Ex-mainstreamed student here...
Hell no! Deaf schools provide MANY benefits: a feeling of belonging/unity, pride, Deaf role models, access to ASL/English, that for some Deaf students is IMPOSSIBLE in hearing schools. I have a very good friend who is hard-of-hearing and does not identify as Deaf, but came to SD because their home district did not accommodate their hearing loss.
For me, it is psychosocial. Staff at the hearing school were overwhelmed with my IEP crap to really teach me, I never felt any real belonging to anyone at all. I kept "thinking" in ASL and was scolded many times for using SimCom or signing with students who signed fluently. At SD I am free to make my own choices regarding communication. I do not feel shame or isolation for not hearing, and turn my voice off and on as needed or preferred. Also, SD is very much my second family, so any behaviour problems are dealt with as a "what's wrong" approach - in other words, SD staff really does care and value regardless of Deafness - they do not see me as different.
SD's biculturalism is fantastic - I am exposed to Deaf culture, which makes me so proud to know we as Deaf people have our own norms, but also hearing, where I, when speaking, address some hearing teachers by Ms/Mr.
SD's diversity and bilingualism is so very rewarding -- how very much a TRAIN-GO-SORRY it would have been for me to ignore this.
