Utah Parents of deaf and blind students plan to rally

[Miss-Delectable]

ksl.com - Parents of deaf and blind students plan to rally

With 45 days until school starts, parents of some children who attend the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind are unhappy about their children being shuttled every year from one school to another.

A couple of them are taking their concerns to a rally tomorrow at the state Capitol.

There is a building for this group of children, and there is funding for this school year. But these parents say that many young children with disabilities have faced the question of "where?" for a decade now.

Katrina describes to her mother and grandmother what the puppies are doing in her favorite book, "101 Dalmatians." Born with progressive hearing loss, she is deaf, and at age 5 she's ready for kindergarten. After two years of preschool at one building, her class has to move to another school next year and then another the year after that.

Melissa Jensen, the mother of a child who is deaf, said, "A typical child starts kindergarten at a school and goes all the way to sixth grade with the same school, same expectations every day. Our kids just aren't being given that."

This fall, Katrina's class joins others at the facility in Holladay for a year. Administrators move out, children move in. There wasn't enough money for a newer place.

The Utah School for the Deaf and the Blind faces a double challenge: Not only is it an educational organization, but it's also a state agency.

Superintendent Timothy Smith explained, "Every year we have to go before the Legislature, explain our needs and they, through their appropriations, fund us."

Utah has 2,136 students who are blind or deaf: 350 to 450 of them attend schools in the Salt Lake Valley. Most are part of regular classrooms or mainstreamed. About 75 to 80 children will move to the new school this fall.

Smith said, "Next year, you never know, we might have money to build another building, but we haven't asked the Legislature yet."

It's the eleventh appeal for parents like Melissa and children like Katrina who are hoping for their own school. They will rally at the state Capitol.

Melissa Jensen said, "I believe all Utahns care about our children and that if they knew what was going on, they would want to help us."

Parents and their children who are deaf or blind plan to rally on the south steps of the Capitol tomorrow morning from 8:30 to 10:30.

 

[Miss-Delectable]

Deaf students call for a home

Deseret News | Deaf students call for a home

Parents and advocates for Utah's deaf children are tired of having poor school space and having state lawmakers show no interest in doing anything about it.

About 100 people rallied Tuesday to tell legislators — again — this time using placards and speeches on the Capitol steps.

The situation deaf students face simply would not be tolerated by any other group of constituents, said Jodi Kinner, a deaf West Jordan mother of two deaf children and advocate who said she has been trying to make the point for more than 10 years.

"The most critical need is proper space," Kinner said through an interpreter. "Kids have to be moved around every year, and much of the space we do have is literally falling apart. All children deserve an excellent education. Deaf children aren't the exception, and they're as worthy an expenditure as any new highway, and a far better investment."

It wouldn't be so bad if deaf students were getting the same benefits as hearing children, Kinner and others at the rally said, noting that they have no place to call a permanent home.

"We're in one building for a few years, then they send us to a different building. And the buildings are old, and they're kind of crumbling," said a 10th-grader who would like to finish high school without moving again. "We really want to go to a school that's nice, where we can stay," said Whitney Ingram.

She is among 2,100 Utah children who are deaf or blind. About 400 attend regular public schools along the Wasatch Front. The focus of the rally is about 80 children who will be moved to temporary classrooms this fall.

The protesters managed to catch the ear of at least one legislator. Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake, said her fellow lawmakers have ignored the problem long enough.

The rally should help bring attention and perhaps a different outcome when lawmakers reconvene in January, Johnson said. "I'm hoping that these parents and teachers and the advocates being more vocal, more visible, will make them harder to deny."

State law prohibits any public agency, including the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, to lobby lawmakers.

"But parents can, and we'll be doing all we can to make sure they get the message," Kinner said. "And we welcome anyone who'd like to help us. The more of us who speak out, the louder we get."