Deaf Superintendent Now.
October 26, 2021 10:33 PM Subscribe
The Student Body Is Deaf and Diverse. The School’s Leadership Is Neither. Student protests over the hiring of a white hearing superintendent have roiled a school for the deaf that serves mostly Black and Hispanic students in the Atlanta area and have focused attention on whether school leaders should better reflect the identities of their students.
(non-paywall link available here)
Students protested the hiring, accusing the school and the Education Department of racism and disability-based discrimination against the deaf community known as audism. They noted that the school’s top leadership included no people of color or deaf people.
The Daily Moth covered the story as it developed through the fall here, here and here (in ASL, subtitles available in English, transcript linked from each page).
Despite the GA DOE's argument that they interviewed all qualified candidates, they did not choose to interview Glennis Matthews, who applied. Matthews, a graduate of Spelman college (a HBCU), was a Black, Deaf science teacher at the school who served as the Science Chairperson. After not being granted an interview by GA DOE, she took the position of Superintendent of the Learning Center, a Deaf School in Framingham Massachusetts. Matthews is the first Black, Deaf Woman Superintendent.
Students protested the hiring, accusing the school and the Education Department of racism and disability-based discrimination against the deaf community known as audism. They noted that the school’s top leadership included no people of color or deaf people.
The Daily Moth covered the story as it developed through the fall here, here and here (in ASL, subtitles available in English, transcript linked from each page).
Despite the GA DOE's argument that they interviewed all qualified candidates, they did not choose to interview Glennis Matthews, who applied. Matthews, a graduate of Spelman college (a HBCU), was a Black, Deaf science teacher at the school who served as the Science Chairperson. After not being granted an interview by GA DOE, she took the position of Superintendent of the Learning Center, a Deaf School in Framingham Massachusetts. Matthews is the first Black, Deaf Woman Superintendent.
I feel like in a school that is bilingual, you do need to have the person in charge be truly competent in both languages and treat them equally. That's even more the case for sign languages, which have historically been treated as lesser than. Audism, particularly the impact of a hundred years of audism on educational practice, remains a big problem for Deaf schools. And d/Deaf children mostly have hearing parents and hearing extended family, so they really need Deaf role models and support with language development.
posted by plonkee at 1:46 AM on October 27, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by plonkee at 1:46 AM on October 27, 2021 [12 favorites]
NYTimes still isn’t capitalizing the d in Deaf?
posted by nouvelle-personne at 2:24 AM on October 27, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by nouvelle-personne at 2:24 AM on October 27, 2021 [2 favorites]
Were the people making the hiring decision white and hearing?
posted by Billiken at 6:00 AM on October 27, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Billiken at 6:00 AM on October 27, 2021 [3 favorites]
The people doing the hiring are indeed white.
"The school’s top leadership consists of white hearing women filling the roles of superintendent and assistant principal. In the 2020-21 school year, 79 percent of teachers were white and 60 percent of teachers were hearing, according to Education Department data. "
As the hearing father of a Deaf kid, knowing the atrocious track record hearing people have abusing, neglecting and miseducating deaf children in schools, I don't give hearing teachers the benefit of the doubt—they have to actively demonstrate competence and benevolence before I'll let them near my baby. There are still too many that lack basic understanding of deaf issues and education to have them waltz into my son's life and derail his education or self-worth. The fact that the new superintendent had worked for 22 years in deaf education and had crappy ASL? That's a fucking scandal.
And as a white parent of a white child, I'm only glimpsing the ways racism multiplies these issues. I am so proud of the students like Trinity Arreola who stood up against the incompetence of their own administration and the mediocrity of white / hearing privilege. I hope my son is half as brave when he's a teenager.
posted by Playdoughnails at 11:44 AM on October 27, 2021 [17 favorites]
"The school’s top leadership consists of white hearing women filling the roles of superintendent and assistant principal. In the 2020-21 school year, 79 percent of teachers were white and 60 percent of teachers were hearing, according to Education Department data. "
As the hearing father of a Deaf kid, knowing the atrocious track record hearing people have abusing, neglecting and miseducating deaf children in schools, I don't give hearing teachers the benefit of the doubt—they have to actively demonstrate competence and benevolence before I'll let them near my baby. There are still too many that lack basic understanding of deaf issues and education to have them waltz into my son's life and derail his education or self-worth. The fact that the new superintendent had worked for 22 years in deaf education and had crappy ASL? That's a fucking scandal.
And as a white parent of a white child, I'm only glimpsing the ways racism multiplies these issues. I am so proud of the students like Trinity Arreola who stood up against the incompetence of their own administration and the mediocrity of white / hearing privilege. I hope my son is half as brave when he's a teenager.
posted by Playdoughnails at 11:44 AM on October 27, 2021 [17 favorites]
Too many decades ago, I was in a community college nursing program, on the GI Bill. I wanted to take ASL. Regretted not knowing it, and thought it would be a terrific asset in healthcare.
I wasn't allowed to take it. Wasn't part of my curriculum. End of discussion.
posted by Goofyy at 5:15 PM on October 27, 2021
I wasn't allowed to take it. Wasn't part of my curriculum. End of discussion.
posted by Goofyy at 5:15 PM on October 27, 2021
NYTimes still isn’t capitalizing the d in Deaf?
It's not something you can just substitute - "Deaf people" is not the same set as "deaf people", and most of their sources seem to be using "deaf". The professor from Gallaudet University referred to in the piece works on 'the language and culture of deaf people", according to the department website (Gallaudet itself uses the lower case in their self description as "university for the deaf and hard of hearing") . The report from the National Deaf Center where the article gets several quoted statistics also gives those statistics for deaf people, not Deaf people.
posted by bashing rocks together at 4:04 PM on October 28, 2021
It's not something you can just substitute - "Deaf people" is not the same set as "deaf people", and most of their sources seem to be using "deaf". The professor from Gallaudet University referred to in the piece works on 'the language and culture of deaf people", according to the department website (Gallaudet itself uses the lower case in their self description as "university for the deaf and hard of hearing") . The report from the National Deaf Center where the article gets several quoted statistics also gives those statistics for deaf people, not Deaf people.
posted by bashing rocks together at 4:04 PM on October 28, 2021
Too many decades ago, I was in a community college nursing program,
Less than two decades ago, a friend had the same experience trying to take ASL to fulfil her college language requirements. Checking the university website, I see that it is an option today at least.
posted by bashing rocks together at 4:11 PM on October 28, 2021
Less than two decades ago, a friend had the same experience trying to take ASL to fulfil her college language requirements. Checking the university website, I see that it is an option today at least.
posted by bashing rocks together at 4:11 PM on October 28, 2021
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posted by Chrysopoeia at 12:06 AM on October 27, 2021