COMMUNICATION GAP: Critics fault leader of deaf school

[Miss-Delectable]

http://www.freep.com/news/politics/deaf27e_20051027.htm

Parents question her ability to use sign language

Claiming that the Detroit Day School for the Deaf isn't adequately meeting the needs of students, some parents and staff have an even worse complaint for city school officials: The woman running the school, they say, isn't fluent in sign language.

Dozens of parents and staff protested in front of the school Wednesday after getting what they called unsatisfactory answers from Detroit Public Schools officials at Tuesday night's school board meeting.

Parents are upset not only that the school, in their opinion, is doing an awful job teaching basics such as reading, but that the appointment of Cynthia Patton as the school's leader shows a questionable level of concern for the deaf community.

"She has deaf staff. She will try to talk to them and they will ask for an interpreter," said Deborah Love-Peel, an advocate who works with parents at the school. "Otherwise she just screams at people and hopes they can hear her."

School officials, who defended Patton's experience working with special needs students, said they were sending administrators to the school to investigate the complaints.

Love-Peel said the communication issue has created tension and resentment at the school, which serves 55 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

"We have had issues for the 14 years I've been involved ... but there had always been at least a principal here who was sensitive to the deaf community," Love-Peel said.

Lekan Oguntoyinbo, spokesman for Detroit Public Schools, said Wednesday that Patton knows some sign language. He said she was chosen to lead the school this year because of her previous work with special needs students and post-master's degree coursework in reading instruction.

Patton worked with deaf and hearing-impaired students exclusively from 1980 to 1991 at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High and Finney High. From 1991 to 2005, she worked with the learning disabled and students who were deaf or hearing impaired, Oguntoyinbo said. He said chief executive William F. Coleman III had planned to visit the school to follow up.

"We thought she would be a good fit. Now we're listening to the concerns and we're trying to be responsive to our customers," he said.

 

[Teresh]

Seriously, like, wtf? This reminds me of when Gallaudet's president was hearing. >> I mean, it's not the same thing, but still. O_o

I don't think that the principal of a school that is educating deaf students has to be deaf, but seriously... they need to be able to sign. Particularly so if the rest of the administrative staff is deaf. o_o

Ridiculous.

 

[deafdyke]

Agreed, and Teresh.......although we're talking about a school for the Deaf here, it also brings to light a problem for dhh/otherwsie traditionally disabled kids in mainstream schools. The article says that the princpal is experianced in special ed. The trouble with that, is that there's a HUGE HUGE HUGE difference between a student who has learning issues b/c of funky wiring in the brain, and a kid who learns differently b/c of a sensory issue.
I really do think that they should stop lumping all sped kids together.....I mean, the mentality in sped programs is just so negative...."Oh wittle Smashlie doesn't need a 'terp/notetaker whatever.....she's just being lazy. We had a Super Acheiveing Deaf person who made High honor roll with minimal accomondations....so ALL dhh/sped kids can suceed with minmal accomondations!

 

[vfr]

cut the shit

get real.! he runs the school! not teach it! he spends most of his day dealling with bullshit like this from everything.
like the president of gally...who the fuck cares if he is hearing ,deaf, blind ,black,white ,green with pink pokka dots? do you know what his job is?it is not running the school.......that is the board of directers job...his job is to get money to the school!! that is the #1 job! to raise money. most people have no concept of his job, or that of a pricipal.so those of you who think think the head of the D.S.D needs to be a master signer ..grow up . he spends less than 5% of his time with students!

 

[Tousi]

Yup, I agree that most supts or heads of schools are just figureheads whose sole purpose is to raise the necessary money to run the school because the stated mission for the program is already known to the legislators who hand out this money and other resources. Many, if not most schools for the deaf in this country, for example are pretty much sacred cows and get the necessary funds to operate, funds acquired in ways different from how regular public svhools get their money.