Indiana Deaf Rally June 2011

yizuman

yizuman

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Everyone from all over Indiana came to Indianapolis to protest Gov. Mitch Daniel's agenda against all deaf schools throughout Indiana. The new policy being pushed is to remove ASL from the classrooms and promote oralism in it's place. Mitch Daniels has replaced half of the deaf board members with hearing members in order to push for Daniels' agenda.

Everyone came to the State House to protest against it and let ourselves be known that we are very much against this new school policy for the deaf...

Deaf students, educators protest Indiana Gov. Daniels' picks for deaf school's board :: The Republic

Here's a video of the rally...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt3fP7AVcYM]YouTube - ‪Indiana Deaf Rally June 2011‬‏[/ame]

Also John ABC shared his blog with us regarding the rally...

YouTube - ‪Rally Signs for Indiana DBC‬‏

The local TV media was there to cover it...

YouTube - ‪Protesters balk at threat to American Sign Language‬‏

Also from a earlier Media coverage...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cizlbPaYyeE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cizlbPaYyeE[/ame]

Yiz
 
Mitch Daniel, the next Osama Bin Laden. People can really be stupid, wow.
 
Meh..... It might be better to give the new board a chance first. Just sayin...
 
Kim Bianco-Majeri and her family moved from Connecticut to Indiana in 2006 for one reason -- so her child could attend the Indiana School for the Deaf.

What drew her to the Northside school was the birth of her daughter, Gaby, who is 5. Like her mother, Gaby is hearing-impaired.

"When I had my first child, I knew how important education was, especially as someone who is deaf," Bianco-Majeri said through an interpreter. "There was no other choice. It was only Indiana -- they have a top education."

Bianco-Majeri was one of more than 300 protesters who rallied at the Statehouse on Tuesday to show their discontent with most of Gov. Mitch Daniels' four appointments to the school's board of directors. The protesters support the school's use of American Sign Language along with vocal education, a dual approach to deaf education that they're afraid will be abandoned.

When Bianco-Majeri, who is president of the school's Parent Teacher Counselor Organization, learned of the board appointments, she became concerned about the education that Gaby and her younger sister Cara, who is 3 and also deaf, would receive.

Many of Tuesday's protesters used sign language to express their frustration -- using hands to spell out their message: "Hey Mitch, hear Indiana deaf children first. Anti-ASL board out. Equal rights deaf board now."

The governor's appointments of Mary Buhner, Scott Rigney and Lucy Witte have irked hundreds of parents, alumni and supporters of the School for the Deaf because they think those three favor vocal educational training over sign language. (A fourth appointee, Ann Reifel, who is a graduate of the school, has been largely supported by parents.)

"They went even a step further, which is to appoint people with connections to an organization that actively works to prevent, remove and abolish American Sign Language, and that's not supporting the school's philosophy of bilingual and bicultural education," Marvin Miller, president of the Indiana Association of the Deaf, said through an interpreter.

Many see a potential conflict between one of the recent appointments to the school's seven-member board and Hear Indiana, a chapter of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, which promotes speech education alone over an approach that also includes sign language.

Buhner is a voluntary member with Hear Indiana and is married to Zachery Buhner, a board member of that organization.

Supporters of the School for the Deaf also are unhappy that both Buhner's and Rigney's children, who are hearing-impaired, do not attend the school.

A handful of protesters entered the governor's office during the rally and discussed their concerns with Daniels' chief of staff, Earl Goode, including asking the governor to rescind his appointments, seeking a more transparent process with future appointments and requiring that more than half of the school's board members be hearing-impaired.

Goode said afterward that the meeting went well, but some of the protesters felt otherwise.

"We expected the reaction we got, which only feeds our anger," Bianco-Majeri said.

"We expected that because that's the message we've been getting all along, and that's not acceptable."

The governor's press secretary, Jane Jankowski, said there are no plans to replace the appointments.
Click to expand...

Source: Deaf, supporters protest Daniels' appointments to board | The Indianapolis Star | indystar.com
 
god. My friend from here who found out that his son is deaf. They moved to indiana and put their kid in there. Kid loves it there very much.

PFH, I agree its nice seeing several people I know, from my old school or associate with them through many deaf events.
 
Frisky Feline said:
god. My friend from here who found out that his son is deaf. They moved to indiana and put their kid in there. Kid loves it there very much.

PFH, I agree its nice seeing several people I know, from my old school or associate with them through many deaf events.
Click to expand...

My hunch is that he will still love it there..... We will see.
 
I think I figured out one of the main reasons why deaf schools is getting alot of flack in regards to ASL with a Oralism agenda....

Is EdisonLearning Seizing Indiana Schools? Tony Bennett Wants Dirt Hidden | MyFDL

Apparently Gov. Mitch Daniels wants to get rid of Public Schools and turn our schools into a Corporate Capitalism venture. Which would mean it would cost more to get an education and poor people unable to afford one, leaving them out in the dust with no education none whatsoever, including many deaf, unless you're rich.

Yiz
 
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