Passenger Punches Deaf Couple, Service Dog

Video shows airline passenger accused of punching Deaf pregnant woman, service dog being tackled at the Florida airport.

ORLANDO, Florida -- The details of an alleged punch thrown by a passenger at a Deaf pregnant woman's service dog remain up for debate, but new video shows some of the confrontation on the plane and an ensuing fight in the terminal.

Hazel Ramirez and her fiance Matt Silvay - who are both Deaf - along with their two young children and service dog were aboard a Frontier Airlines flight from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Orlando, Florida when they say a passenger punched their 8-month-old service dog, a Great Dane named Zariel.

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An Orlando Police Department report says passenger Tim Manley felt the dog was taking up too much space and irritating his wife's allergies, so he "punched it with a closed fist," causing the dog to yelp and take cover under a seat.

Silvay can be seen standing in the aisle of the plane arguing with Manley, cell phone video shows.

Manley says he considered what he did to the dog a "swat," not a punch, ABC News reports. Ramirez told Orlando CBS affiliate WKMG she and her husband were appalled by Manley's actions.

"So my husband gets mad and yelled at the man to tell him never touch any dogs or service animals," Ramirez told WKMG.

The argument then escalated from the plane and into the terminal of the Orlando International Airport where Manley is accused of punching Ramirez, who is five months pregnant, in her stomach.

New cell phone video recorded inside the terminal appears to shows Silvay shoving Manley to the ground. Silvay told police he tackled Manley in an attempt to prevent him from leaving before authorities arrived.

In the description of the video posted to YouTube, Manley provided his own account of the incident. Here's some of what he says happened:

"They had a very difficult time keeping the dog confined in front of the seat even though since no-one wanted to sit there they had two extra seats. The dog was hyper and got up into the isle while the plane was approaching the landing. Through kicking and pushing the man was able to get it back under the seats though. When the plane stopped moving naturally a lot of people stood up in the isle. I being quite groggy was reaching down in front of me into my backpack. Upon rising up I found I was staring the great dane in the face. I instinctively pushed it away immediately feeling fear and alarm. The man went berserk and accused me of punching the dog, started pushing his hand in my face and kicking me...

Read Manley's full account here.

Frontier Airlines confirmed an incident occurred on the flight.

Neither the couple nor Manley accepted medical treatment

Officers took statements and referred the case to the FBI. Ramirez says she plans to press charges.

SOURCE - WTSP

Deaf Couple Claims Passenger Punched Their Service Dog on Plane.

There was drama on a plane after a man was accused of allegedly punching a Deaf pregnant woman and a service dog on a flight to Orlando over the weekend.

Matthew Silvay and Hazel Ramirez, a Deaf couple, were traveling with their two kids and service dog on Frontier Airlines from Colorado Springs. The couple got into an argument with passenger Timothy Manley, which started on board the plane as they were getting ready to disembark.

SOURCE - Inside Edition

Related: #DeafCouple - #DeafDogs

Deaf Teacher Discriminated at Alberta School

Edmonton Public Schools must pay $15,000 for discriminating against an Alberta School for the Deaf teacher who is Deaf, a recent Alberta Human Rights tribunal decision says.

EDMONTON, AB -- Edmonton Journal: The school district breached human rights law in its dealings with teacher Gail Lidkea when her new service dog prompted them to move her to a small, isolated classroom and limit the dog’s movement around the school, human rights tribunal chairman William Johnson ruled last month.

Lidkea, who has profound hearing loss, had been teaching for 17 years when, in 2009, she became eligible for a service dog from the Lions Foundation of Canada, the ruling said. During training in Ontario, she discovered her new Labrador/golden-retriever cross, Widget, was supposed to stay with her most of the time and should not be left alone for more than three hours.

When her co-workers at the Grade 1-12 school found out Widget would come to the building daily, some raised concerns about their allergies and the possibility medically sensitive students in Lidkea’s class might be affected.

On the advice of a district administrator, the school’s principal put Lidkea on paid leave for three weeks while the school decided how to accommodate the dog and people sensitive to its dander.

“I was very anxious because I didn’t understand what was going on,” Lidkea testified at a human rights hearing. “I was upset. I was hurt and disappointed because I was hoping for a smooth transition, which wasn’t happening.”

The principal and district’s then-director of staff relations, meanwhile, were questioning Lidkea’s need for the service dog, according to emails exchanges submitted as exhibits to the commission.

Then-principal Sandra Mason wrote to her superior that although Lidkea’s dog was for safety and security, the school was purposefully designed for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students and staff.

“Am I, as the principal, going to be ‘set up’ for every other staff member to want to explore the same thing? (This may be a stretch but it is a concern for me and I can see this becoming an issue),” Mason wrote.

Without consulting Lidkea, the district assigned the teacher new classes in two small rooms in a remote part of the building. In an email to the principal, Lidkea said she was “heartbroken about losing the students I am so close to.”

The teacher was told to leave her dog in her classroom when she went to school events or made photocopies in the office. One time, she and her dog were told to stand in the doorway during a staff meeting to keep the dog away from an allergic co-worker.

“I feel alienated from my colleagues and the students. I feel anxious and uncertain when it becomes necessary to go to other locations in the building and I must leave Widget behind … I can’t help feel, however, that a certain amount of over-reaction is happening,” Lidkea wrote in a January 2010 letter to the school.

Lidkea continued to teach for two years in rooms she described as cramped, inappropriate for students with behavioural issues and full of safety hazards for students, Widget and herself. The isolation continued nearly two years after the school had ruled out allergies as a concern.

What happened after 2012 is unclear from the document. Lidkea could not be reached for comment.

The human rights tribunal chair said the school district could have found a more appropriate space for Lidkea to work, and failed to properly assess the health effects of the dog on other staff and students in the school.

Edmonton Public Schools did not provide a response to questions by Thursday evening.

Lidkea’s lawyer said he has not received any notice of appeal from the school district.

Johnson’s Oct. 14 ruling awarded Lidkea $15,000, plus interest from December 2009, for “mental anguish, injury to dignity and injury to self-respect.”

SOURCE - Edmonton Journal

Related: #DeafCanadians

Deaf Boy’s Service Dog Killed in Hit and Run

Deaf News: Anchorage family wants justice after 12-year-old Deaf boy’s service dog killed in hit and run.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A broken red collar is a reminder that there’s something missing at Valerie Anderson’s East Anchorage home.

It’s the collar that belonged to Scooby Doo, the family’s labrador retriever, who was 12-year-old J.J. Anderson’s best friend.

J.J has special needs and wears cochlear implants to hear. The family got Scooby to be a companion for J.J just in case something went wrong.

“When Scooby was 6 months old, he detected a seizure for my son and brought him out of it really quick,” said Anderson.

The pair had a daily routine, a walk through their neighborhood and over to Boniface Parkway, then a quick stop at Anderson’s job at Alaska Pretrial Services, before heading back home.

But on their last walk down Bonficace Parkway Thursday morning, Scooby was hit and killed near 22nd Street by a driver in a black truck. Instead of stopping, the Anchorage Police Departmnet says the driver sped off.

Cindy Jicinsky was one of the drivers who, seeing Scooby in the road and J.J crying on the sidewalk, stopped to help.

“He was obviously very distraught,” said Jicinsky. “The dog may have run into the road but still, if you hit somebody’s animal, you definitely should stop and take ownership of that.”

APD officers and two gentlemen helped J.J. get to Anderson’s office where they broke the news.

“It’s unacceptable,” said Anderson. “You just don’t leave a child like that, you know? I was bewildered by it.”

Those sentiments were shared by her boss, Dennis Johnson, who put his feelings into a Facebook post, directed toward the driver who fled: “Thank God the leash broke when you sped up to flee. He will heal from his physical wounds but probably not the emotional ones!!!!”

“I was just so mad,” said Johnson of how he felt Thursday night. “It was a rant, that’s all it was.”

His rant sparked kindness from the community, in the form of words and donations, including “an envelope of 5s and 10s and 20s” that the Alaska Pretrial Services office received.

Anderson says, judging by the overwhelming support from the community, it’s clear that Scooby was more than just J.J.’s dog.

“Scooby was loved by everybody,” she said. “A lot of people know who Scooby was, they know who J.J. is and it’s been an outpouring of love since it happened. And I can’t thank people enough for it.”

She says even though she and J.J. can’t get Scooby back, they know they’re not alone in the healing process.

APD says its looking for a black truck in this hit-and-run case. If caught, the driver will receive a citation and have to pay a $500 fine.

SOURCE - KTVA

Dog Saves Deaf Man From Fire

Service dog saves Deaf man from fire in Pennsylvania.

SALEM TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania -- A fire with large flames and black smoke destroyed Valley Billiards in Salem Township, Westmoreland County.

“Wood-frame construction is basically like building a matchbox and lighting it on fire. Your enemy is the building. You're fighting the building,” said Forbes Road VFD Chief Bob Rosatti.

Burley Hartin, the owner, said his Deaf son was inside at the time and escaped unharmed after being alerted by a service dog.

“The dog alerted him. The black Lab is his buddy and he doesn't leave his side. When this fire started, the dog just carried on something terrible, alerted him and he got out,” said Hartin.

Hartin thinks the fire was electrical in nature, caused by rain and wind from Superstorm Sandy this week... Read The Full Story.

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