Education Department ignores needs of deaf students who need space to sign
BY Meredith Kolodner
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER (New York, New York)
(DeafTimes notes: this is PS47)
Sunday, May 9th 2010, 4:00 AM
Teacher Patti Anderegg, left, and parent Aviance Pride, right, in the tiny office that in the fall will be a classroom.
Across the city, teachers and parents bristle at sharing space with other schools, but the uproar is especially passionate at a Manhattan school building for deaf students.
Squeezing kids into a small room at the E. 23rd St. school could mean they can’t arrange their desks in a U-shape – and therefore the students can’t see each other sign.
And learning in close quarters with hearing kids could cause friction, since deaf students don’t respond to yells and often stomp to get each other’s attention.
“When you sign, you need space. It’s how we communicate,” said Aviance Pride, PTA co-president who is deaf and has four children at the school. “Kids sitting right next to each other can’t talk.”
Parents at the American Sign Language and English’s lower and secondary schools (PS 347 and M047, respectively) say the Education Department’s attempt to place the Clinton Middle School’s 270 students in their building will cause impossible overcrowding.
The school, which serves mostly hearing impaired students and children whose parents or siblings are deaf, is one of the few schools in the country with sign language and English-speaking teachers in almost every classroom.
Education Department officials insist that, because maximum class size for deaf students are half of what they are for hearing ones, students could use the building’s half-sized classrooms and hand over five of its full-sized rooms to Clinton.
Parents say that estimation of available space is out of whack. Since kids must see each other to lip read or sign, desks can’t be laid out in traditional rows.
And an effort to squeeze 18 desks into a U-shape in one of the 400-square-foot, half-sized classrooms last week failed. Even 15 desks left almost no room to move and absolutely no space for basics like book shelves, cubby holes or floor space for reading.
The building has 36 full-sized classrooms, and if all the classes scheduled to enroll next year are put into a full-sized room, the total need would be 42.
Education Department officials defended their proposal, saying that Clinton had to move because PS 11, where it is currently located, has become extremely overcrowded.
“The building was built specifically for deaf students, and the classrooms are designed specifically for deaf students,” said Education Department Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld. “We are totally committed to ensuring that these students continue to receive all of the services they need for a proper education.”
But when a different school moved into the building last year and took half of the third floor, the high school lost its science lab, music room and art space, but was promised them back this year when the new school found another location. Instead, Clinton will move in and occupy the entire third floor, probably for four years.
“They have no idea what they’re doing to us,” said Samantha Black, a PTA co-president whose son Ruslan, 4, is in pre-K.
The school, which has improved from an F letter grade to an A, operates like no other in the city. On a recent day, Black yelled down the hall for the principal, only to quickly realize she needed to stomp.
Students preparing for a field trip gathered in concentric circles in the lobby, with teachers signing instructions to the small groups.
Some classes are taught by a hearing teacher who speaks, while an interpreter signs. Others are taught by deaf teachers who sign, while other teachers interpret into English.
“We have a very special school,” said Apollonia Moriarty, a senior at the school who has a deaf parent. “I don’t see how that’s fair.”
Please listen to their cry, need to show every that our country is fair all the way around. They need to get the educatin as hearing. Give equal to all.