TORONTO -- A loud campaign advocating for a Deaf Superintendent circulated online and around the world, then didn’t get what it was fighting for.
The Provincial Schools Branch (PSB), which oversees the provinces four schools for the Deaf, announced last week it hired a hearing superintendent, Jeanne Leonard.
The announcement also said the branch hired Heather Gibson, who is Deaf, in a new position called “assistant to the superintendents.” Though that brings a Deaf person to an administrative level previously dominated by hearing people, some in the Deaf community say that’s not what they were asking for.
“It totally doesn’t make sense - there are qualified Deaf candidates,” Rose Etheridge, said through an interpreter at a protest Monday in front of the Ernest C. Drury School for the Deaf in Milton. “They’re trying to pacify us,” added Etheridge, whose Oct. 22 video calling for a Deaf Superintendent has hit 20,000 views. (The hashtag #PSBsuperintendent2015 followed the video and generated hundreds of posts from across the continent.)
However, two of the community’s most outspoken advocates - Barbara Dodd and Zak Smith, who was arrested last year for staging a protest over concerns about learning conditions in Ontario’s Schools for the Deaf - say they are satisfied with the appointments as a first step toward more Deaf leadership...Read More.
Petitioning Deaf Superintendent Now:
We are protesting against PSB's decision to appoint a hearing person to superintendent position because we are a cultural and linguistic minority group who should be led by our own. We are also protesting for changes in their superintendent selection process, to ensure that it will be transparent, fair and inclusive. Sign up petition HERE.
You can find out more on www.psbprotest.ca, on facebook pages; PSBProtest, Deaf Ontario and Deaf Education Coalition, and follow both hashtags; #PSBsuperintendent2015 and #PSBProtest.
Follow #DeafSuperintendent2015
Twitter - https://twitter.com/hashtag/psbsuperintendent2015
Facebook - https://facebook.com/hashtag/psbsuperintendent2015
OAD Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/OntarioDeaf
Related: Canadian 'Deaf Superintendent Now' Movement
Related Posts: #DeafCanadians
