Should Deaf Schools be Shut Down?

Should Deaf schools be shut down?

  • Yes

    Votes: 7 11.3%

  • No

    Votes: 48 77.4%

  • Not sure

    Votes: 5 8.1%

  • I dont care

    Votes: 2 3.2%
  • Total voters
    62
I voted No.

I agree with Shel90 that the Deaf Schools doesn´t deserve to be shut down.
 
Angel said:
I voted "not sure" because there's has been majority of deaf children who experienced sexual, emotional and physical abuses in the state residential schools for the deaf and disabled children are at a higher risk of being abused I haven't seen any improvements and I wonder why hasn’t anyone such as the school staffs, teachers, dorm workers etc stopped this, also the schools are often far away from where their parents lives.
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Teachers dont work in the evenings or at night at the dorms so it is hard for us to know what is happening if nobody tells us. However, it was the teachers at LSD that prompted the investigation so thanks to those teachers for taking action even putting their jobs at risks. I applaud those teachers and I know this personally cuz I have two friends who are teachers at LSD. However, teachers work during the day when there is no dorm and dorm work in the evening and at night when teachers there are no teachers.
 
Angel said:
source
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That's why new laws and policies have been put in place since the 1980s when your study was conducted so things are definitely being done but more is needed to be done, of course.
 
shel90 said:
Teachers dont work in the evenings or at night at the dorms so it is hard for us to know what is happening if nobody tells us. However, it was the teachers at LSD that prompted the investigation so thanks to those teachers for taking action even putting their jobs at risks. I applaud those teachers and I know this personally cuz I have two friends who are teachers at LSD. However, teachers work during the day when there is no dorm and dorm work in the evening and at night when teachers there are no teachers.
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What made you think it only happened in evenings at the dorms? I know at least several incidents involving day students in restrooms, showers, locker room and on the bus but I'm not sure if there's any incidents of inappropriate touching in the classroom. :shrug:
 
Angel said:
What made you think it only happened in evenings at the dorms? I know at least several incidents involving day students in restrooms, showers, locker room and on the bus but I'm not sure if there's any incidents of inappropriate touching in the classroom. :shrug:
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We were talking about dorms so...:roll:

Yes, during the day, teachers and staff at my work are well-trained to watch the kids especially going to the restrooms. We have to be on high alert constantly.

As for the bus, at my program, the counties or other school districts are responsible for transportation and too often they hire bus drivers and aides who do not know anything about deafness nor sign language. We have been fighting to get better qualified people but the counties are the ones who have the hiring power. Also, cameras have been installed in the buses just like with public school buses hence all the utube videos of bus drivers abusing hearing kids.

Anyways, I read the article..it talks about abuse in general not just at deaf schools. Also, the studies were done in the mid 80s so I wonder what would the percentage would be in the 21st century after all the strict laws and policies have passed? Back then, background checks werent enforced like it is now so no wonder there were several incidents. I sure hope it has improved since then.
 
Angel said:
I voted "not sure" because there's has been majority of deaf children who experienced sexual, emotional and physical abuses in the state residential schools for the deaf and disabled children are at a higher risk of being abused I haven't seen any improvements and I wonder why hasn’t anyone such as the school staffs, teachers, dorm workers etc stopped this, also the schools are often far away from where their parents lives.
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You havent seen any improvements? Where?
 
shel90 said:
FYI..a majority of the students who attend many deaf schools do not live at the dorms. Heck, there are even many deaf schools that dont have dorms like Phoenix Day School for the Deaf, to name one.
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True. My son's alma mater has many more day students than residential students.
 
Angel said:
I voted "not sure" because there's has been majority of deaf children who experienced sexual, emotional and physical abuses in the state residential schools for the deaf and disabled children are at a higher risk of being abused I haven't seen any improvements and I wonder why hasn’t anyone such as the school staffs, teachers, dorm workers etc stopped this, also the schools are often far away from where their parents lives.
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Are you saying that the majority of children who attend deaf schools are sexually abused as a result of attending a deaf school?

I'm going to have to ask for some statistics or other support to back that up. Sexual abuse, no matter the setting, is not something that happens to the majority.
 
Angel said:
source
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Here is the paragraph in its entirety.

Deaf children experience trauma more frequently than their hearing peers. A seminal study on sexual abuse conducted in the mid-1980s found that deaf and hard of hearing children appear to be abused at rates significantly higher than hearing children, and that this abuse often
happens in homes, buses or residential school settings (Patricia M. Sullivan, Vernon, & Scanlan,
1987). In subsequent research, deaf adults reported that as children they had experienced more frequent sexual abuse by a larger number of perpetrators (Hester, 2002) and overall childhood maltreatment rates at significantly higher levels (Embry, 2000) than their hearing
counterparts. Another study indicates that the incidence of child maltreatment among deaf children is one-and-one-half times greater than it is among their hearing peers (Skinner, 1991).

First of all, the article does not specify sexual abuse, and is talking about child abuse in general. It also states that these figures come from 1980's, at during that time, we did not have background checks in place for hiring of teachers and other staff. It also states that overall abuse rates are significantly higher, not that a majority of deaf children were abused.

It also states, and this is a very important sentence, that child abuse of deaf children happens in homes, on buses, or in residential schools. That means that deaf children who ride a school bus to a mainstream school are at a higher risk, and that deaf children who live at home with their parents are at a higher risk of overall abuse. This is a fact that we have known for some time, and there are many reasons that a child with a disability is more at risk for all forms of abuse, the least of which is living in a residential school.
 
shel90 said:
We were talking about dorms so...:roll:

Yes, during the day, teachers and staff at my work are well-trained to watch the kids especially going to the restrooms. We have to be on high alert constantly.

As for the bus, at my program, the counties or other school districts are responsible for transportation and too often they hire bus drivers and aides who do not know anything about deafness nor sign language. We have been fighting to get better qualified people but the counties are the ones who have the hiring power. Also, cameras have been installed in the buses just like with public school buses hence all the utube videos of bus drivers abusing hearing kids.

Anyways, I read the article..it talks about abuse in general not just at deaf schools. Also, the studies were done in the mid 80s so I wonder what would the percentage would be in the 21st century after all the strict laws and policies have passed? Back then, background checks werent enforced like it is now so no wonder there were several incidents. I sure hope it has improved since then.
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Sorry, Shel. I didn't see you post before I replied, but I said basically the same thing you did.
 
As old as they are, those stats are shocking. There is just no way that the school where I worked for 35 years since 1970 has produced similar statistics. Although I cannot produce statistics, I highly doubt that they approach even 10%. Like I mentioned elsewhere, the higher the qualifications a school has for dorm staff, the better in my opinion. The two State schools for the deaf in CA have much higher expectations for its dorm personnel and there are on-going workshops they attend, etc.....

Anyway, thanks for that, Angel. I wonder if there are updated stats on this? Anyone?
 
Tousi said:
As old as they are, those stats are shocking. There is just no way that the school where I worked for 35 years since 1970 has produced similar statistics. Although I cannot produce statistics, I highly doubt that they approach even 10%. Like I mentioned elsewhere, the higher the qualifications a school has for dorm staff, the better in my opinion. The two State schools for the deaf in CA have much higher expectations for its dorm personnel and there are on-going workshops they attend, etc.....

Anyway, thanks for that, Angel. I wonder if there are updated stats on this? Anyone?
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Those stats were for all cases of abuse, in all situations. They were not limited to sexual abuse, but would have included cases of bullying, mental emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse across the domains of home and school. They can't be applied to residential schools alone, but include abuse of all kinds that was perpetrated by family, friends, acquaitances, and staff at all schools, not just residential schools.
 
jillio said:
Those stats were for all cases of abuse, in all situations. They were not limited to sexual abuse, but would have included cases of bullying, mental emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse across the domains of home and school. They can't be applied to residential schools alone, but include abuse of all kinds that was perpetrated by family, friends, acquaitances, and staff at all schools, not just residential schools.
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Thanks for that, Jillio, especially that it included all abuses imaginable and perpetrated by such a wide range of people.
 
Tousi said:
As old as they are, those stats are shocking. There is just no way that the school where I worked for 35 years since 1970 has produced similar statistics. Although I cannot produce statistics, I highly doubt that they approach even 10%. Like I mentioned elsewhere, the higher the qualifications a school has for dorm staff, the better in my opinion. The two State schools for the deaf in CA have much higher expectations for its dorm personnel and there are on-going workshops they attend, etc.....

Anyway, thanks for that, Angel. I wonder if there are updated stats on this? Anyone?
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You're welcome. I don't see any update but I did read eight pages article about the most recently cases of sexual abuse at Deaf Schools.


Sorry for the off-topic, I will refrain from saying anything else...
 
No, deaf schools should not be shut down for many reasons. The primary reason that comes to mind is the one that justifies the residental setting over even the very best inclusive setting: opportunity to directly communicate and socially interact with peers and staff in their preferred language and communication mode. Even the best inclusion or mainstreamed setting cannot offer that opportunity. My school in where I work as a teacher enables all students to have direct communication with not only their peers but with the staff as well.
 
Angel said:
You're welcome. I don't see any update but I did read eight pages article about the most recently cases of sexual abuse at Deaf Schools.


Sorry for the off-topic, I will refrain from saying anything else...
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Correction. One deaf school. And none of the most recent cases involved skin in skin sexual contact, but were related to text messages of an explicit nature. While this certainly cannot be condoned in any circumstance, it does not qualify as evidence that most deaf students are sexually abused. There was a case of another young lady at a different school who was recently charged with the same crime, and yet, everyone wanted to "wait and see" if she was found guilty before they said anything about her behavior. But different standards are now being applied to the same thing in a different school.:cool2:
If one reads this whole article, espcially as it is related to the individual pictured, one will realize that this student is now 27 years old (hardly recent) and is also diagnosed with another disability.
 
jillio said:
Correction. One deaf school. And none of the most recent cases involved skin in skin sexual contact, but were related to text messages of an explicit nature. While this certainly cannot be condoned in any circumstance, it does not qualify as evidence that most deaf students are sexually abused. There was a case of another young lady at a different school who was recently charged with the same crime, and yet, everyone wanted to "wait and see" if she was found guilty before they said anything about her behavior. But different standards are now being applied to the same thing in a different school.:cool2:
If one reads this whole article, espcially as it is related to the individual pictured, one will realize that this student is now 27 years old (hardly recent) and is also diagnosed with another disability.
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Not quite true. A 16 year old student did rape a 6 year old on the bus going home for weekend.
 
Bottesini said:
Not quite true. A 16 year old student did rape a 6 year old on the bus going home for weekend.
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While that's true, I was especially shocked at the 50% rate and I now know better....
 
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