Dems Spurn Deaf Candidate Over Allegations

Kansas House candidate loses support from Democrats after multiple women accuse him of abuse.

OLATHE, Kansas -- Chris Haulmark, who could be the first Deaf state legislator in Kansas, lost the support of Democrats after multiple women accused him of emotional abuse. He's admitted to having "done some things" he isn't "proud of."

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After multiple women have come forward with allegations of emotional and mental abuse, Kansas Democrats have pulled their support from a state House candidate poised to make history.

Chis Haulmark - running for a state House seat in Kansas’ 15th congressional district – would reportedly be the first Deaf lawmaker at either a local or national level if elected. But he’s been publicly accused by multiple women, including former girlfriends and roommates, of emotional abuse and manipulative behavior.

Tonia Jimmerson, who said she previously dated Haulmark, claimed in a Facebook video he threatened to run her over with a car, burn down a camping tent with her young daughter inside and leave her and her children in a national park in Montana. She also alleged he had threatened her with a gun during the relationship.

“Time and time again, you lied to us. You manipulated us. You made us feel low about ourselves,” she said in a separate Facebook post. “You threatened us. You threatened our children. You took advantage of our kind and fragile hearts for your own benefit.”

Haulmark told The Kansas City Star he never threatened Jimmerson with a firearm, and said some allegations stemmed from Jimmerson taking his remarks during arguments out of context.

Candy Villesca, a former roommate of Haulmark's, also claimed he was emotionally abusive and manipulative years ago, The Star reported. Villesca alleged he “brainwashed” her into thinking she had a mental illness.

“Chris should not be in the kind of role he’s running for, with those types of habits of hurting women,” she said.

Haulmark lived in the home of Jennifer Carlino from April 2017 to January 2018, The Star reports. Carlino alleged he “threatened [her] into silence” during that time.

“He even confessed to me that he is very capable of taking revenge on people if he didn’t get what he wanted,” Carlino said in a Facebook video, according to The Star.

“I will admit that I haven’t always been the best boyfriend, husband, co-worker or friend,” Haulmark said in a Facebook post, adding that he’s sought therapy for several years to work on his relationships.

Haulmark denies over allegations as well as he puts allegations to rest and focuses back on winning the election.

“With that said, I am far from perfect. I’ve made mistakes, I’ve said things I regret, I’ve done some things that I’m not proud of … Some might say that would disqualify me from running for office,” he continued. “I say it makes me a better representative to those in my district.”

In a separate Facebook post, Haulmark revealed he’s been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and has sought treatment for the illness. He also said he's staying in the race because his Republican opponent, John Toplikar, “would be a detriment to our district.”

“I truly believe in making things better. I truly believe in change. I truly believe that my story can help change other stories,” he said.

According to The Star, Kansas House Democrats have since pulled their support for Haulmark, calling the accusations “deeply troubling.”

“This pattern of behavior disqualifies Haulmark from being a standard bearer for the Democratic Party,” the Democrats said in a statement.

Haulmark told the newspaper it’s “understandable” for the party to distance itself from him “given the political climate.”

SOURCE - FOXNews
Video Credit: Kansas City Star

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Deaf Cats In Cochlear Implant Research

Deaf cats tormented, cruel laboratory experiments and killed in University for the cochlear/hearing implant industry.

Warning: Graphic Content - View Discretion is Advised.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) reveals horrific pictures of cruelty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison laboratory, where a tabby cat named Double Trouble was tormented for months in a taxpayer-funded experiment before being killed and decapitated in UW-Madison.

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Following a PETA campaign to expose and end cruel and archaic sound-localization experiments on cats at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the embattled laboratory has closed its doors for good and released several cats.

PETA's victory after video to be made public: http://www.peta.org/blog/victory.

Australian universities are under fire for using cruel animal testing practices as part of various medical and scientific studies. But one University student is calling on the prestigious institutions to end their cruel practices, read the story, HERE.

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Kindergarten Teacher Abusing Deaf Child

Chinese kindergarten teacher violently slams a Deaf pupil on the floor before kicking him repeatedly because 'he is too naughty'.

SHENYANG, China -- Daily Mail: This is the shocking moment a Chinese kindergarten teacher violently slams a Deaf pupil on the floor before repeatedly kicking him for being 'too naughty'.

The footage was reportedly taken in September 2016 in the city of Shenyang and later uploaded online on January 12, reports the People's Daily Online.

The kindergarten later revealed that the woman involved in the incident has been dismissed. Staff at the school named Haitun Ying'er Kindergarten admitted on January 12 that the incident had occurred.

In the footage, a child can be seen lying on the floor while another child and the woman are sat down.

She can then be seen grabbing the child as it makes a noise.

Becoming increasingly frustrated, she then pushes the child around before then slamming the child against the floor.

She then starts kicking and scolding the child as it continues to cry.

According to reports, the woman also pinched the child and said that he was 'too naughty'.

The footage was taken by a member of staff who said that the school's principal had threatened him.

The creator of the video said that the woman conducting the vicious beating was surnamed Zhang.

They also said that the child had been attending the school for a long time and the parents to not take the child back home every day.

Zhang has been dismissed but another person also responsible for beating in the school was not allowed to come in for two days.

There have been over 7,000 comments on the video.

One user commented: 'Those without a caring heart should not be a kindergarten teacher.'

And another said: 'She doesn't deserve to be a teacher.'

While another wrote: 'The kindergarten should raise their standard for recruitment.'

SOURCE - Daily Mail

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Deaf Women More Likely to be a Victim of Abuse

Deaf individuals are more likely to experience domestic violence than hearing individuals in the United States.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Newsnet5: Deaf individuals are one and a half times more likely to be victims of relationship violence than hearing individuals, according to research out of the Rochester Institute of Technology.

"He would grab me, push me down, kept pushing me down, hitting me," said Dawn Marie Fucile, a Cleveland resident who is Deaf. She spoke through an interpreter.

Fucile recalls her three-year abusive relationship which she says happened in Parma two decades ago.

"He got a hold of me and threw me physically, coffee table," she said of her ex-boyfriend who is also Deaf. "I missed it by just an inch."

Fucile, who is 48 years old, said she finally mustered up the strength to call the police. Twice, officers came to her house. Twice, they left without arresting the man.

"Both of the officers that were there, I could understand them, but they were being like 'oh poor you. You can't communicate," she added.

Fucile said the lack of communication services and education among police at that time contributed to a lack of help.

"We know that there are more victims that are Deaf and Hard of Hearing that don't have access to information or services, and that's a big problem," said Linda Johanek, CEO of the Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Center in Cleveland.

Johanek, with help from the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center and Cleveland Police, are trying to reverse the problem, which Johanek and Fucile said is only exacerbated by the fact that the Deaf community is tight-knit. For a member, it is difficult to break away, no matter the circumstance.

Through a federal grant, the domestic violence center, its shelter and all five police districts have iPads equipped with video remote interpreters. Officers can take the iPads with them on calls.

Fucile said the technology is a big step in the right direction.

"Do not be afraid to ask for help," she added. "I got help because I decided to move on."

Parma police said they now use a text messaging service to communicate with Deaf Individuals. For in-depth interviews, Parma and Cleveland police said they bring in live interpreters.

Fucile said her ex-boyfriend was eventually charged and convicted of domestic violence.

SOURCE - NewsNet

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Firing of Deaf Employee Costs Firm $240K

Deaf News: Deaf ex-employee’s court case puts bosses on notice for behaving badly in Mississauga, Canada.

TORONTO, ON -- The Canadian Press: A long-time employee tormented by her employer and unceremoniously dumped after she went Deaf had her damages award more than doubled to $246,000 by Ontario’s top court on Thursday.

In its decision, the Appeal Court ruled the egregious nature of the company’s “heartless” misconduct warranted significantly higher damages for Vicky Strudwick.

“In the lead-up to Ms. Strudwick’s termination, she was belittled, isolated, humiliated and made to suffer the effects of her disability to the greatest extent possible,” the Appeal Court said.

“This conduct was deliberate, malicious and designed to force Ms. Strudwick to quit a job she had held for almost 16 years.”

Court documents show that Strudwick worked for Applied Consumer and Clinical Evaluations, a family-run business based in Mississauga, Ont., that recruits people to participate in focus groups. She began by doing data entry, but later instructed recruiting staff, earning $12.85 an hour.

In October 2010, she went completely Deaf - possibly because of a virus.

Court records show that Andrew Hoffman, the general manager, and a supervisor, Liz Camilleri, then began a concerted campaign of abuse against Strudwick aimed at forcing her to quit.

They not only denied her any accommodation for her disability, but actually took steps to make her life even more difficult, the court said.

In May 2011, Hoffman fired her, allegedly for pulling a “stunt” at a company event, prompting Strudwick, then 56, to sue for wrongful dismissal and abuse.

Applied Consumer never delivered a statement of defence and was noted in default.

In August last year, Superior Court Justice Grant Dow awarded her a total of $113,782 and $40,000 in legal costs. Strudwick appealed the damages award as too low, while Applied Consumer - which has about 80 employees - argued the legal costs award was too high.

The Appeal Court affirmed the costs award, but found Strudwick deserved much more by way of damages given the “cruel” treatment to which her bosses had subjected her.

Examples included giving her instructions while preventing her from lip reading, then calling her stupid. They refused to let her turn her desk around so that she could see people as they approached.

“In the immediate lead-up to her dismissal, Ms. Strudwick was confronted in front of an estimated 13 other employees, yelled at and called a ‘goddamned fool’,” the Appeal Court stated.

Hoffman, who would later himself be fired, gave her a termination letter and a cheque for three months’ pay. When she refused to sign a release, he took the cheque back and had her marched out of the building in front of her co-workers.

Applied Consumer, which claims to foster an environment of “empowerment, engagement, fairness and responsibility,” then claimed she had been fired for insubordination and wilful misconduct - a tactic that delayed her access to employment insurance.

On appeal, Strudwick argued for more than $1 million, but the court said its hands were tied by her initial statement of claim, which sought $240,000 plus an amount for loss of benefits.

The Appeal Court said she deserved her full claim for damages in light of the “malicious and heartless” treatment meted out to her. It also awarded another $20,000 in costs for the appeal.

SOURCE - BlackBurnNews

It’s Why Deaf People Don’t Report To Police

When it comes to domestic abuse and sexual assault reporting, Deaf women are underserved by police in the United States.

NEW YORK CITY -- International Business Times: The abuse started with a few insults. When Wendy, a Deaf woman, met her college boyfriend, he was popular and attractive, so she put up with the harsh way he spoke to her. Then he gave her a black eye.

“I thought it was normal, and that that was love; that it was just a part of when you care about somebody,” Wendy, 38, who didn’t want to be identified by her real name because she has yet to go public with her story, said through a sign language interpreter. “Then the insults became a little bit physical, and then a cycle began.”

The cycle included her boyfriend holding her hostage in locked rooms after arguments, once almost forcing her to go to the bathroom in a bucket because she couldn’t leave. He beat her up on her 27th birthday, but she didn’t report it at least partly out of fear no one would believe her. She tells the story of a fellow Deaf friend who was abused by a significant other, and when police came to investigate, they didn’t believe the Deaf friend was abused.

“It’s why Deaf people don’t report to police,” Wendy, a Deaf community advocate in the central New York area, said. “It’s always ‘they won’t believe me.’ ”

Deaf women experience sexual and domestic abuse at much higher rates than women who hear, but are unlikely to report it. A new initiative announced last week from the Vera Institute of Justice, a New York City-based nonprofit, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime aims to change that by training police officers to facilitate communication with Deaf victims, such as teaching them how to find legitimate sign language interpreters. Activists say many law enforcement officials don’t know the best way to communicate with Deaf victims, discouraging the victims from reporting abuse.

“Now, they don’t have equal access to get the help they need,” Erin Esposito, a Deaf woman and executive director of the Rochester, New York-based Advocacy Services for Abused Deaf Victims, said of Deaf victims. “The goal is to create an atmosphere where Deaf people can feel confident to go into a police station and get help.”

The Translating Justice Initiative is a three-year program, funded with a $1 million grant from the U.S. Justice Department that will go toward virtual and in-person training sessions of police officers, prosecutors and court administrators to help them better communicate with the Deaf, as well as the hard of hearing and those with limited English proficiency. The training is intended to enable police agencies to look at their policies regarding Deaf victims, revamp them to better facilitate communication and show officers how to better use resources already out there to help the Deaf, said Susan Shah, one of the co-leaders of the initiative.

Officers will be instructed in telephonic interpretation services, finding interpreters in the community and ways to avoid outdated technology, Shah said. Another major part of the training is teaching police to reach out to the Deaf community so Deaf victims of domestic and sexual abuse can feel more comfortable coming forward.

There is no cookie-cutter training for every police agency as every one has different levels of how well they interact with Deaf people, Esposito said. While there have been localized efforts to fund programs for Deaf victims, this is one of the only national initiatives providing this type of training, activists said.

No one event spawned the project, which has been in development with the Justice Department and other agencies, such as Advocacy Services for Abused Deaf Victims and the National Center for Victims of Crime. The Office for Victims of Crime said in a statement that inroads had been made in recent years to serve victims who have disabilities or limited English proficiency, and that the program came about to bring together local efforts to help Deaf victims.... Read More.

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The Truth About Illinois School For The Deaf

Under Fire: ASL and Cued Speech at the Illinois School for the Deaf.

JACKSONVILLE, IL -- A few months ago, Michele Westfall tagged me and a few other people about the Illinois School for the Deaf's website on "Cued Speech Myths." What I saw there was heartbreaking. This is my response to the situation, sharing observations on their video series. Please support the Illinois Deaf Community's efforts to improve conditions at the school.

An Illinois Deaf Community member has stated that the superintendent is leaving in June 2015 and the pro-Cued Speech principal, Angela Kuhn, is a candidate for the position. The community does not want her to take the job.

Description of Adrean Clark, a Deaf white woman wearing a black and silver ASL Bat t-shirt appears against a dark blue background. Her narrative is interspersed with footage from the Illinois School for the Deaf's video series featuring the superintendent and classroom situations.

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Summary: The Illinois School for the Deaf released a series of videos intended to dispel doubts about their "bilingual" program. I was heartbroken by what I saw in the footage and would like to show you what I noticed.

- The school's mission is to provide a bilingual ASL - English environment. The actual practice is far from bilingual. The example footage shown takes place during an English composition class. The teacher asks (with Cued Speech) what "to conclude" means. Two students respond - one with ASL/fingerspelling and another by oral English only. The teacher winks at the speaking students. This is common to oral environments that try to "share space" with ASL. Speaking English tends to come first. The student that spoke got special treatment while not signing at all.

- The superintendent claims that the thousands of words in science and social studies have no ASL equivalent, therefore must be fingerspelled. That is a false claim, since ASL has built-in systems for developing new words. The choice to depend on fingerspelling actually robs students of full access to ASL - as an example a video from the ASL THAT! group is posted. In the video Joseph Wheeler differentiates between deer, moose, and elk by following ASL handshapes and structures. The result is a rich natural sciences education that all Deaf students should have access to.

- The superintendent states that Cued Speech provides an alternative for long-term retention of English information that doesn't involve English print alone. That statement shows that speaking is considered superior at the Illinois School for the Deaf.

- In a mathematics classroom, the teacher interrupts teaching to show students how to speak the word "proper." An assistant is called in to display proper mouthing and cueing for the students. When she tries to fingerspell the word, she gets a slap on the hand. It is disconcerting that so much time was spent on that one word - and on top of that, even daring to use English fingerspelling was considered "bad." That is not an ASL-English bilingual environment at all!

The Illinois School for the Deaf is an oral program that uses manually-coded English as the primary mode of instruction. It is not a bilingual program. Footage Sources: Myth 1, 2, and 5 at http://illinoisdeaf.org/FactOrMythASL.html.

Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/video.

SOURCE

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