Last week, a deaf 13 year old girl who could not communicate with her bus driver was seriously endangered by the bus driver, who was a substitute and did not know sign language. Not only that, the bus assistant who could communicate with her, was not available. As reported by Tampabays10.com, the worst could have happened because this youngster, Heather Catalano, was dropped off two miles from her home in pouring rain despite her desperate efforts to communicate with the bus driver. Not only that, she was confronted by a homeless man as she tried to run home - and we all know the potential danger of that situation.
Unfortunately, she did not have her cell phone with her. However, even having her cell phone would not have guaranteed that she would be able to reach her parents in that emergency. What if the cell phone service went down? The weather was bad, after all. In addition, cell phones may not work in certain locations; T-mobile does not work in the Metrorail tunnels.
This article really hit home for me because if the same thing had happened to one of my deaf kids, they would have been totally helpless. Even if they had a cell phone, they might not have been able to reach a parent. I don't blame the father one bit for his saying he would have hurt the bus driver if he had been able to get ahold of the bus driver. I would have felt the same!! Any parent would have.
I hope that the girl's parents get a good lawyer and sue the district. The district needs to be made to pay a penalty so high that every school district in the country that has the responsibility for the transportation of deaf and other disabled children takes notice and puts procedures in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening. (And it is not the first time either. There have been previous stories of deaf children being discovered left behind on school buses - but Heather Catalano was truly in danger!)
Thursday, February 21, 2008
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12 comments:
that would be every parent's child nightmare, not knowing where ur child would be left by a bus driver who only driving for money and not really caring about kids. school district need to hire bus drivers who care about kids and will make sure kids get home safe.
bCan happen to EVERYONE -- not just Deaf kids.
I'm very sorry for what she had to go through.. none of deaf children should be treated that way. Thanks for sharing!
You know, when I see the wording: The girl cannot communicate with the bus driver..it makes me feel that it is the girl's fault for not able to communicate. I understand that the driver is a sub and may not know how to communicate..just that why can't the wording be "The bus driver cannot communicate with the girl..it makes it sound like it is the driver's fault not the girl..after all the girl made an attempt to communicate with the driver but the driver just fell upon deaf ears.
I am wondering how old is the girl?
This reminded me of what happened to my Deaf son when he was about 11 years old. He was on a school trip and the bus accidentally left him behind in a exhibition farm.
He is totally ASL and his English not up to grade level, but he was able to write to a worker his name and school and "please come pick me up." They called the school, who then called the bus, and everything ended well.
This is different from being dropped off in weather in an unknown location, however. The truth is that most bus drivers only know how to drive, not how to handle children and especially not deaf children.
We need to teach our deaf children what to do and give them identification cards to use in emergencies.
It is one thing to blame the bus driver, but we cannot leave things at that. To protect our children, we have to equip them.
This story is heartbreaking. Where was the bus driver's senso comune? Did the girl's parents ask the school to instruct the bus driver about passengers? The school is also irresponsible. What has the Board of Education say?
Aside from above, TV news has reported nightmarish stories about some bus drivers in DC-MD-VA.
John Critser says:
WoW! Barb Digi is VERY perceptive about the wording. The Berke Outspoken blogger can correct the mistake in this blog, it is never too late. Just make the necessary change and add a note informing DeafRead readers of the change. That is, if Berke is willing to.
That should not happen to any Deaf child. AND what was that bus driver, even if a sub, was thinking, to drop off a Deaf child in pouring rain two miles away from home? That's without any excuse, really.
Squ65... I'm not sure what you mean by this could happen to everyone, not just deaf kids... if the child was hearing, s/he would have simply told the bus driver, "this is not my home" and the bus driver would have understood. When the bus driver doesn't understand ASL, it puts deaf kids in this kind of danger.
Yes, it did happen with hearing kids, too. One of my friend's teenaged kid was transported to the other side of DC, in a bad area. Fortunately he wasn't hurt but scared. He had a perfectly normal speech, by the way.
The bus driver should have been informed Deaf children were on the school bus. Since the girl was 13, I'm thinking she must have known how to read and write basic English and they could have communicated that way if the bus driver had been informed of her Deafness. I'm appalled by the school district's carelessness in this case.
*Shudders*
There's no question that clearly the girl tried to communicate, but I don't see any evidence that the bus driver bothered to try. But I have heard (and experienced) some horror stories about public school transportation.
One can only hope you end up with an awesome driver/aid with an excellent immune system. Of which there ARE some out there.
What we should learn from this is to teach Deaf children to *always* carry a paper and pencil with them. At 13, she should have been able to express herself on paper, even if her English was poor. This does not excuse negligence by the driver, but Deaf children have the ability to have independence and responsibility.
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