Sign2Sing is the annual fundraising event of the Deaf Health Charity SignHealth raising money to give Deaf children a brighter and healthier future in the UK and Uganda. Sign2Sing 2016 takes place from 1-7 February but you can get involved now on our website, sign2sing.org.uk.
Deaf News - Exclusive: Canadian protesters say Deaf students’ new superintendent who can hear must go - but not everyone agrees.
TORONTO STAR - A loud campaign advocating for a Deaf Superintendent circulated online and around the world, then didn’t get what it was fighting for.
The Provincial Schools Branch (PSB), which oversees the provinces four schools for the Deaf, announced last week it hired a hearing superintendent, Jeanne Leonard.
The announcement also said the branch hired Heather Gibson, who is Deaf, in a new position called “assistant to the superintendents.” Though that brings a Deaf person to an administrative level previously dominated by hearing people, some in the Deaf community say that’s not what they were asking for.
“It totally doesn’t make sense - there are qualified Deaf candidates,” Rose Etheridge, said through an interpreter at a protest Monday in front of the Ernest C. Drury School for the Deaf in Milton. “They’re trying to pacify us,” added Etheridge, whose Oct. 22 video calling for a Deaf Superintendent has hit 20,000 views. (The hashtag #PSBsuperintendent2015 followed the video and generated hundreds of posts from across the continent.)
However, two of the community’s most outspoken advocates - Barbara Dodd and Zak Smith, who was arrested last year for staging a protest over concerns about learning conditions in Ontario’s Schools for the Deaf - say they are satisfied with the appointments as a first step toward more Deaf leadership ... Read More: http://thestar.com/yourtoronto/education/2015/11/09/protesters-say-school-appointment-is-tone-deaf.html
Petitioning Deaf Superintendent Now:
We are protesting against PSB's decision to appoint a hearing person to superintendent position because we are a cultural and linguistic minority group who should be led by our own. We are also protesting for changes in their superintendent selection process, to ensure that it will be transparent, fair and inclusive. Sign up petition HERE.
VIDEO [CC] - Exclusive: Chris Wagner, president of National Association of the Deaf's board of directors, to resign from his position immediately!
This petition is to demand for Chris Wagner, president of the board of directors with National Association of the Deaf (NAD), to resign from his position since his views & special interests doesn’t align with the NAD’s mission statement along with the Deaf Civil Rights. Sign up petition HERE.
If Chris Wagner refuses to resign, with your support by signing this petition, we as the Deaf community of United States of America will demand for the NAD’s board of directors to take action against Chris Wagner and impeach him from his position. We need a leader who will support Deaf Civil Rights and take a stand against Deaf Schools, being dominated by audists who refused to respect Deaf children’s rights to education with American Sign Language.
Ever since the Hunger Strike started against Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf (WPSD) for oppressing against Deaf people and taking away ASL from the rights of Deaf children, Chris Wagner has made it clear that he’s supporting Donald E. Rhoten, the superintendent of WPSD, over the Deaf community, which is a conflict of interest with NAD’s mission statement.
We have suffered oppression for over 200 years. We have had enough! Now is the time to stand up and make sure our voices are heard with support from NAD to empower the Deaf community and enable Deaf people with greater access to employment, to preserve ASL as a primary language for the Deaf children. The NAD needs to work with the Deaf community, not against itself, like Lincoln said, “A divided house cannot stand!” Sign up petition HERE.
NAD President Asks Community to Become Unified - National Association of the Deaf (NAD) President Chris Wagner asks the community to stop attacking each other and to work together.
To activate this feature, press the "CC" button.
Chris Wagner's description and transcript: This is probably one of the most difficult messages that I have ever had to give. It is evident that the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community is not unified, with all the different individuals and groups making strong comments against each other. There have been bullying incidents on social media as well. This breaks my heart. This kind of hostility is what gives hearing parents concerns about sending their children to a Deaf School.
We all know that these schools are the heart of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. Though I didn’t go to a Deaf school myself, I discovered my Deaf identity and American Sign Language through my journey as I became an adult. I know that Deaf schools are important. It is true, I envy people who grew up attending a Deaf school. And I am convinced that we must focus our energy on supporting these Deaf schools... Read More: https://youtu.be/oLBUT0xMVmY
If some of you not agreed with Chris Wagner's statement, then sign up petition HERE.
The abuser was allowed to prey on the school's pupils even after he was convicted of indecently assaulting two of them, and barred by the Department for Education from being a proprietor of the school. His victims, who fought and failed to win justice, tell their story to Erika Jones.
When Deaf children are abused, they can have extra difficulties in letting people know what has happened. One incidence of abuse from an east London school for Deaf children has demonstrated the problem in a See Hear and Newsnight investigation which has named the perpetrator for the first time.
With limited vocabulary and lack of awareness, many children at Woodford School for Deaf Children tried to tell people they were being sexually abused by the husband of the headmistress, without success.
"There was a busy road with a playground and there'd be people walking past but we had no communication because we couldn't speak, we couldn't sign and they couldn't understand our voices," says James, not his real name, a pupil at the school in the early 1960s. "We'd try and write notes but our vocabulary was limited. The only word we knew was 'rude'."
It is difficult for a child to tell an adult that they have been touched inappropriately, sexually assaulted or raped. If that child is Deaf and can't speak well, or if they use sign language, then communicating even the simplest things can be a challenge... Read More: http://www.bbc.com/news/disability
NOTE: Woodford school for the Deaf' social media is shutting down include a web-site as well. What a shame, hearing Brits!
VIDEO [CC] Deaf News: #PSBSuperintendent2015 - Canadian Deaf President Now Movement - Superintendent Search: Elite Deaf Schools.
TORONTO - This special discusses the movement for a Deaf Superintendent in Ontario, Canada - George Postlethwait, our Board President, made several comments on the latest community concerns related to the Provincial Schools Branch - Superintendent selection process - #PSBsuperintendent2015.
Postlethwait want to share with you that the Ontario Association of the Deaf is in full support of Rose Etheridge's advocacy efforts for the next incumbent of the Superintendent to be a Deaf individual. Rose is the mother of two Deaf children. We fully endorse the work she has done to engage the community thus far.
Both Donald Prong and Rose Etheridge have had separate meetings with Dr. June Rogers. OAD was left with the impression after these meetings that Dr. Rogers was student centered and whether or not this was her first time engaging with Deaf students, she seemed to have a genuine interest in listening to their issues and concerns... Read More: https://facebook.com/ontariodeaf/videos/
Led by Rose Etheridge, a Deaf mother of Deaf children. She's saying now is the time for a #Deaf president. She's saying there has been no #DeafSuperintendent in Canada for the entire country's history.
[Clarification: PSB = Provincial School Branch, not Board.]
One by one, Canadians are mobilizing to demand a Deaf president and end audism for once and for all. There is no alternative. And we have much to learn from their fight against oppression.
Rose Etheridge on twitter: "Thank YOU to Deaf teachers and Canadian communities for supporting #DeafSuperintendent" ... she tweeted.
VIDEO [CC] - Educating Deaf kids about the cyberbullying awareness in ASL.
SafePlace the Deaf Services staff are culturally Deaf and fluent in American Sign Language (ASL), shares the cyberbullying awareness video. Cyberbullying is bullying for the 21st century, using email, text messages and the internet.
Cyberbullying is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatend, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologries or mobile phones.
There are two kinds of cyberbullying, direct attacks - messages sent to kids directly and cyberbullying by proxy using others to help cyberbullying the victim, either with or without the accomplice's knowledge.
Educating the Deaf kids about the consequences losing their ISP or IM accounts helps. When schools try and get involved by discipling the student for cyberbullying actions that took place off-campus and outside of school hours, they are often sued for exceeding their authority and violating the student's free speech right.
