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Sign Language Ban on Bus?

tyr_13

Penultimate Amazing
tyr_13
Joined
Aug 8, 2008
Messages
18,095
ABC News story here. It's short and worth the read.

Basically the school is threatening to suspend an almost deaf twelve year old girl if she doesn't stop using sign language on the bus. They say it's a safety risk. The girl's parents say that the safety risk is because other students pick on and bully the girls who are using sign language and refuse to stay in their seats while they do so. So instead of threatening to suspend the students actually misbehaving, they threaten the young girl.

Oh, and her deafness might have been caused by one of her classmates firing a bottle rock near her ear.

Seems to me the school is being tone deaf.
 
I have an idea - the parents sue the school system on two counts - 1)current rules most everywhere now are very anti-bullying in schools and thus it is bad publicity, and 2)banning one group from conversing while allowing another to do so - particularly when the less invasive communication is not the talkers. I suspect there are more and I suspect several organizations will be taking a strong and embarassing interest in this situation. I like kids, I loathe bullies of any age - which is sort of what Sam Colt was talked about for iirc.
 
I struggle to imagine how signing could possible be a safety risk.
If she is getting out of her seat, yes. But that has nothing to do with signing.
Something has to be missing in the report.
 
I'm pretty sure her parents have the right of it - the victim's fault - they made the bullies have to move around and harrass them. I look forward to a major apology and a nice suspension of the bullies or a whopping big lawsuit on multiple points of law.



Note: - for those who do not know I am fine with bullies being stripped, thrown in a barrel studded with nails - points inward - sealed up and rolled down a long hill into the ocean. Oh, wait, that was a Grimm Bros. Evil stepmother and two step daughters (not Cinderella, a different set). Never mind......................................................................................................................................but, still..............
 
Similar principle to the "Abused teacher fired ...." really, asuming that the story can be taken at face value.

Other kids bullying you for wearing cheap sneakers or geeky glasses? Change your ways or risk a suspension.
 
GlennB said:
Similar principle to the "Abused teacher fired ...." really, asuming that the story can be taken at face value.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. It's only a matter of time before people enter this thread arguing that the bullying children were at risk, and it's only fair that the deaf kids were suspended for the better good.......
 
GlennB said:
Similar principle to the "Abused teacher fired ...." really, asuming that the story can be taken at face value.

Other kids bullying you for wearing cheap sneakers or geeky glasses? Change your ways or risk a suspension.
Click to expand...

Well, I think the kids should do the decent thing and just quit taking the bus. I mean, are they too proud to walk? Won't someone think of the hearing enabled children?
 
GlennB said:
Similar principle to the "Abused teacher fired ...." really, asuming that the story can be taken at face value.

Other kids bullying you for wearing cheap sneakers or geeky glasses? Change your ways or risk a suspension.
Click to expand...

lionking said:
My thoughts exactly. It's only a matter of time before people enter this thread arguing that the bullying children were at risk, and it's only fair that the deaf kids were suspended for the better good.......
Click to expand...
No, not like that at all.
 
I wonder if the health and safety issue actually relates to distractions to the driver, not anything to do with the other students.

If all children have been told not to chat on the bus - to waylay noisy carrying on, I can see that kids using sign language could be perceived as a way to dodge this by others, and that could potentially result in non-sign-language users complaining that the rest are getting special treatment - perhaps reacting to those kids (kind of like when siblings do the 'but I'm not touching you' dance in front of a sibling's face).

The school has only said that the version they are aware of differs from what the parents have said - they haven't specified the issue.
 
"The district's policy and the principal's intention is not to ban signing," Superintendent Lois Capabianco said Wednesday. "Everyone needs to know that signing is allowed on the bus."

She declined to further discuss the case, citing active and potential litigation, but said the district's attorney had sent the girl's parents a letter which clarifies the policy.

The Leskos, who claim their daughter's hearing problem was caused by an incident at her school last year, said they were seeking an apology from school officials.

"My daughter was obeying the rules of the bus," Mary Ann Lesko said. "She was not accused of any inappropriate behavior."
Click to expand...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93466&page=1#.UcL2k_mshiQ

Interestingly, both this report and the one on the same site reporting the ban, seem to be from April. I'm wondering why it has been picked up elswhere now - without the later details of the school saying that sign language is *not* banned.
 
Last edited:
Professor Yaffle said:
Quote:
"The district's policy and the principal's intention is not to ban signing," Superintendent Lois Capabianco said Wednesday. "Everyone needs to know that signing is allowed on the bus."

She declined to further discuss the case, citing active and potential litigation, but said the district's attorney had sent the girl's parents a letter which clarifies the policy.

The Leskos, who claim their daughter's hearing problem was caused by an incident at her school last year, said they were seeking an apology from school officials.

"My daughter was obeying the rules of the bus," Mary Ann Lesko said. "She was not accused of any inappropriate behavior."
Click to expand...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93466&page=1#.UcL2k_mshiQ
Click to expand...

:D
This girl is 12. I could envision plenty of scenarios where she and her mates insist to their parents with angelic wide eyed innocence that they were simply using sign language to discuss their latest homework assignments ... yes mum, honestly .... no other hand gestures at all, whatsoever ... no mum ;) !
The mother can't possibly know without being a witness firsthand - she can only know what her 12 year old daughter tells her - not always honest testimony.
 
...the Branchburg Board of Education refused to discuss the details of Danica's case, saying only that its version of events differs from the parents' version.
Click to expand...

I should hope so.

About all I can come up with is that the bus driver tells the kids to sit down and shut up, but the girls keep signing and refuse to stop. How is it fair that they get to keep "talking" while the others have to stop? So, the other kids rebel and keep talking and moving about the bus. The school decides "shut up" means everyone, including those who sign, and lets the parents know of this new rule.

At that point, tho, its not really about safety. Its about control. Signing is not disruptive or distracting to the driver. But, thats the way of anyone or any organization bent on control - they insist it is for your own safety.

I'm not sure the school has a leg to stand on, but I've certainly known schools to have stupid rules before and get away with it.
 
fuelair said:
I'm pretty sure her parents have the right of it - the victim's fault - they made the bullies have to move around and harrass them. I look forward to a major apology and a nice suspension of the bullies or a whopping big lawsuit on multiple points of law.



Note: - for those who do not know I am fine with bullies being stripped, thrown in a barrel studded with nails - points inward - sealed up and rolled down a long hill into the ocean. Oh, wait, that was a Grimm Bros. Evil stepmother and two step daughters (not Cinderella, a different set). Never mind......................................................................................................................................but, still..............
Click to expand...

I didn't release you'd progressed to fantasising about torturing children now. That's not good. Is there somewhere nearby you can get help before writing about it on the internet just doesn't do it for you anymore?
 
Primus said:
I didn't release you'd progressed to fantasising about torturing children now.
Click to expand...

I did find it vaguely disturbing as well. I'm used to seeing such torture fantasies directed now and again to the perpetrators of this or that crime; but seeing them applied to children is a bit jarring.
 
Primus said:
I didn't release you'd progressed to fantasising about torturing children now. That's not good. Is there somewhere nearby you can get help before writing about it on the internet just doesn't do it for you anymore?
Click to expand...

Checkmite said:
I did find it vaguely disturbing as well. I'm used to seeing such torture fantasies directed now and again to the perpetrators of this or that crime; but seeing them applied to children is a bit jarring.
Click to expand...

Oh, I don't know that I'd take all that hyperbole seriously. People say crap like this all the time. It's the internetz, after all. (And it IS Fuelair... after all.)
 
chillzero said:
:D
This girl is 12. I could envision plenty of scenarios where she and her mates insist to their parents with angelic wide eyed innocence that they were simply using sign language to discuss their latest homework assignments ... yes mum, honestly .... no other hand gestures at all, whatsoever ... no mum ;) !
The mother can't possibly know without being a witness firsthand - she can only know what her 12 year old daughter tells her - not always honest testimony.
Click to expand...

True, but I can also envision plenty of scenarios where the daughter simply isn't from the right family and not worth protecting. Or the person who possible caused her hearing damage is from the right family and is worth protecting. (Worth as defined by the point of view of the school obviously. They are all worth a lot in reality.)

Or just finding a way to grief the family that has the audacity to sue the school for something as 'trivial' as being deafened...

My google fu is weak to begin with, but I haven't found follow ups.
 
Woo-ie!

We're off on the last train to Speculationville, aren't we?

(Inspired by several - not any single - posts. Wouldn't have mentioned it otherwise.)
 
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