http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3712456

Utahns rally for better treatment of deaf and blind students

July 8th, 2008 @ 12:00pm

By Nicole Gonzales

Parents, children and advocates for deaf and blind students are letting their voices be heard today. Nearly 100 people gathered at the Capitol this morning to rally for children who attend Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind.

Parents, children, grandparents and even a legislator showed up this morning to support deaf and blind children who, they believe, should get the same benefits other children get.

Parents say their children are facing an educational nightmare. Students have been moved every year to different locations with no permanent building to call their own.

Whitney Ingram was one of the older deaf children at the rally today. She is going into 10th grade and wants to finish out high school at a stable location.

“We’re in one building for a few years, then they send us to a different building. And the buildings are old, and they’re kind of crumbling. We really want to go to a school that’s nice, where we can stay,” Ingram said.

Ingram is like many Utah deaf and blind students who have to move year to year to different locations to go to school. Some of the younger children don’t understand why they’re being moved.

“They’ll ask, ‘Well, why can’t we go back to that school?’ And you just say, ‘They don’t have room for us.’ And they ask, ‘Why don’t they have room for us?’ ‘Well, we don’t know, honey,” explained Ellen Porter, grandparent of a deaf student.

Utah has just over 2,100 students who are blind or deaf; 350 to 450 of them attend schools in the Salt Lake Valley, most are part of regular classrooms or mainstreamed.

Seventy-five to 80 children will move to a temporary facility in Holladay this fall. But some mothers still do not know where their children will be this year. “I’m scared to death. I’m scared to death. He wants to know where he’s going to be,” Jennifer Jackson said.

Organizers hope today’s protest brings awareness to the situation and gets the Legislature to back their cause. A House representative at the rally said there’s no excuse to ignore these children.

“I’m hoping that this year will be different. I’m hoping that these parents and teachers and the advocates being more vocal, more visible, will make it harder to deny their legitimate request,” said. Rep. Christine Johnson.

People who spoke at the rally wanted to remind residents to write to their representatives about this problem. They said the only way the system will change is if more of the public speaks up.

E-mail: ngonzales@ksl.com