Thread by @Deaftrav

#deafchildrenmatters @NL_Assoc_Deaf @GovNL @NLESDCA @kimagreening

So my thoughts on this session, on today's hearing. well, settle in for the ride cause it's a wild one. summery will be long but still short enough to read during supper.

1/10

First off, we started with Sheila Macdonald. Former teacher of the deaf, used to teach at the deaf school. Absolutely demolished and ridiculed the Inclusion model used by the English district. She proved that it was destructive, harmful and an utter disaster for Deaf children. 2/

Then we had the current teacher of the Deaf for the district. Not Carter's current teacher but was involved for a short time. she got upset and basically yelled "You don't know what it's like!!" then said she tried her best and is worried about carter's ability to be safe 3/

Then Carter's current teacher came up. She was sweet and calmly destroyed arguments brought up by previous witnesses in Carter disabilities. Stated that interference was from district and director. Reduced the room to tears when she said "Carter now knows we want to hear him" 4/

4th witness was the past principal. she's returning to her role as a French teacher. her testimony exposed previous principal's lack of interest and advocacy for Carter's needs and highlighted double standards in language proficiency testing. 5/

She goes on to explain that Insufficient Evidence was used to protect the students while they worked on getting their language caught up. 6/

Last was Bob Gardiner from the Department, former Deputy Minister. This was a draining cross-examination as he would stall, add extra information and evade the answers. He was not a hostile witness. 7/

not our job to make sure the district follows the law. if they don't ask us for extra funds they don't get it.
department did not budget for new deaf children being born
8/

department just admitted they knew the districts were failing and the districts were considering a central school but funding wasn't requested, as far as he knew.
9/

during cross. @kimagreening lawyer brought up that @NL_Assoc_Deaf provided a parent that was not vetted to the steering committee. Apparently, and I'll withdraw if I'm wrong, that parent was a parent of a hearing child losing speech. 10/10

Addendum. A common theme was questioning the asl proficiency of the teachers. The second witness got her asl 101 in 2 days.

Ugh. I really need to check to see if my fat thumbs didn't mess up my spelling...