The Times-News du lieu suivant : Twin Falls, Idaho • 5

Sunday, January 4, 2004 Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho A-5 The Ramos case Parents: Gooding school discourages speech Educating the deaf and hard of hearing Here's a timeflne of developments ki the case of Idaho School tor the Deaf and the Blind Superintendent Angel Ramos: Aug. 1, 2001: Ramos named superintendent Summer 2002: Ramos starts recruiting parents for an advisory board. March 2003: Parent advisory board open forum. May 2003: Employees and parents meet with Gary Stivers of the State Board of Education. May 22, 2003: Ramos absolved of wrongdoing at State Board of Education meeting.

Ramos writes book about protest By Karin KowalskI Times-News writer GOODING A small crowd buzzed with speech and sign language in the cozy breakfast room of the Gooding Hotel, where Angel Kamos autographed his new book, "Triumph of the Spirit." Ramos's book details the 1988 Deaf President Now movement at Gallaudet University in Washington, Students opposed the selection of Elisabeth A. I 1 Angel Ramos, left, school senior Dora files for a fund-raising November 2001 photo. preschool added an oral class that started this fall because of parental demand to serve hard of hearing and cochlear implanted pupils. Dunne said Ramos supported it Meeting their needs David Mercaldo, director of education of the hearing impaired at Idaho State University in Pocatello, is a hearing person who has worked with the deaf since 1968. He also taught Ramos when he was a student at the State University of New York.

Mercaldo wrote in an e-mail that he supports all sorts of approaches to educating the deaf. If schools are being paid by the state, they should do everything possible to help children and parents make choices about whether to sign or speak. Susan Erler, a professor of pediatric audiology at Northwestern University, said in an e-mail that whether a child should learn to speak or sign depends on many factors, such as implants and what sort of communication they will receive most often at home and at school. Those with implants benefit from being in classrooms where they can hear sounds and from being encouraged to speak. Whatever the methods, the outcomes aren't always good.

Deaf and hard of hearing students typically plateau at a third- or fourth-grade reading level, Jane Kelleher Fernandes said in a speech presented at Gallaudet University in 1995. At a book signing in Gooding last month, Ramos said deaf and blind students don't perform as well because mainstream schools don't meet their needs. He said the majority of the students at the Gooding school started at other schools and failed at them. Those students are already behind, and the school has to bring them up to grade level. To combat these problems, Ramos instituted a homework academy after school to help students with their work.

"Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind is supposed to be the best place to educate deaf and blind children," Ramos said, because they have the teachers, the technology and the know-how. Roddy Cabbage, who teaches physical education, reading and English at the school, said with Maria Ramos interpreting that Ramos is fighting for what's best for the students. Other people just have a different view of what's best laughs with then-high Lynn McClaln while pulling project In this June 2003: Maria Ramos resigns as developmental director of the school's foundation. June 10, 2003: Corrective action plan approved by State Board of Education. July 12, 2003: Emergency meeting of parent advisory board in Boise.

Jury 30, 2003: State board puts Ramos on paid administrative leave. Oct 20-22, 2003: Students protest at the school. Oct 23, 2003: State issues audit on internal financial controls at the school. discovered he could not hear. Considering it an act of God, he hid it for two years.

He made his way through school by reading hps and following instructions on chalkboards and in books. It wasn't until he was 22 that he learned cinn tin. 1 1 1 II Ramos got a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Manhattan College in New York. After college he found a job driving a taxi, then became a teacher aide at a school for die deaf. From there he got master's degrees in education of the deaf from State University of New York and educational administration from California State University; then a doctorate in special education administration from Gallaudet University.

Ramos was also a Fulbright Scholar and founded the National Hispanic Council of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Washington, D.C. Before he came to the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind in 2001, he was employed at Lamar University in Beaumont Texas, as director of the Hispanic Deaf Education Project. He managed a federal grant that trained Spanish speakers to become teachers of the deaf. Ramos's book was published Dec. 11.

was specifically named as responsible for implementing 17 of 31 points for improvement. The plan was presented at an emergency parent advisory board meeting July 12 in Boise. Lundgren said Ramos said he would implement the points even though he did not agree with all of them. "My personal belief is that many of the things cited in this audit were problems before Angel came," Lundgren said. Ramos was put on administrative leave July 30, before the deadline for many of the changes, and Harv Lyter took over as acting superin-' tendent.

Lundgren said he finds it frustrating that the state has been paying Ramos and another person for the same job for so long. Ramos is still living in the superintendent house in Gooding and is receiving his regular salary of $84,500 a year. Lyter receives nothing above his regular salary of $43,900 to run the school. Ready for resolution Emma Lozada, who has been teaching preschool and kindergarten at the school for eight years, said Ramos would visit classes and students looked up to him. When Ramos left, she said with Maria Ramos interpreting, the school changed, and students called it "back to normaL" They are frustrated and are waiting to hear the state board's decision.

Student Valerie Whitney, 19, said earlier this year the dispute has hurt the school. "We want good teachers," she said. "Teachers and staff have a lot of conflict, and conflict makes them quit." Flannery said Ramos isn't perfect, but under the previous two superintendents, it was status quo for years. The current environment is negative, she said. "It's very disheartening to see the school in such pain," Flannery said.

The State Board of Education hired former Idaho Supreme Court Justice Charles McDevitt to be the hearing officer for Ramos. The hearing is scheduled to start Monday and last at least a week. The board will present allegations, evidence and witnesses arguing to dismiss Ramos. His counsel will cross-examine the witnesses. Then his counsel will present its case for him to stay superintendent McDevitt will hear arguments from both sides, then make a nonbinding recommendation to the board, which will make the final decision about Ramos's status.

Ramos said he could not comment on the hearing, but he was confident about being reinstated. "There's only one way it can go -in my favor" he said. TknM-ftan Mt photo By Karin KowalskI Times-News writer GOODING In a hearing world and the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind, children with partial hearing are often pulled in two directions. For the Clar family, the way to escape that struggle was to leave. 3Eric and Patty Clar moved to Everett, in February so their 5-yearold son, Jason, could attend the private Listen and Talk school io Bothell and leam to speak and hear using a cochlear implant When they found out their son was deaf, they got him hearing aids and started learning sign language, Eric Clar said.

His son started preschool at the Idaho School for the t)eaf and the Blind when he was about 3 and had a terrific teacher, iEmma Lozada, who is deaf. After a lot of thinking, the Clars their son a cochlear implant about a year ago. The family went to the Gooding school and put together an individualized education plan. It required speech therapy five times a week, reimbursing Patty Clar to drive their son to Boise for it and it providing for an Interpreter to speak in the otherwise silent classroom. "Eric Clar said the interpreter was reassigned after a couple of weeks.

They soon felt they could not wait for a full-time speech therapist to come to the Gooding school ''Our story is just a struggle to get an appropriate education for our son," Clar said. Gene Egeler of Gooding is Patty Oar's father, and he said he knows of several other families who have also left the state so that their chil-diten could get an oral education -where students are encouraged to use what hearing they have to speak and lip read. In practice, Clar said, ISDB is an American Sign Language-only scjiool. School officials grudgingly make concessions for oral learning, Clar said. The school is good for those who want a sign language education, but sign language students are often lacking in English skills.

IJune Flannery, president of the Idaho Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, said Angel Ramos, the school's superintendent who is on administrative leave, supports speech for deaf students because he uses it himself. Disability or not? vThe Clar family is just one exam- School Continued from Al first superintendent to welcome staff and students into his home and is able to converse with people wherever they are comfortable. In addition to the normal load of paperwork and negotiating with legislators, he got to know students and attended their sporting events. Ramos is not a "yes man," and he was hired to get things done at the school, said Flannery, who spoke for herself and not her organization. She was dean of students at the school's residential department from 1994 to 1997.

-Even when people disagree with him, Ramos does not stop trying to convince them, Flannery said. The result is that people are passionate about what he, has done at the school and leaving them in limbo is making things worse. 'Hhe students are absolutely in turmoil," Flannery said. They aren't learning anything, and staff members are against each other. Ramos's supporters formed the Save Our Superintendent committee to raise money for his legal fees.

And some students protested the state board's actions by refusing to attend class for several days in October. A more deaf-friendly school Ramos's changes gave the deaf community a greater feeling of ownership of the school. "There's been an increased awareness of the possibilities for our deaf graduates to be in leadership roles," said Mary Dunne, the school's director of outreach for the deaf and hard of hearing. Student Peter Foreman, 18, said earlier this year that Ramos was an inspiration to deaf students. "We thank God we have a deaf person as superintendent for the deaf school," he said.

"People will say, TVow, deaf people can do it' Teacher Roddy Cabbage said that before Ramos came to the school, students would make fun of the administration by moving their mouths. The way the school was run sent a message to students that important people do not use sign language. When Ramos came, the students saw signing in meetings. John Cabbage attended the school for two years and graduated from it. He worked there as a cottage supervisor for 11 years, then spent another 25 years doing janitorial and maintenance work before he retired.

He said with Bob Sewell interpreting that Ramos is the best developmental model for the students. "Let people know what we think of our deaf school and that we need to stick with it," Cabbage said. There are several popular approaches to deaf education, each reflecting a different philosophy as to how the deaf should live: Sign language approach Students are encouraged to be fluent in American Sign Language and not necessarily speak. Oral approach Encourages lip reading and using whatever amount of hearing a student may have to understand speech. Students are taught to vocalize for themselves.

Students in this track are typically given speech therapy and sent to regular schools. Total communication approach Calls pie of the challenges in educating the deaf and hard of hearing. Many debates in deaf education center around how deafness is viewed as a disability or a different culture. Many deaf people consider it a cultural difference because hearing is the only thing the deaf don't have. Deaf culture with a capital has its own language American Sign Language with traditions and history centered around events such as the Deaf President Now protest movement in 1988 at Gallaudet University, which serves the deaf, hard of hearing and hearing.

Schools for the deaf function as havens for Deaf culture to be preserved and passed on. Many culturally Deaf people consider the label "hearing impaired" to be offensive because it implies a deficiency. People with different amounts of hearing may or may not consider themselves a part of the Deaf culture. Others may choose to think of deafness as only a medical condition and live life entirely in the mainstream culture. This is becoming easier as hearing aids and cochlear implants become more and more advanced.

At the same time, there is a backlash among many culturally Deaf people who fear the loss of that culture and resist the use of new technologies, even at the Gooding school. Egeler said the philosophy at the school is, "You're deaf, be proud of it, don't learn to talk." Egeler said educating deaf people to get into mainstream life is by far the cheaper option, but many deaf people would prefer not to be in the mainstream. "This makes the civil rights movement in the 1960s look tame," Egeler said. "Angel was in a group that was deathly against any technology for these people to learn to Some facts about the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind: Establishment: Founded around 1906, It is written into Idaho's constitution. Governance: The State Board of Education is responsible for operation of the school.

Enrollment: It has on average about 80 students at the Gooding campus and The State Board of Education's case against Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind Superintendent Angel Ramos Involves these Issues: Optlschool One of Ramos's projects that started in September 2001 was Optischool, a program meant to allow communication between parents and students all over the state and provide lessons via comput-. er. The school budgeted about $20,000 for the project, but by June 2003, the school had spent $80,000 and it was still not implemented, according to a legislative audit. Ramos supporter June Flannery said the program was ready to go before it was shut down. Bob Sewell, one of the creators of the project, said he could not comment on it.

Former ISDB teacher Shannon Taylor said Optischool was a program built from the ground up because there was no program that integrated services for the blind and deaf. She saw demonstrations of the pro- Joe Lundgren, a member of the school's parent advisory board who has a 5-year-old son at the school's preschool in Boise, met Ramos in the spring of 2002 and said he was impressed with him, feeling pleased his deaf son could have him as a role modal Lundgren liked Ramos's emphasis on the use of sign language, because most of the students who attend the Gooding campus are those who can't be easily accommodated with listening devices. He also said Ramos brings a vision to the school that deaf people can break out of the more traditional solitary jobs. Ramos instituted a communication policy following guidelines from the Americans with Disabilities Act that anyone who can sign should be signing while talking both in and outside of class, so people have equal access to communication, Flannery said. Ramos also got personal pagers to serve as a message system for all staff members.

Before that, the school would make announcements over a public address system and ask people to give the messages to various deaf students and staff a patronizing method. Ramos required teachers to sign and hired an American Sign Languagedeaf culture teacher to help them improve their skills. Those who didn't know how to sign were moved to positions out of for students to learn to speak and sign, often in more than one sign language. This is what the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind uses, although the school was lax about requiring people to sign before Angel Ramos became super-. intendent, said June Flannery, president of the Idaho Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, who spoke for herself and not her organization.

BlllngualbteutturaJ approach Uses both signs and speech, but emphasizes that although deaf people live in a hearing culture, they also have their own culture. hear and leam to speak." Egeler said he even heard stories that the ridicule from students and teachers was so strong that students, would lose or throw away their hearing aids. "The real big issue is die politics with the staff and students," he said. Clar said that the Deaf community believes in signing, not implants. Clar said it is foolish for people to wait for a deaf child to be able to choose for himself or herself whether to get an implant because it becomes much more difficult for them to learn speech after age 5.

Clar compared it to sending children to school when they would rather play hooky. The implants work best when people get them early in life. Clar said Ramos can't be all things to all people, but since the school is supported by tax dollars, it should support all types of learning. "The Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind could really step up to the plate and be a resource," Clar said. It could serve the students with cochlear implants who are growing more numerous all the time.

Their son is now 5 and a half years old and is making progress with speaking and understanding sounds. Patty Clar said they would love to move back to Idaho if they felt their son could get a good education here. The school does have an oral education preschool in Boise that started this year, but there are no plans for an oral kindergarten. Those children will either go the Gooding campus or continue in regular school districts, said Mary Dunne, the school's director of outreach for the deaf and hard of hearing. The About the school about 750 more served through seven regional offices.

Both at the school and around the state, about 15 percent of students are blind or visually impaired and about 85 percent are deaf or hard of hearing, said Harv Lyter, acting superintendent and operationsperformance officer for the State Board of Education. Organization: The school has all its classes in one building, with different ages Other issues gram that would read something with English and Spanish words and audio with videos of American Sign Language. Taylor said people from all over were impressed with the program, but some at the school thought it was a waste of money. 'The Optischool thing was a big joke," said Kellye Whiteman-Vera, a Ramos critic. Taylor's husband spent about a quarter of his work time on Optischool.

His other tasks included being a permanent substi-. tute, the school photographer and graphic designer. Taylor said the state forced Ramos to discontinue the program and lay him off. Foundation and finances The ISDB Foundation was established in 1993 to handle donations to the school. For a long time, it was a sleepy entity that held no fund-raisers.

Foundation board members would meet once a year to decide how the money would be used. Ramos's wife, Maria Ramos, started as a direct contact with students, and Flannery said some people didn't like that Lundgren said some of the staff cannot sign well and for some classes, "It's just not appropriate." Taylor said people who were at the school for a long time were disgruntled with all the changes Ramos made and felt their toes were stepped on. "A lot of people were used to having power when they shouldn't have," Taylor said. Critics emerge Ramos put together a parent advisory board to get feedback in the spring of 2002, but the feedback grew into harsh criticism. Whiteman-Vera has a 15-year-old deaf daughter who has cerebral palsy and has been in the school for 11 years.

She said Ramos chose to put her on the parent advisory board in October 2002 because she is outspoken. She and two other parents who were critical of Ramos had a difficult time.Their main criticisms included the lack of a speech and language pathologist, his favoring students who had good signing and athletic skills, and the need for more orientation and mobility training for the blind students. "We felt like we were shot down from day one," Whiteman-Vera said. She said the first attempt to have a parent forum in February yet another hearing president of the university that serves the deaf, hard of hearing and hearing. The protests shut down the university for a week until Zinser resigned and I.

King Jordan was selected as the first deaf president. Ramos was chairman of the Deaf President Now fund during the protests. About a dozen people on Dec. 20 came to the Gooding Hotel to get books signed and show their support for the superintendent of the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind who was on administrative leave awaiting a hearing this week. Ramos spoke or signed with the people he talked to, depending on what they understood.

Ramos's experience with deafness began when he was 9 years old. He woke up one morning and She said she takes full credit for Ramos being put on adnunistrative leave. Whiteman-Vera said Ramos hired several people at the school and paid them more than people who had been there longer and who had more education. She said Ramos took the money earmarked for a speech and language pathologist and used it for the salary of the deaf culture and American Sign Language specialist, a position the school had never had before. A major problem at the school is getting enough speech and language pathologists to work with the students.

The school has been using part-time and contracted pathologists for some time. Taylor said Ramos worked hard searching for a speech and language pathologist, all over the United States and a few other countries, but could find no one who would work for the pay offered in Idaho. Lundgren said the school tries to accommodate students who have cochlear implants devices intended to help deaf people hear but the majority of students at the school are those who need to learn using sign language. Those who are better able to speak and use various hearing devices tend to go to regular schools. Whiteman-Vera does not think much of the quality of the instruction at the school.

"I feel like my daughter is getting high-paid day care," she said. She said Ramos's vision for the school was for it to only have deaf students. The blind and the multi-handicapped would go elsewhere. She said he also did not want to hire hearing teachers and the hearing staff members at the school feared for their jobs. Taylor said Ramos helped the blind students by hiring Paul Ajuwon, a blind teacher, to oversee outreach programs for those students.

He wanted them to have a role model too. But Whiteman-Vera said complaints from the parent advisory board included a desire for more orientation and mobility training for blind students. Administrative leave In May, Whiteman-Vera said, about 47 employees and 12 parents met with Gary Stivers of the State Board of Education to express their dissatisfaction with Ramos. She said the only department at the school that wasn't represented was the interpreters. The school was audited by the state and Ramos was cleared of wrongdoing, but in June, the state issued a corrective action plan to improve how the school was run.

In the July version of the plan, Ramos grouped together and deaf and blind students in different classes. Students socialize and work together on different projects such as the Christmas play. Where students live: Some commute by bus from nearby cities, and about half stay in six cottages on campus and go home on weekends. They are separated by age and gender and have house parents to look after them. volunteer, then was hired by the foundation as its developmental director.

A state audit found improprieties in the school donating surplus vehicles and furniture to the foundation, which then sold them to make about $10,500. This violates several regulations about how to dispose of state property. Taylor said Angel Ramos could not be stealing because there were too many protocols for handling money and too many eyes on it. Flannery also dismissed allegations about Ramos's mismanagement of money because if he had been caught stealing, the state would have fired him, not put him on administrative leave. The audit did nothing to say he was at fault, Flannery said.

Part of the State Board of Education's corrective action plan was for Maria Ramos to leave the foundation. She resigned in June 2003 after raising more money in two years than in the history of the foundation. Kevin Williams became the director after Ramos left. had to be rescheduled Ramos met with the three parents Feb. 14 and told them to play by his rules or they would be off the advisory board, she said.

The first parent open forum March 5 was a flop, she said, because there was a miscommuni-cation in the office and letters to parents were not sent out. The only parents who came were those the advisory board could telephone that day. She said Ramos would not answer questions at the forums and would tell people he would get back to them. Taylor said a bunch of little things snowballed to create unrest at the school People on the parent advisory board were unhappy with things that Ramos did not cause, such as the principal's performance, the lack of a speechlanguage pathologist and a lack of communication with parents. Taylor said Ramos created the board for constructive feedback, not mudsling-ing, and when Ramos did not want to participate in the mudslinging, parents turned against him.

In early March, Whiteman-Vera and another parent were taken off the advisory board. Whiteman-Vera also worked at the school in various capacities, substituting in classrooms and cottages, being a bus monitor and doing custodial work. She quit in late March..