Miss-Delectable
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- Apr 18, 2004
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http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060702/OPINION/607020309/1050
The Oregon School for the Blind has been in existence since 1873 and under the supervision of the state. Now, a task force has recommended that the school for the blind be combined with the school for the deaf and the jobs of the staff be contracted to a different organization other than the Oregon Department of Education.
Schools have been combined in other states and it has not worked because we have two groups of people who can't communicate with one another. Plus the school for the deaf is next to an active railway (10 feet from the sleeping dorm) and an active rail yard. Many of our autistic and blind children have a terrible reaction to fire alarms, let alone the blast of a train engine.
The task force did not have one working employee or current parent of either the deaf or blind school on this committee. Public input meetings were announced after the schools were closed for the summer so none of the parents knew about these meetings.
The weekend program was cut by the Legislature so the blind school's enrollment would look poorly and cause closure.
-- Annie Holsworth, Albany
The Oregon School for the Blind has been in existence since 1873 and under the supervision of the state. Now, a task force has recommended that the school for the blind be combined with the school for the deaf and the jobs of the staff be contracted to a different organization other than the Oregon Department of Education.
Schools have been combined in other states and it has not worked because we have two groups of people who can't communicate with one another. Plus the school for the deaf is next to an active railway (10 feet from the sleeping dorm) and an active rail yard. Many of our autistic and blind children have a terrible reaction to fire alarms, let alone the blast of a train engine.
The task force did not have one working employee or current parent of either the deaf or blind school on this committee. Public input meetings were announced after the schools were closed for the summer so none of the parents knew about these meetings.
The weekend program was cut by the Legislature so the blind school's enrollment would look poorly and cause closure.
-- Annie Holsworth, Albany