Deaf Schools Are Closing, If Only It Were Just TV

Deaf Awareness: If only it were just TV, Schools for the Deaf are closing.

On Monday, March 4th, the television show ‘Switched at Birth’ did something on mainstream TV that had never been done before. It ran an episode in sign language. Some viewers thought at first that the sound on their television was broken.



The show is an ABC Family drama that revolves around two teenagers who were switched at birth, one of whom is Deaf.



According to ABC Family, it is the first television series to have multiple Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing series regulars, and scenes shot entirely in American Sign Language.



Marlee Matlin guest stars. Because of this, the series not only exposes the American public to the Deaf community, it also has the power to educate us about important related issues: last week’s ASL episode focused on the failure of the American education system to serve many Deaf students who find themselves there because their own schools have closed.



The main story of ‘Switched at Birth's’ ASL episode focuses on the closing of such a school, and the protest created by the students to keep it open. Many students who are Deaf want to study in a school designed for them, where they can communicate directly with teachers and counselors, interact directly with their peers and participate fully in extracurricular activities – things most hearing students take for granted. ...Read more: http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/new-normal/if-only-it-were-just-tv-schools-deaf-are-closing



‘Switched at Birth's’ ASL episode information: http://www.tvrage.com/Switched_at_Birth



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Florida School For The Deaf & The Blind $10 Million For Upgrades

Florida School for Deaf and Blind seeks about $10 million for upgrades.

TALLAHASSEE - Repairing buildings and making construction upgrades makes up the meat of a funding request being pitched by the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine.



The school is asking for $9.7 million in construction money, a steep increase over the $1.4 million in Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed budget and the $1.6 million it got last year. The $1.4 million is the same amount requested by the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the school’s budget.



“With that amount we would barley be able to touch projects needed to ensure safety-related repairs,” said Jeanne Prickett, the school’s president.



With the money, the school wants to fund preventive maintenance, repair projects and remain compliant with the American with Disabilities Act.



“That means we would be able to continue to keep up-to-date buildings and renovate obsolete areas,” Prickett told the House Appropriations Subcommittee during a Tuesday hearing.



Since 2008, the school’s construction funding has dropped by $11.8 million. The funding comes from the same shrinking pot of money used for higher education and k-12 projects. Lawmakers are working to overhaul the system, which is funded by taxes on certain communications and telecommunications.



Students on the School for the Deaf and the Blind’s 80-acre campus have increased from 585 to 610 over the past five years, officials said. Overall enrollment, which includes off-campus students, has increased from 904 to 989 over that time. ... Read more: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-02-12/story/school-deaf-and-blind-seeks-about-10-million-upgrades

ASL Petition Overreached 25,000 Signatures

VIDEO [ASL] - ASL Petition: overreached goal 25,000 signatures from the Deaf Community in the United States.



Well done and congratulations the social media of Deaf community for the efforts to reached a goal as the Obama administration to recognize American Sign Language. We made it! A big thank you from the ASL for America team! Please continue signing petition.



The petition to recognize ASL as an official school language. The Obama Administration to officially recognize American Sign Language as a community language and a language of instruction in schools.

Please continue signing and join us at http://ASLfor.us for more action.

Please signatures the ASL petition: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/officially-recognize-american-sign-language-community-language-and-language-instruction-schools/CRPw2JLk



Share this article and the ASL petition link with your friends and family through email, Twitter, Facebook, and more! Website with ALL videos and information related to the ASL petition is at http://ASLfor.us



Related Post:

Deaf Education Reform Act Petition

Deaf Advocates Urging The White House To Recognize ASL

Deaf Education Reform Act Petition

VIDEO [ASL/CC] - The explanation of Deaf education reform act petition. The Obama administration to recognize American Sign Language. Here's the video clips of the petition information in ASL with captions. Deaf community have to ACT now to cherish ASL which is a part of Deaf culture.



Please sign the petition to recognize ASL as an official school language. The Obama Administration to officially recognize American Sign Language as a community language and a language of instruction in schools.



For more than a hundred years, American Sign Language (ASL) has been persecuted as a "lesser" language. It is a homegrown and complete language that has survived efforts to wipe it out.



Yet today, ASL is still considered "foreign" and not given the respect and protection it needs. Many states have passed laws allowing credit for ASL classes as a foreign language but they have stopped short of recognizing its benefits as a language of instruction in schools, despite studies proving its benefits for students.



Official federal recognition will finally give ASL the "welcome home" it needs. We need 25,000 by December 12, 2012.



Please signatures the ASL petition now! https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/officially-recognize-american-sign-language-community-language-and-language-instruction-schools/CRPw2JLk



The Explanation of Deaf Education Reform Act Petition.

This video elaborate the purpose of Deaf Education Reform Act petition. The petition to White House can be found at this link: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/create-deaf-education-reform-act-end-language-delay-among-deaf-and-hard-hearing-children-united/Bp19q5lL

More information can be found at: http://www.deafsense.com



ASL Petition.

Please sign the White House petition seeking the Obama Adminstration to officially recognize American Sign Language as a community language and language of instructions in schools across America! For more information about the petition, please visit the following site: http://wh.gov/9Amm



Sign The ASL Petition!

Adrean Clark created this petition to recognize ASL as community language and a language of instruction in schools. We need 25,000 by December 12, 2012!

Share this article and the ASL petition link with your friends and family through email, Twitter, Facebook, and more!



President Obama, This is My (ASL) Story.

More details at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jvxDwLzc_E

The Federal Recognition of ASL petition is at http://wh.gov/9Amm



Please signatures the ASL petition now! https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/officially-recognize-american-sign-language-community-language-and-language-instruction-schools/CRPw2JLk



Related Post:

Deaf Advocates Urging The White House To Recognize ASL

Deaf Advocates Urging The White House To Recognize ASL

VIDEO [ASL/CC] - WASHINGTON - Deaf Advocates Urging The Obama Administration To Recognize ASL. Here's the video of the petition information in ASL with captions.



Please sign the petition to recognize ASL as an official school language. The Obama Administration to officially recognize American Sign Language as a community language and a language of instruction in schools.



For more than a hundred years, American Sign Language (ASL) has been persecuted as a "lesser" language. It is a homegrown and complete language that has survived efforts to wipe it out.



Yet today, ASL is still considered "foreign" and not given the respect and protection it needs. Many states have passed laws allowing credit for ASL classes as a foreign language but they have stopped short of recognizing its benefits as a language of instruction in schools, despite studies proving its benefits for students.



Official federal recognition will finally give ASL the "welcome home" it needs. We need 25,000 by December 12, 2012.



Please signatures the ASL petition now! https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/officially-recognize-american-sign-language-community-language-and-language-instruction-schools/CRPw2JLk



President Obama, Recognize ASL!

More details at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7KrNxvE7c8

Website with ALL videos and information related to the ASL petition is at http://ASLfor.us



Adrean Clark created this petition to recognize ASL as community language and a language of instruction in schools. We need 25,000 by December 12, 2012!



Sign The ASL Petition!

Share this article and the ASL petition link with your friends and family through email, Twitter, Facebook, and more!



Please signatures the ASL petition now! https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/officially-recognize-american-sign-language-community-language-and-language-instruction-schools/CRPw2JLk



Related Post:

Deaf Education Reform Act Petition

Montreal Institute For The Deaf Ex-Students Allege Horrific Abuses

VIDEO [CC] - Montreal School for the Deaf's ex-students allege horrific abuses. Warning: This story with the video contains potentially disturbing content.

MONTREAL - Former students at a church-run institute for the Deaf in Montreal have come forward with graphic tales of sexual abuse they allege they suffered during more than four decades.



Quebec's Superior Court authorized a class-action lawsuit last March against members of the Clerics of St-Viateur who worked at the school, formerly known as the Montreal Institute for the Deaf.



The former boarding school was run by the Clerics of Saint-Viateur, a religious congregation founded in 1831.

According to students who attended the all-boys institute between 1940 and 1982, violent sexual assaults were commonplace. Denis Chalifoux, who alleges he was eight years old when the abuse began in 1968, is one of 64 claimants taking part in the class action against 28 religious staff and six lay workers.



Only four or five of the alleged abusers would still be alive today.

Most of the alleged victims' identities are protected in court documents, but Chalifoux came forward to tell his story to CBC's French-language service with the help of a sign language interpreter. He described horrific acts allegedly at the hands of a staff member. "He showed me his penis. It was in front of me, in my face. I didn't want to look," Chalifoux told Radio-Canada. "He touched my cheek with it. All the while, he was masturbating." ... Read The Full Story 

 



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Sexual Abuses Children At Montreal School For The Deaf

Sexual Abuses Children by priests at Montreal School for the Deaf in Quebec, Canada.

MONTREAL -- Lawsuit alleges dozens of clergy abused children at Montreal school for Deaf. Another chapter of Quebec’s dark history of the sexual abuse of children in church-run institutions was aired this week by Radio-Canada. But this was not just any chapter. It threatens to be one of the most horrifying in an already heartbreaking record.



It deals with the sexual abuse of young boys, already vulnerable because of their age but doubly or triply so because they were also Deaf and mute. Their alleged abusers were educated men who promised to set the boys free from their silent world.



Clerical and lay members of a much-admired Roman Catholic teaching order, the Clercs de Saint-Viateur, these men did not set the boys free. The boys who say they were abused ended up in a living hell, terrified of telling anyone what was happening to them. They remained trapped in that hell in adulthood, unable to erase the grotesque images in their heads of masturbating priests and anal rape.



This case may turn out to be the worst ever seen involving the abuse of Deaf children. Unlike the previous record, held by a single Roman Catholic priest, Lawrence Murphy of Wisconsin, in Quebec more than 30 clergy are alleged to have abused the Deaf children in their care, sometimes one after another. (Murphy, who may have sexually assaulted as many as 200 children at a school for the Deaf in Wisconsin, was denounced in 1996 to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.



Radio-Canada’s investigative program Enquête called its program The Perfect Victims. The boys came as boarders to the only school for the deaf in the province at the age of 7 or 8. Many were thrilled to be at the school, where for the first time they would be taught to communicate with other children and learn to read and write. ... Read The Full Story



Watch the coverage video: HERE



Related:

Montreal Institute For The Deaf Ex-Students Allege Horrific Abuses

Deaf Students Abused By Priests Win $30-Million

Mea Maxima Culpa Silence In House Of God