friggin' nasty coincidence!
 
Newfoundland School for the Deaf to Close

Mr. Charles Harkins wrote a letter about what truly happened at NSD to the newspapers.

Let deaf students keep their own school - Letters to the editor - Opinion - The Telegram

CBC News - Nfld. & Labrador - Don't shut N.L. deaf school: graduate

Closing school was always government's plan - Letters to the editor - Opinion - The Telegram

Days after closure, alumni gather for school reunion - Local - News - The Telegram

Closure means heartbreak for Peterview family - News - The Advertiser

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

My interview with the Western Star newspapers

Halfway Point native believes closing School for the Deaf will hinder students? education - Local - News - The Western Star

Deaf students will go to local schools - Local - News - The Western Star

Mr. John Reade - one of my all-time favorite teachers and former Vice-Principal:

Enabling deaf students - Letters to the editor - Opinion - The Telegram

Integration doesn?t always work - Columns - Opinion - The Telegram

Making decisions based on the dollars saved - Columns - Opinion - The Telegram
 
Gary Malkowski, Canada's first and only Deaf Parliamentarian wrote an open letter to Education Minister Darin King below:

OPEN LETTER August 7, 2010

Hon. Darin King
Minister of Education
Department of Education
3rd Floor, West Block
Confederation Building
100 Prince Philip Drive
St. John's, NL A1B 4J6
education@gov.nl.ca
DarinKing@gov.nl.ca

Dear Hon. Dr. Darin King, Minister of Education

Re: Newfoundland and Labrador’s Provincial School for the Deaf Closure

As former Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for York East and Parliamentary Assistant to Minister of Education, 1990-1995, I am taking this moral duty to write this letter of concerns and recommendations to reserve the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s decision regarding Provincial School for the Deaf in St. John’s in the light of the Government of Canada’s ratification of United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (March 11, 2010), 21st International Congress on The Education of the Deaf 2010 Vancouver New Era Accord, (July 19, 2010) and Charter of Rights and Freedom (i.e., Supreme Court of Canada’s Eaton decision regarding the need of continuum of educational placements, including provincial school). See details at New Page 1 for your background information.

I wish to express grave concerns of the decision of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Provincial School for the Deaf closure and its serious implications without having proper consultation with Deaf community, parents of deaf and hard of hearing children in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and external experts on Deaf Education issues. Furthermore, you may not get full accurate and professional information provided by your own civil servants, Minister’s office, Premier Office, and groups who may engage in the practices of ideology of Education of the Deaf (i.e., downsizing, discouraging, eliminating or depriving sign language and Deaf school without knowing its serious implications; many new parents of deaf children are not aware of potential risks/side effects of Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) educational programs in school boards until their children experience mental health and language problems in their later life. There is no checklist for teachers of deaf and parents of deaf children to identify mismatched communication and acting-out behaviours).

Provincial Court of Saskatchewan (August 19, 2005) Judge Orr recognized that physicians and medical personnel, audiologists, educators, child protection workers and others are undoubtedly caring and capable professionals. It was clear that, throughout, as they should, these people acted in strict accordance with the policies, directives and mandates of the governmental or other bodies for which they work. Unfortunately, the best efforts of these fine people failed to avert a terrible disaster in the life of a little deaf boy.

The judge ruled that American Sign Language (ASL) must be offered to Deaf children as a communication option in the early years. This the clear message contained in a landmark Saskatchewan court decision. At issue in this court is the philosophy of Saskatchewan Pediatric Auditory Rehabilitation Centre (SPARC), the publicly funded pre-school program offered to deaf children in the province. SPARC follows the the restrictive “auditory-verbal” approach which focuses only on restoration and remediation of hearing and speech.

You may not realize or may not be aware of that your Ministry of Education is promoting a one-sided system – auditory-verbal supports and education that do not make ASL resources and services available to Deaf children available in School Boards across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador while Provincial School for the Deaf in St. John’s is only ASL resources and services available to Deaf children in the province.

In Ontario, Akamatsu, Musselman and Zweibel, 2000, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto research studies have showed that there were 93% of Deaf children are initially enrolled in auditory oral programs. By preschool, down to 67% are educated orally; by elementary, down to 58% are educated orally;

By adolescence only 31% are educated orally; and 62% shift from oral to signing programs for Deaf children between the early preschool years and adolescence.

The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS), a social service agency, serving deaf and hard of hearing consumers reported that there is growing higher number of demands of that deaf and hard of hearing students and youth received CONNECT Mental Health Services, General Support Services, Employment Services and Literacy Programs as a result of inappropriate educational placements (i.e., without appropriate sign language supports in school boards and lacking of “first” language mastery has life-long negative effects). This translates into the high cost of inappropriate educational placement including the educational costs, employability costs, emotional costs and financial costs for social support services (i.e., prison, mental health services, underemployment, unemployment, and social assistance).

CHS documented information that many parents of deaf and hard of hearing children, deaf and hard of hearing youth and teachers of deaf reported their experiences of reported inaccessible communications and attitudinal barriers in the classroom in school boards in several provinces across Canada. The examples of students’ experiences include mismatch communications between student and his/her parents and family, inaccessible communications between student and his/her teachers, low expectations, mislabeling, social isolation, cyber bulling, bullying, harassment and discrimination (i.e., denial of communication access services such as sign language interpreters, captioning services, lack of captioning in any media format).

Deaf school and natural sign language are clearly a human right and educational right of Deaf children. See the World Federation of the Deaf’s Policy Statement on Education Rights for Deaf Children at http://www.wfdeaf.org/pdf/policy_child_ed.pdf

For your latest background information, please refer to read International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED)’s press release at http://www.iced2010.com/pdf/Press Release.pdf and ICED Vancouver 2010 Accord on New Era: Deaf Participation and Collaboration and its Statement of Principle at http://www.iced2010.com/pdf/Statement of Principle and Accord for the Future(1).pdf

In response to the Government of Canada and Newfoundland’s ratification of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ICED Vancouver 2010 Accord and Charter of Rights and Freedoms, may I make a recommendation for Newfoundland and Labrador Ministry of Education to reserve the decision of Provincial School for the Deaf closure and establish Advisory Committee to Minister of Education on Future Direction of Provincial School for the Deaf, including appropriate representatives of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Deaf Community, external experts on Deaf Education issues, and Parents of Deaf Children group who wish to send their children to Provincial School for the Deaf to ensure that the continuum of educational placements including Provincial School for the Deaf are available to meet the actual needs of all Deaf and hard of hearing children and students in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador ?

I look forward to receiving a prompt response from you soon. Thank you for your time and serious consideration to reconsider your decision,

Sincerely

Gary Malkowski

Canada’s only Former Elected Deaf Parliamentarian

gary.malkowski@sympatico.ca

cc:
Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations
Markku Jokinen, President, World Federation of the Deaf
Rt. Hon, Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Hon. Michael Ignatieff, Federal Liberal Leader of Official Opposition
Jack Layton, Federal Leader of Canada’s NDP and M.P. Toronto-Danforth
Premier Danny Williams, Newfoundland and Labrador
Yvonne Jones, Liberal Leader of Official Opposition, Newfoundland and Labrador
Lorraine Michael, NDP Leader, Newfoundland and Labrador
Hon. Diane McGifford, The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada
Dr. Andrew Parkin, Director General, The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada
Jim Roots, Executive Director, Canadian Association of the Deaf
Chris Kenopic, President & CEO, The Canadian Hearing Society
Jennifer Sooley, President, Newfoundland and Labrador Association of the Deaf
 
CBC Radio had an interview with Dr. Barbara O'Dea who was also one of my all-time favorite teachers.

CBC Radio Podcast

Russell: The provincial governments’ decision to close the Newfoundland and Labrador school for the Deaf has sparked debate over how to best teach children who are deaf.

The government says it’s time for change and these children should be in the public school system. The government also maintains the children will have the same supports and services as before and this change is, to quote the government, “…consistent with our inclusive approach to education and is in the best interest of students academic and social development.”

Well Barbara O’Dea is a linguist and a Newfoundlander. She’s taught deaf people across this country, including at the school for the deaf in St. John’s. She is currently a consultant with the Ontario government on Barrier-free Education. I spoke with her from Toronto.

Dr. O’Dea: Good morning Russell.

Russell: What were your thoughts on the provincial governments’ decision to close the school for the Deaf?

Dr. O’Dea: I have to say that I was not surprised at all. I was in Newfoundland for several months last year, or last school year, and everybody I met who had anything to do with Deaf education told me there would be no school for the Deaf this coming year – and they were all right.

Russell: What do you think of the upshot of these last few kids making their way into the mainstream system?

Dr. O’Dea: What do I make of it? I would consider that the government has really not come to terms with their needs - at all. I don’t know who is advising them. And from what I understood while I was there, there was nobody advising them who actually had a background in deaf education.

Russell: The provincial government though does say that for the kids that are in the system right now and these last few kids entering the system, they are going to have the full support of student assistants, they are going to be able to communicate in ASL if they so chose, have interpreters on site. Why do you think it is important that there is a school where there is some sort of segregation?

Dr. O’Dea: Ok, I was in the province last year living in St. John’s and I can guarantee you that the children in St. John’s, did not have, all of the children who were in the public school system did not have interpreters. They did not have interpreters who were trained to be interpreters, or interpreters that were fully fluent in American Sign Language, interpreters that understood the educational needs of children. Those children will not hear the teacher, they will not hear the students, so they are in fact isolated in their schools. Now one school had a couple of full time people who signed in the classroom for the children. And another two kids had someone who went to the class and signed for half of the time. So they kind of had half time people - I don’t know what they did the rest of the time. That’s in St. John’s. If St. John’s cannot provide the service – this service will not be provided throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. Apparently Newfoundland does not even have enough interpreters to deal with the community, the adult deaf community needs. So you know, to put interpreters who are not trained or prepared to work in school settings…we don’t have them in Newfoundland, we simply don’t have them.

Russell: The government at this point is stating that parents and students have made the decision together to go to these community schools (I guess in some respects they are following their lead). So if there isn’t the enrollment to justify keeping open a full school for the Deaf why keep it open and what’s wrong with the parents and the students making that decision?

Dr. O’Dea: I would suggest if you decided to deny your child language, social services would be called in and you would be charged with neglect. So to provide information to parents telling them it’s okay for their child to be in a public school system where they cannot access education and to convince parents that this is better? I’m not sure how the parents were convinced of this, but to convince them that this is better than getting an education. I would say to you that they did not make an informed decision. And as to having a school open that provides an education to this group of children – the school was there, the school was running, the school provided a service. I would suggest that the schools service to the whole province could have been extended to really working with hard of hearing children as well as deaf children. Now that’s what many schools for the Deaf have done throughout Canada. They are the centre, the hub of education of Deaf and hard of hearing children. That way the government would have gotten a lot of bang for its buck.

Russell: I supposed in some respects, technology has played a role in some of this because a lot of kids are in a position now where they have cochlear implants and ASL isn’t as necessary to their lives as it might have been once upon a time.

Dr. O’Dea: Well we have to be very careful about cochlear implants. Cochlear implants are great – I mean what a technology – they’re wonderful. And when they succeed for the child, or should I say when they give the child enough access to language that they actually learn the spoken language of the community, they are wonderful. However, when they fail to provide that to the child, then the child is at high risk. And what we say, what the research says, is that if a child has a first language, such as American Sign Language, the brain has been developing the language centers and cochlear implants are more successful. The outcome of that would be that the child would have two languages; they would be bilingual by the time they hit five years old. If they get ASL and at the same time the cochlear implant does not kick in, at five years old they still have a first language. And what we’ve been finding is that people that only see deaf children as two ears and the doctors fix the ears by giving them cochlear implant…that doesn’t mean that they will acquire English. And people really need to understand that. If it fails those children are five years behind in their language development. You know the school for the Deaf has had so much success with its students it’s hard to believe that that alone didn’t bring praise from the government to the teachers and the children…Russell interrupts to say

Russell: But at the same time those numbers did drop to four kids either living or learning there…

Dr. O’Dea: Well when you don’t admit children, of course the numbers are going to drop. Like the decision to admit children to the school for the deaf was taken out of people who understand deaf children and put in the hands of bureaucrats at the department who didn’t.

Russell: What do educators and parents do now moving forward to make sure the kids have translation that they need and language skills that they need.

Dr. O’Dea: The parents that can have left the province, most of them to Ontario, to get access to full education for their children. For those who have to stay in the province, right now if the department of education doesn’t hire someone who understands the needs of deaf children, they will not get an education. And I cannot solve that problem throughout the whole of Newfoundland right here on the telephone. It will take energy, knowledge, information. Yes, coordinate with the parents. But coordinate with people who understand the issues of not having a first language. Most children entered the school for the deaf without a first language. Those children will now enter the public school system without a first language. Is there anybody in the department who can describe to a school what a child needs if they show up without a first language. And within a setting where the teacher does not understand them, the children do not understand them, they probably have someone flicking their hands around who do not understand them. Exactly how would a child like that achieve social and emotional development? I would say in that type of isolation they won’t have the social and emotional development we would hope for most children in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Russell: Barbara O’Dea we appreciate your perspective on this…thank you so much for joining us on the program.

Dr. O’Dea: You are very welcome Russell.


Barbara O‘Dea is a linguist and has taught people who are deaf across the country
including in St. John’s.
 
Dr. O’Dea: I would suggest if you decided to deny your child language, social services would be called in and you would be charged with neglect. So to provide information to parents telling them it’s okay for their child to be in a public school system where they cannot access education and to convince parents that this is better? I’m not sure how the parents were convinced of this, but to convince them that this is better than getting an education. I would say to you that they did not make an informed decision. And as to having a school open that provides an education to this group of children – the school was there, the school was running, the school provided a service. I would suggest that the schools service to the whole province could have been extended to really working with hard of hearing children as well as deaf children. Now that’s what many schools for the Deaf have done throughout Canada. They are the centre, the hub of education of Deaf and hard of hearing children. That way the government would have gotten a lot of bang for its buck.

She is my hero!!!!
 
Dr. O’Dea: Well we have to be very careful about cochlear implants. Cochlear implants are great – I mean what a technology – they’re wonderful. And when they succeed for the child, or should I say when they give the child enough access to language that they actually learn the spoken language of the community, they are wonderful. However, when they fail to provide that to the child, then the child is at high risk. And what we say, what the research says, is that if a child has a first language, such as American Sign Language, the brain has been developing the language centers and cochlear implants are more successful. The outcome of that would be that the child would have two languages; they would be bilingual by the time they hit five years old. If they get ASL and at the same time the cochlear implant does not kick in, at five years old they still have a first language. And what we’ve been finding is that people that only see deaf children as two ears and the doctors fix the ears by giving them cochlear implant…that doesn’t mean that they will acquire English. And people really need to understand that. If it fails those children are five years behind in their language development. You know the school for the Deaf has had so much success with its students it’s hard to believe that that alone didn’t bring praise from the government to the teachers and the children…Russell interrupts to say

All the more reason for exposure to both ASL and spoken language to deaf children.
 
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