Written Letter by LSD Students

October 8, 2008     TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:   We, the students here at LSD, are worried about your decision to close LSD, even if temporarily.  We feel that you do not understand what it means to be Deaf and going to a Deaf School.  We don’t understand why you did not come here to LSD and see for yourself how we are doing here at school.  We feel that you put school on suspension at the last minute based on a few incidents as if you were reacting to a bad piece of gossip.  We know that every single school all over the United States is not perfect and that they do make mistakes.  We feel that you are punishing us by suspending our school by making us go home and putting us in a place where we will face bigger problems.   The problems we will face at home if we are to go to public schools are: *Communication barriers and communication breakdowns, no direct connection to teachers and peers because of no sign language knowledge on their part *No Deaf peers, no understanding or knowledge of Deaf culture *Low self-esteem, no motivation or confidence because we won’t be happier in public schools or other schools *No certified counselors with ASL and knowledge of Deaf culture for us to tell our feelings or problems *We will be an easier target or victim for others because of no support system for Deaf in other schools *Some of us do not have good homes outside of LSD so LSD is our home away from home.  Some of our families do not talk to us because they do not know sign language or very little sign language, and most of us don’t have access to communication technology, like videophone, video relay services in public schools or at home *Lack of skilled interpreters and sometimes no interpreters provided in other schools.  *We also struggle with other schools’ misconception of us – seeing us as less because of our deafness and thus group us with other people that are mentally retarded, and because of that misconception, public or other schools often wouldn’t let us participate in extracurricular activities or using the excuse that we do not have interpreters available to be present during extracurricular activities *There are no positive Deaf role models for us to look up at in public or other schools.  *A lot of public schools don’t have Deaf programs or provide accessibility for our needs to be met.  *We have a harder time to fit in at public or other schools, so we face depression, more problems dealing with daily reality because we will have no one to turn to, no one who understands us.  *We lose our educational advantage when we have non-signing teachers with no interpreter or interpreters who often do not use correct ASL to present information.  *There is no information or support in place for us to find out about college or jobs.   Now, imagine yourself in our place, if you go to a school where no one speaks your language and you are being told to succeed.  How can you expect us to do well in an alien environment when at LSD, it is not a foreign country with foreign customs?  Imagine yourself in our place when you learn to be proactive and report wrongful actions only to be pushed aside because you cannot be understood.  That will happen more often if you close our school and make us go home to our public schools.  Also, why are you closing LSD when we already school because of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.   Everywhere you go, problems exist and people work to make the best of it.  In our case, you are making our problems worse because you are taking away our voice and putting us in an isolated, dark place where no one can understand what we are saying.    We hold inside us what we need to tell our parents all summer until finally school starts again, then we can finally tell someone at LSD because they will understand what we need to tell – our parents tend to misunderstand or not understand at all.   We lose our confidence, self-worth, and respect when we are put in a category where we will not be seen as normal by other people in public schools.    So we are telling you, do not close our school because at LSD we have everything that hearing students have at public schools:  equal access to everything – direct connection to teachers, counselors, staff that do listen to us and hear our voices.  We are not isolated from other peers.  We participate in sports and extracurricular activities.  We share a common language and culture by being Deaf.  Being Deaf doesn’t automatically make us “victims” or “dumb”.  LSD helps us to grow emotionally, mentally, physically, in every way because we do have people who guide and teach us because there’s no third person to go between us like it will be at other schools.  Do we really have that at other public schools if they know our language and culture?  Everyone here at LSD faces the same problems, and together we learn how to overcome our problems.  At LSD, we have teachers who use ASL and have staff who use ASL.  Can you say that the public schools have that?   Other states have Deaf residential schools, so Louisiana needs to keep our LSD open because we are all a small, close-knit Deaf community, we play sports and have competitions against Deaf schools and form life-long friendships.  Can the Deaf in public schools do that?  No.  We are more globally and more societal aware of things happening because of our connection to other Deaf people all over. Close our school and you take everything away from us.  In the newspaper, you said our school is closed temporarily because of safety issues.  Can you guarantee other public schools’ safety?   Sincerely,   The Students At The Louisiana School for the Deaf

 

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