Educational Abuse in Residential Schools for the Deaf

Personal Experience and Background of Genocide By David Lucas

We have physical, sexual, mental, emotional, educational & communication abuses, in all its forms, but I rather like to explain four things instead of long lists of what happens at the residential school.

Example: (1) At 16, Graduation Day I got the best speech award and had to speak on stage while audience and government officials watched. I had practiced in the classroom for two weeks. I gave my speech but I noticed many hearing people did not pay attention to me. They looked at the side of the wall when I talked. I knew my voice sounded awful and improper. "Oralism is Communication Abuse"

(2) When I was in the junior residence all young children had to go to bed before 6:30 p.m. so all housemothers had lots of time to themselves, with pay and that was selfish! Where are our opportunities to read bedtime stories? Our mothers could not come to the school because it was too far. I was 1300 miles away from home and we stayed for ten months for many years. There was no encouragement to learn to read and it did not make sense to me "Deficit Model"

(3) In the intermediate residence, I will never forget the abuse we encountered. There were many examples of physical and sexual abuse in the school. I never forget the five unmarried housemothers who were over 55 years old. They were very mean. Now I learned that they did not have any kids of their own. No wonder! Can you imagine when we went through for a bath? All the boys had to line up beside the wall, then the housemothers turned on hot water until the tubs were full. You could see hot steam rising from the surface of the bath tubs. Every time I had to run with my friend to the corner and turned cold water on with my hands so the housemothers could not hear us while the other boys run around to find these tubs. And then this friend of mine and I rush and sit down for safety. I was one of the students screaming with pain because they could not sit down. The housemothers would push you down in the water. Once I got burned. After that I had to do something. Later they ordered us to stand up and washed our bodies with soap as they watched us naked - If you do not wash properly one of the housemothers would wash you. I will never forget that we were too young to understand about this sexually activity. They actually destroyed our feelings. I have something to say much more but I can't because it would make you sick. "Abuses of On-going"

(4) In the senior residence, some of my friends and I were involved in fights with some of hearing students who would tease and call us dumb. We sometimes beat them up in the basement. Before graduation one of the hearing boys admitted that he was a juvenile offender and that the judge told him to choose between going to a Young Offenders Detention Center or the Ontario School for the Deaf. He chose to go to a Deaf School . This angered us. This was kept secret from us. This made us feel that we were inmates as well! Imagine using our deaf school as a form of punishment. If you left the campus, you would get punished. It was truly like a prison. Some deaf students felt awful about this and you can imagine how it affected our self-esteem. A hearing kid mentioned he learned good discipline from us, not from the school. Where is our discipline? This also created a great conflict between the hearing and deaf students. Did the judge think that we would not find out about this? We are deaf, not stupid. I still feel bitter and hurt as I try to deal with my past. I can't help but blame the government for most of the damage this has caused to the confidence of victims of abuse like myself, we have suffered because of poor education and substandard care. There are many deaf adults who went through the same difficulties as I did. This is all due to the government's poor treatment of deaf citizens. "Cultural Genocide"

Suicides, Drug and Alcohol Crisis

Since then we have been complaining that the secrets of bureaucracy have kept us away from the public. At the time I had learned about a deaf adolescent victim who committed suicide one week, after the investigation by the Government on April 1998

In my previous letter dated June 1999, the executive director of a deaf association and I had a confidential meeting with the ADR Project Co-ordinator within the government to discuss the female investigator. I found out that she was reassigned to Ministry of Community and Social Services by the government. She suddenly got embarrassed and mentioned that she did not know who the female investigator was. A few minutes later she admitted that the investigator was with the department of health.

I can't believe that the female investigator had not been charged by the police, because of the government bureaucracy. After the victim killed himself the government officials quickly changed her position to another department and transferred her again to another one! With this, I felt it was corrupted with secrecy and unjust.

Later, I learned that the government had hired two investigators who were very careful to investigate physical and sexual deaf victims, but it was too late for that dead deaf victim. I think that the female investigator and government officials should be charged for misconduct and incompetence but I learned that the government has more authorization than the police for resolving this matter. Can you imagine that situation? I hope you won't be surprised.

During the Ontario Deaf Education Victims Network (ODEVN) workshop which was given the mandate in Ontario for one year in 2001, I also found there were more isolated events of suicides, drug and alcohol addiction problems of those who have no life skills. They know no difference when seeking help and they kept silent. Some hearing people owned them as their property, like sex prisoners, so they can't report it to the police. I suggested to them to go to the Canadian Hearing Societies for help and they replied, they don't understand, therefore they did not report to them. And I have learned that some victims sometimes did not get professional help from several CHS agencies. So far I am aware of about five deaf adolescent victims who have already committed suicide. But, I strongly believe there are more than thirty that have committed suicide in Ontario, many of them were isolated victims (no life skills) who live up north. I had met my old friend whom I have not seen for twenty-five years, who was sick and homeless. And with him, I volunteered to pretend I was homeless to witness many homeless shelters. I met about thirty deaf homeless with bad drug addictions controlled by the hearing peers with fear. They can't even talk back to me because of their mental abuse problems, but two of them were not as bad. Many thousand of deaf peddlers were forced to making a living by selling illegal cards and often police caught them, and released them, even thousands of times.

There is an obvious need for professional help, especially of those with experience in deafness, deaf culture, deaf rights and more importantly with someone who can communicate in their language, the American Sign Language – ASL! The language which is not recognized and embraced as our native language by the government and by all levels of Canadian Government!

What I believe is needed is a full public inquiry into the present situation of the deaf unemployed and homeless deaf persons in Canada.

Criminal Negligence

In 2001, a colleague and I visited twenty communities, conducted workshops, and spoke with many deaf adults about the trauma they experienced at residential schools. I have much documentation concerning various forms of abuses and even murders

Since 1995, 1 have approached the government for help on numerous occasions; however, I have always been referred to superintendents of deaf schools. It seems they may be part of the problem as they are not taking these allegations seriously because there have been no reports to the police. In the past. it appears that some of them may have made false reports, which were not accidents, but actually murders. Asking me to deal with superintendents seems to be a conflict of interest as these issues concerns their previous colleagues. I understand that two deaf witnesses sent to the government reports concerning two murders, but the government did nothing and there was no response. I strongly believe that more than five deaf people were victims of murder (not accidental death) at the Ontario School for the Deaf in Belleville between 1950 and 1965 It makes one wonder about the integrity and effectiveness of the government when there seems to be little or no interest in addressing these criminal matters. Since 1907, the government has experienced with numerous forms of sign language to be taught in schools (from signed exact English, to speech, to total communication, to bilingual / biculture, and some to American Sign Language). No wonder many deaf students either drop out or finish high school with limited literacy and communication skills because there has been no consistent teaching method! This also affected the mental health of deaf citizens, to the point where many are marginalized and on welfare. Surely, this is a form of educational abuse. This situation, in some ways, is comparable to native Canadians who experienced suppression of their culture, language, and way of life.

I am profoundly deaf I have faced many challenges in my life. At the age of 40, I realized my education was far below the standard of hearing students and decided to return to school for academic upgrading. The experience also gave me the confidence to learn about legal matters, as well as advocating within the deaf community. If I had been given "normal" opportunities that are available to hearing students, I may have had many more opportunities. As you are aware I am still volunteering as an Executive Director of Ontario Deaf Education Victims Network (ODEVN). Some deaf and hearing parents of deaf children and administrators have approached me and complained about the deaf schools and school boards. I have a hard time accepting that annoying situation. Example: (1) One of the parents was very upset that the hearing child psychologist for educational evaluation does not even know how to sign. How could he understand about aptitude and behaviour without an aid of interpreter? And if, with an interpreter, how could he understand a deaf child as a third party, in which he can not tell a difference. (2) Another parent was angry that her grown up teenager has a second grade level of education and it put a burden on them after her graduation. (3) The government had a disagreement with the administration office, because the government claimed that any deaf child/student do not have the capability to be educated at hearing education level and there were other additional incidents in relation to these education issues. These issues were never resolved even now, in the year 2004. I have been meeting with various government officials over the last five years, and most have chosen to ignore our needs. We are simply asking the government to grant us a "Community Advisory Committee" for the new agency of Ontario Commission for Deaf Services at the Ontario Deaf Schools and regarding fundamental systemic general changes instead of taking another legal action against the government.

Allegations of Educational Crisis

First off, when on the phone with the message printer of June 17, 1999, the government representative, a senior counsel, told the ADR Co-ordinator to advise us that it is the senior counsel's opinion that education abuse is a policy issue, and should be handled within the government. He thought if we feel strongly, which is obvious by our recent letters, that we should take this matter to the police, or to local crown attorney for a decision about a criminal matter.

Secondly, in the superintendent's letter dated November 24, 1999, he mentioned to us we would not be discussing the allegations of educational abuses or any other issues that were presently being handled by government agencies. In the first place, we agreed and would have offered to have a meeting to discuss the Ontario Commission for Deaf Services and establishing the new advisory committee instead of contacting the police during the meeting at his office in Belleville, Ontario on October 25, 1999. But during the advisory committee meetings, the hearing chairperson, had often focussed mainly on improvements in Ontario Deaf Schools than our issues. We also expected that one of the deaf stakeholders would be the chairperson, not hearing. Paradigm?

After that, everything has failed, when the superintendent / government official was aware that the deaf stakeholders were displeased the government played with us and advisory committee organized only two meetings in two years. At the time the new director of the provincial schools branch was hired by the government and we could not imagine why since she had no previous experience with the deaf education system, deaf culture before and could not sign. Audism?

In the first place, we did not understand why the superintendent mentioned he would call his government to grant us the new advisory committee automatically during the emergency meeting about the Ontario Commission for Deaf Services and establish the new advisory committee. The superintendent was aware of the inferior teaching methods of deaf education in Ontario as he had worked as a teacher, principal and superintendent for thirty years, he is now retired. Patronism?

Thirdly, we received a letter from the fifth superintendent / government official who mentioned he was very sorry that he did what the government and he thought was best at the time. We also recently got the petition signed among others, by many deaf kids from one of the Ontario Deaf Schools who are not happy with the educational system right now, and indicates we have an educational crisis!

Fourthly, we must conclude that the government itself does not say anything with much integrity. The educational abusive system already leaves deaf people's lives scarred with emotional and social problems and damages their self confidence. The educational mental abuse problem had existed for a long time before the summer of 1993, until American Sign Language was finally recognized as the language of the deaf in Ontario schools. But what is happening to it eleven years later. Many deaf adolescents wasted their own lives with a limited education and eighty-five per cent are unemployed and underemployed. The culturally deaf victims never got the opportunity to be model students.

Lastly, we have to insist that the deaf community strongly believes in what we are doing if we want to maintain control we must stand up for our rights and demand to be heard. The only way innocent survivors can achieve something is to go out and get it. All the facts on unsolved criminal cases are available upon request. Empowerment?