I would like to describe some experiences in my life being deaf. And you're more than welcome to add your comments and feedbacks on this topic.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
South Brunswick High School in Kendall Park, N.J. was a nightmare for Deaf Lady
For so many years, I've held my pain and grief towards how badly the people in the South Brunswick High School treated me in New Jersey. For four years, I had to deal with being mistreated by the teachers, staff and some of the students in this school. It's a good thing this school is setting up a review page. I will be there to give you a very bad review of what you put me through. The best thing that ever happened to me in my whole life, was getting my high school Diploma and getting out of your school forever.
Why did you people make us kids stand out in the freezing cold every morning for nearly an hour before you would unlock the doors!? It's not our fault your had your school buses pick us up early in the morning and that we were there when the bus got us there! It was way too cold for the school to make us poor kids stand outside in 10 degree weather and freeze for half hour. Didn't you show us any sympathy? No you didn't! We suffered and froze outside early every morning in the coldest days of the winter. Why you couldn't let us inside when we begged to go in cause we were so cold!??? Your school treated us awful back in in the 1970's. I was there around 1976 thru 1979, or so. Truly you need to apologize to us for locking us out every morning and for setting up your school buses to bring us there before you were open!!
Did the teachers not even know I was deaf?! Why didn't you care to tell your students that I had a hearing loss??? Why didn't you educate any of your kids about how to communicate with a deaf student?! Why didn't you listen to me when I told you I was deaf and you need to seat me up in front so I can lipread you????!! Why did the teachers ignore me when I said I need them to face me when they are teaching ??! I learned NOTHING In all your classes because I didn't understand anything being said. Worst of all, you did NOTHING to educate your students about how to communicate with me! Therefore I suffered for four years of being ignored by most of the kids there and that hurt! Didn't you realize I was just a young teenager, shy, innocent and not ready to speak up for myself? Didn't you realize that the kids wanted nothing to do with me and did not communicate with me in a way they should with a deaf child? It's because you took no time at all to teach any of your students in my classes anything about deaf people or how to communicate with them!! That bothers me! Why did all of my teachers ignore me and not do anything about this ??! Did you even care I was deaf?? And that you needed to do certain things like face me when you are talking so I can understand you??!!! NO! OF course not! I had to deal with your ignorance for four years. You really need to apologize to me! Thanks a lot for not paying attention to the needs of a deaf child. Those were my most miserable years. Thanks a lot for not educating any of your students about how to communicate with a deaf child, you didn't even tell any of the kids in my classes I was deaf! Thanks a lot. I was just starting to grow up, and still in my shy years and not ready to assert myself back in those days. Didn't you realize I was afraid to tell anyone I was deaf because nobody even liked me and would not talk to me in the school? Only a few did! Back then I was told I was a snob, because I did not talk to others, the only reason I didn't is because I couldn't hear and you did not educate any of your kids how to help me understand what they are saying!
These were my most humiliating days of my life! In your dysfunctional school! My god, I cannot wait till you put out those reviews, I can't wait to tell the world what a terrible school you are! And you never apologized to me in all these
years. You showed no sympathy for the kids there. Well I feel better because I can get this off my chest now and tell the world about you and what you did to my self esteem! Your education system was awful and dragged me down to the ground! Back then I was lead to believe being deaf was a bad thing because of how you ignored my educational and social needs in every way and in every turn!
What about that worst day of my life, when I was jammed in a classroom with 25 kids or so. I did not hear or know what was going on. The teacher left the room and about 15 girls were in a circle laughing and talking, they did not want me to be included. So I had no choice but to sit in a chair and look at the wall for two hours. No one talked to me or asked if I was okay. I felt like the biggest fool sitting in a chair alone for two hours when I did not know what was going on. And the kids totally ignored me, there were a group of them together and didn't involve me because I was deaf and quiet. Why didn't any of the teachers ask if I was okay?! I was sitting there all alone in a chair crying all alone for two hours, while the group of kids sat in a circle and laughed the whole time and totally ignored me! How do you think I felt when I was all by myself in a room in a chair when noone talked to me where there was over 15 kids on the other side of the room laughing and gossiping! Why didn't any of the teachers check on me and ask if I was alright?! Why didn't they say anything to the other kids that were making fun of me!?
If I didn't hear or understand what a teacher was saying simply because they were mumbling and did not face me when they taught they would scold me and tell me I was a bad girl for not listening! That hurt! And they would accuse me of not listening when they made no effort not to look at me when they were talking, when I couldn't hear anything they said. I'm done with your school and now it's my turn to make a complaint about how badly you treated a deaf child. I sure hope you don't get any more deaf kids in your school because I will feel very sorry for how they might get treated, as badly as how I was treated in the past, long time ago.
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Gosh, you really did have a bad time going to that school. I was surprised to hear about this, because I thought that if they knew you were deaf, then they should have catered for you and informed the teachers about it. Maybe, nobody knew how to deal with you and that's why you were ignored by the staff, but I'm just guessing.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone complain on your behalf at the time Susana? And was any action taken at the time? I say this because, although this was a long time ago in the 70s, maybe structures have now been put in place to deal with people who suffer from disabilities or deafness. Either way, I'm sorry that you were treated this way for such a long time.
It's possible that the staff in the school has no knowledge about deafness. Therefore it's the principal's fault for not following through with getting the teachers educated on how to communicate with me in class, or whoever was in charge. That could be one reason why they didn't supply my educational needs, since I was the only deaf girl out of hundreds of students in the whole school. No one that worked in the school did anything to help me. If I couldn't hear what a teacher was saying, they would accuse me of not paying attention in class. This is where I was innocent, they did not face me so I could lipread what was being said. This happened to me in school so many times, and whenever I tried to tell the teachers I didn't understand because they turned their back on me when they were talking, they would say to me how dare you talk back to them, therefore I was always the one to be blamed. That wasn't fair to me. There was one person that did care and tried to say something to the staff and that was my mom. And I'm grateful she tried to help, she was the only one that did. But the school refused to do anything at all to attend to the needs of a deaf student. They put me in a special class because I was having problems understanding the teachers to give me special help.
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