LSD: Reopening, Arrest, Lawsuit and RISD’s No Confidence Vote
LSD reopened yesterday, closing a painful chapter that begun over a month ago when an older Deaf student, a 16 years old male, sexually abused a six years old female Deaf student in a bus. The supervising chaperon was alerted by an alarmed student, but due to her limited familiarity of ASL, she ignored the warning. She was promptly fired.
Before that incident, five people — three of them current or former employees of the school — were arrested between November 2007 and April for alleged sexual abuses with juvenile students.The school superintendent did something unprecedented by closing the school and sending all children back to their residences as the investigators felt the school didn’t have the situation under control. Understandably, the students, the parents, and the alumni were upset and outraged by the unexpected closing as many Deaf students ended unable to receive appropriate and accessible education elsewhere within a short notice during the temporary closing.
The justification of the closing was to improve the safety of the students, strengthening the safeguards for the students, and mandatory ASL training and and sexual abuse prevention training for the staff. One of the security improvements included installation of many securities cameras.
Later the older male student was arrested and charged with one count of aggravate rape for his attack on the young student. He reportedly has an additional disability, a developmental disability.
Earlier this week, the mother of the older sexually assaulted sixteen years old female student launched a lawsuit against LSD. The mother alleged that her mentally disabled daugher had been repeatedly molested by two male students in her dorm room. It was undetermined if the girl had filed complaints to the school officials about these sexual assaults or not. If this allegation is true, this would make it at least the seventh sexual misconduct this year. I just found out that the mother did report this to the LSD administration, but they didn’t check into it. They just started the investigation after they received the lawsuit. The failure to investigate this complaint speaks volumes regarding the attitudes of these administrators in this area.
The sad part of the whole debacle is that all Deaf students paid a heavy price for the poor supervision of the administration, including ensuring rigorous ASL training and adherence to policies and procedures by the staff to minimize the risks to the students. How many parents did end withdrawing their students from the school? Had any of the school administrators been held accountable by the state for their failure to ensure the safety of their students?
Was the closing of the school justified? I don’t know.
But the biggest questions are why was the school allowed to be negligent for many years? Why wasn’t the Dept of Education doing its job monitoring this school?
Is this failure to monitor closely the welfare of the school deliberate as a calculated attempt to shut down the school eventually due to its poor performing status and its high operating costs? This approach had been used elsewhere, so it may not be so farfetched if this is the case. The closing of the school had long term repercussions.
After all, the Deaf students have the right to get appropriate and accessible education in a SAFE environment. : /
I truly hope the Deaf students harmed by the sexual misconduct will heal with help and move on. I also pray that they don’t get backlash from other students and Deaf Community upset by the LSD Closing. The anger should be directed at LA Dept of Education and the LSD superintendent. Personally I feel disgusted and saddened that this had been going unchecked for too long. We are talking about innocent Deaf children who deserve to be treated with healthy care and attention. Hire more Deaf professionals.
To the Educators of Rhode Island School for the Deaf: Stay strong in your determination to see that the students receive good education. [deleted] [Thanks to a reader, we need to keep mindful that we really don't know what happened as we don't hear the other side of the coin. I hope RISD will find a satisfactory resolution on the ongoing conflicts between the administration and the teachers]
WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |Louisiana School for the Deaf re-opens Wednesday
2theadvocate.com | News | La. deaf school sued over molestation case — Baton Rouge, LA
http://www.projo.com/news/content/Temporary_School_10-22-08_6DC0KUR_v32.39000b3.html
LSD reopened yesterday, closing a painful chapter that begun over a month ago when an older Deaf student, a 16 years old male, sexually abused a six years old female Deaf student in a bus. The supervising chaperon was alerted by an alarmed student, but due to her limited familiarity of ASL, she ignored the warning. She was promptly fired.
Before that incident, five people — three of them current or former employees of the school — were arrested between November 2007 and April for alleged sexual abuses with juvenile students.The school superintendent did something unprecedented by closing the school and sending all children back to their residences as the investigators felt the school didn’t have the situation under control. Understandably, the students, the parents, and the alumni were upset and outraged by the unexpected closing as many Deaf students ended unable to receive appropriate and accessible education elsewhere within a short notice during the temporary closing.
The justification of the closing was to improve the safety of the students, strengthening the safeguards for the students, and mandatory ASL training and and sexual abuse prevention training for the staff. One of the security improvements included installation of many securities cameras.
Later the older male student was arrested and charged with one count of aggravate rape for his attack on the young student. He reportedly has an additional disability, a developmental disability.
Earlier this week, the mother of the older sexually assaulted sixteen years old female student launched a lawsuit against LSD. The mother alleged that her mentally disabled daugher had been repeatedly molested by two male students in her dorm room. It was undetermined if the girl had filed complaints to the school officials about these sexual assaults or not. If this allegation is true, this would make it at least the seventh sexual misconduct this year. I just found out that the mother did report this to the LSD administration, but they didn’t check into it. They just started the investigation after they received the lawsuit. The failure to investigate this complaint speaks volumes regarding the attitudes of these administrators in this area.
The sad part of the whole debacle is that all Deaf students paid a heavy price for the poor supervision of the administration, including ensuring rigorous ASL training and adherence to policies and procedures by the staff to minimize the risks to the students. How many parents did end withdrawing their students from the school? Had any of the school administrators been held accountable by the state for their failure to ensure the safety of their students?
Was the closing of the school justified? I don’t know.
But the biggest questions are why was the school allowed to be negligent for many years? Why wasn’t the Dept of Education doing its job monitoring this school?
Is this failure to monitor closely the welfare of the school deliberate as a calculated attempt to shut down the school eventually due to its poor performing status and its high operating costs? This approach had been used elsewhere, so it may not be so farfetched if this is the case. The closing of the school had long term repercussions.
After all, the Deaf students have the right to get appropriate and accessible education in a SAFE environment. : /
I truly hope the Deaf students harmed by the sexual misconduct will heal with help and move on. I also pray that they don’t get backlash from other students and Deaf Community upset by the LSD Closing. The anger should be directed at LA Dept of Education and the LSD superintendent. Personally I feel disgusted and saddened that this had been going unchecked for too long. We are talking about innocent Deaf children who deserve to be treated with healthy care and attention. Hire more Deaf professionals.
To the Educators of Rhode Island School for the Deaf: Stay strong in your determination to see that the students receive good education. [deleted] [Thanks to a reader, we need to keep mindful that we really don't know what happened as we don't hear the other side of the coin. I hope RISD will find a satisfactory resolution on the ongoing conflicts between the administration and the teachers]
WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |Louisiana School for the Deaf re-opens Wednesday
2theadvocate.com | News | La. deaf school sued over molestation case — Baton Rouge, LA
http://www.projo.com/news/content/Temporary_School_10-22-08_6DC0KUR_v32.39000b3.html
November 6th, 2008 at 9:52 am
That is why these abuses happening is because State Assoications of the Deaf are not trained to be the “watch-dog” for deaf schools to ensure these kids are protected and staff trained in ASL.
I feel NAD should take the responsbility to train State Assoications.
I know I came across strong because it is shameful for these horrible abuses going on and inaction by superiors of deaf schools is because they think they can get away with horrible crimes due to lack “due diligent” by State Assoications to protect children in deaf schools.
I hope the mother wins lawsuit against LSD to wake up all schools in USA that they cannot get away by providing sub-marigal education, hiring staff with ZERO ASL skills, allowing abuses going on.
It is time to crack down on these mess and provide better protection to deaf children.
Look at Deaf adults today, some of them are in bad shape due to sexual and verbal abuses in schools when they were younger due to inaction by their schools.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Hi Deb,
Advocacy training is needed for Deaf Community. I don’t know if NAD has resources to do that, but if not, perhaps a grant or two can be located. I’ve discussed with NAD last year about advocacy training where I offered to help. I wasn’t able last year, but I’ll sure follow up on that offer soon.
This systematic negligence of deaf students really bothers me a lot. There is a feeling of audism like the deaf students aren’t treated better because they are Deaf. Why aren’t there mandatory requirements to master ASL if one wants to stay on a job? I know low pay makes it harder to find signing staff, but once hired, they must know ASL. Not to do that would be unfair for the students. They deserve to feel valued and empowered, not to be exploited. I feel bad for the LSD students.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I read an article about RISD, and it seems as if the educators’ complaints are quite trivial. Apparently the educators are upset that the superintendent did not ‘promptly’ inform them of the results of an investigation. The superintendent was investigating into the incident of two individuals breaking onto campus, I believe. Obviously the investigation wasn’t completed.. I think it is appropriate for the educators to wait until that is done.
With the repeated turnover in the RISD superintendent position, I am starting to get the impression that the problem is with the educators themselves. They doth complain too much.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
You are correct. However, I had a feeling this particular incident was the ‘last straw that broke the camel’s back’.
The academic performance continues to be poor, which isn’t good. There are other problems, too.
I know that one superintendent who earned a no confidence vote at RISD some time ago already had a poor reputation elsewhere My experience with this administrator at a different school confirmed that the poor reputation wasn’t a rumor.
But I didn’t talk to the staff at RISD this time, so I don’t know the whole story.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
MishkaZena
Thank you for responding and I am glad you and I view the same thing about the advocacy training. My understanding at NAD conventions, delgates from State Assoications attended conventions to attend workshops.
That brings to the question, if NAD does provide workshops at NAD conventions every two years (correct me if I am wrong) why can’t they take up advocacy training?
I will meet with NAD tomorrow and will see if I can address this concerns among many issues that were bought up by several bloggers and vloggers.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Deb, I’ve already been in touch with them and will discuss this in details soon.
I am glad you are also bringing up different issues brought up during the NAD discussions the last several weeks. In my experience for over a year, NAD had been very receptive to the concerns of the Deaf Community
November 6th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
I am not able to access the article at the Education Week’s website. So, I looked at other news that I obtained from Google News.
I don’t know if you meant director when you referred to superintendent at Rhode Island for the Deaf, didn’t you?
I personally knew Ms. Lori Dunsmore when she was a principal at my children’s deaf school some years ago. When I read the news about her, the first thing that came to my mind is that the teachers might be against her simply because she is deaf. In other words, there may be audism among the teachers or the union. I could be totally wrong on my suspicion and therefore, I placed myself in very vulnerable position on this issue. I would love to give her the full benefit of doubt but sometimes, truth can hurt. I am open to correction however how harsh it is.
I just want to show the possible other side of the coin.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.
November 6th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Joseph, you are correct. I don’t really know what happened.
I do know that the union president of that school is Deaf who graduated from Gallaudet University.
Thanks for sharing your experience with this principal.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
You said “five people” arrested. Weren’t all of them deaf?
February 8th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
I went to two boarding schools. Both kept girls and boys seperated buildings with door alarms.