DEARBORN, Mich. – Parents met face-to-face with a school board Monday night that's decided to end a program for deaf students. The issue wasn't even on the agenda, but parents lined up to plead with the board to keep the countywide program running.
There are 33 deaf students in the program in Dearborn. More than half come from different districts. Parents and former students expressed outrage at plans to end the program.
There weren't enough seats for the parents of deaf children or supporters of the total communication program. The Dearborn School Board listened for close to two hours as people pleaded to keep the program in place
"I don't understand it," one meeting-goer said. "they should not close the program. I just don't understand why."
"I will give anything and do anything to help this district keep this program from closing," another person said. "Please, please, please give it some thought."
Many were emotional as the spoke at the podium
"If this program is shut down, not only with it break my daughter's heart, but she will regress," one parent said.
The school board said ending the program came down to a difference of opinion on how deaf elementary school students should be taught.
"The issue isn't whether kids are going to get service or not," Superintendent Brian Whiston said. "The kids are going to get service, The question is: Is it going to be a county-wide-center-based program? Is it going to be in their home district? Is it going to be a partnership with the district?"
If the center-based program ends, students who don't live in Dearborn will have to go back to their district
"The only one that they may be able to communicate with is an interpreter, and I want you to think about that," one person said to the board.
Local 4 is told the decision comes down to a disagreement between the school board and the program's elementary school teachers, which is:
- How much speech versus sign language is taught
- How much interaction deaf elementary students have with other students.
Parents said that's not enough to end the program.
Whiston said a final decision should be made by the end of the month.