Girl & Deaf Grandparents Killed In House Fire

Girl and Deaf grandparents killed in house fire hours before rape trial in the small town of Ohio.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- A northeast Ohio prosecutor says a 10-year-old girl died in a house fire early Monday morning, hours before a man suspected of raping her was scheduled to go on trial.

A total of three people were reported dead by the Youngstown Fire Department after the blaze on the city’s south side.

Neighbors in the 3600-block of Powers Way say they heard a loud explosion around 3:30 a.m.; moments later, they saw flames rip through the two-story home. “I looked out the window and the fire broke out from the bottom of the basement, just whoosh. And it was totally on fire.”

Dozens of firefighters were needed to control the flames. When it was out, firefighters found the bodies of two adults and their 10-year-old granddaughter. The adults are identified as Billy and Judy Schmidt, both in their 60s.

“Everybody who knew Billy loved him. He had friends all over the United States, he could probably go anywhere in the country and probably run into somebody that he knew,” said Connie Glozier, the victim’s sister.

The Schmidts, who were both Deaf, were raising their granddaughter. Neighbor Pamela Jones says the girl played with her grandchildren.

“I just can’t believe that something like this would happen,” said Jones. “I’ve been crying all day.”

Adding to the tragedy of this fire, the 10-year-old girl was the victim of an alleged sexual assault. The suspect, identified as 45-year-old Robert Seman, appeared in court this morning.

“On literally the eve of trial, hours before this trial was supposed to begin, this victim dies in a fire under suspicious circumstances, at the very least,” said Mahoning County Assistant District Attorney Stephanie McLaughlin. “Only 10 years old, somebody who did not deserve these things that happened to her.”

Seman has not been charged in connection with the fire, but his bond was revoked and he was taken to jail. If convicted on the rape charges, he could face a maximum sentence of life in prison... Read The Full Story.

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Deaf Teacher Aide Sentenced 10 Years For Sexual Assault

Deaf News: Teaching assistant gets 10 years for sexually assaulting Deaf student in Hawaii.

HONOLULU, Hawaii -- A state judge sentenced former Hawaii School for the Deaf and the Blind teaching assistant Alfie S. Lumabas to 10 years in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old student at the school.

State Circuit Judge Rom A. Trader declined the city prosecutor's request to impose restitution to pay for the girl's counseling because that expense is covered by a settlement to a separate federal lawsuit.

Lumabas, 38, agreed to serve a full 10-year prison term when he pleaded guilty in January to two reduced counts of second-degree sexual assault in a deal with the prosecutor. Ten years is the maximum penalty for second-degree sexual assault.

A September 2013 indictment charged him with two counts of first-degree sexual assault, which each carry a mandatory 20-year prison term.

Lumabas is legally Deaf. Through a sign-language interpreter, he declined to make a statement Tuesday before Trader handed down his sentence.

His victim, now 24, and who is also legally Deaf, had plenty to say through her own sign-language interpreter.

SOURCE

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Gallaudet: Alleged Assault High School Students

Gallaudet University: Police probe sex assault involving 2 Gallaudet high school students during school trip.

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland -- Anne Arundel County police are investigating an alleged assault involving two students from Gallaudet University’s secondary school during a school trip to Annapolis.

Police spokesman Justin Mulcahy said Tuesday that police are conducting a criminal investigation into the alleged incident on a bus in the county on Saturday morning. He says police were notified Sunday night.

University spokeswoman Kaitlin Luna says the students are enrolled in the school’s Model Secondary School for the Deaf, a program for high school age students at the university’s Washington, D.C., campus.

She says the incident occurred during a chaperoned, school-sponsored trip, but referred questions about the incident to police... Read The Full Story.

Deaf Girl, Gang Rape Victim Gives Birth

WATCH: Minor Deaf girl, gang rape victim gives birth to child in India.

BANGALORE - Kalpana, India -- 15, Deaf and mute cannot convey her feelings through words to others. But her eyes reflect her trauma and agony.

A gang rape victim, Kalpana’s agony has compounded when she gave birth to a baby at a hospital in Allahabad.

She was gang raped last year at her village in Allahabad district allegedly by two youths of the same village. The culprits later convened a panchayat and forced her parents not to approach police but to settle the matter outside. The panchayat had held that the culprits should pay Rs 21,000 each to the family of the victim.

However, police got wind of the matter through the local media and registered a case and arrested the alleged culprits.

None bothered to think about the victim who became pregnant. Sources said the families of the culprits also tried to force an abortion but did not succeed.

The minor gave birth to a baby a few days back. The poor parents had to borrow money from a money lender to admit the girl to the hospital... Read The Full Story.

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$5.75 Million Awarded To Deaf & Blind Students

$5.75 Million Settlement Awarded to Deaf and Blind Students Sexually Assaulted by Gang at Hawaii Public School.

HONOLULU, Hawaii -- A young girl is forced to perform oral sex on an older boy while he films her with his cell phone camera and students at their school look on, another young girl becomes pregnant after she is raped by a male student at her school, a young boy is sodomized in the bathroom by an older student, but school administrators don’t penalized the perpetrator, another child is sexually assaulted by five boys on campus, and nothing is done to stop them or punish after the fact.

These are not scenarios from an NBC’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode, they are actual events that parents say took place at the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind, the state’s only public school for children with these disabilities.

For more than a decade, some of the school’s administrators and students covered up a terrible secret young children between 12 and 16 years old were being terrorized - robbed, raped, sodomized and even gang raped on campus and on the school buses – not by employees, but by other children. There are just 80 children enrolled in the school, which is located on the edge of Waikiki, Hawaii’s main tourism hub, and just across the street from the Honolulu Zoo.

One student heading a gang calling themselves the “Ringleaders” orchestrated the attacks, and students were ordered to participate as attackers or retaliated against.

Michael Green is one of five attorneys who successfully secured a $5,750,000 settlement last week from the state and a school counselor... Read The Full Story.

Related:
Settlement Reached In Lawsuit Involving Deaf & Blind Students
Arrests Made In Alleged Sex Assaults At Hawaii's School For The Deaf and Blind
$5.75 Million Awarded To Deaf & Blind Students

Deaf Woman Assaulted In Virginia

Deaf woman victimized in Virginia sex assault.

ARLINGTON, Virginia -- We're learning about a disturbing sexual assault that took place in Arlington over the weekend.

The victim's disability created an unusual challenge for investigators.

Police say the victim in this case is a woman in her 20s who is Deaf and does not know American Sign Language. So investigators had to write down their questions for the traumatized woman and wait for her to write out her answers.

"She was dropped off by a cab at the Rosslyn Metro station, where she went underground to catch a Metro back to her residence in Alexandria," said Dustin Sternbeck, spokesman for the Arlington County Police.

In the early hours of last Saturday morning, the victim was returning to Virginia after a night out in District of Columbia.

"Upon learning that the Metro wasn't going to arrive in a short amount of time, she resurfaced to street level, attempted to find a cab again drive her back to her residence, and was grabbed and pulled into an alley by the suspect," said Sternbeck.

The Deaf victim was especially vulnerable at a time of day with few witnesses or people to come to her aid. But police say she put up quite a fight. SOURCE.

Deaf Hope - Do Men Understand Rape Culture

Stop Domestic Violence Promo from Lavender Revolution - a social media movement to end violence against Deaf women.

Men are living in the mistaken belief that they cannot be raped because "rape is a women's issue" Women are constantly striving to protect their bodies using many different ways, yet they are still being raped everyday.

A man is raped everyday usually by other men. A woman is raped Every Two Minutes, usually by someone they know. Men are impacted by the constant Violence against women... Deaf men and women can accomplish so much more by working together to End Rape Culture! Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man.

Margaret Mead join DeafHope's effort to end violence against women! Visit at https://deaf-hope.org for more informations.

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