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Deafweekly June 21, 2006 Deafweekly Deafweekly June 21, 2006 deafweekly June 21, 2006 Vol. 2 No. 33 Editor: Tom Willard Deafweekly is an independent news report for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community that is mailed to subscribers every Wednesday and available to read at www.deafweekly.com. Please visit our website to read current and back issues, sign up for a subscription and advertise. Deafweekly is copyrighted 2006 and any unauthorized use, including reprinting of news, is prohibited. Please support our advertisers; they make it possible for you to receive Deafweekly at no charge. ++++ADV+++++ADV+++++ADV++++ Do You Use VP-100? Yes? More VRS Choices For You Soon! FCC requires ALL videophones to be accessible to ANY VRS provider. Soon you will no longer be limited to one VRS provider. You will be free to use any VRS. When your VP-100 opens up to allow calling to any VRS, try using IP-VRS. Dial tv.ipvrs.com and make a phone call. And if you really like IP-VRS, make it your first choice VRS provider all the time! You will see why many choose IP-VRS as their preferred VRS provider. IP-VRS: We’re Working for You ++++ADV+++++ADV+++++ADV++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ NATIONAL +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ABANDONED IN NEW JERSEY, FLORIDA MAN HELPED BY POLICE A 21-year-old deaf Florida man who was abandoned in New Jersey by “friends” is back home thanks to Seaside Heights, N.J. police, reported the Asbury Park Press. Timothy Beck left for New Jersey recently with a couple who persuaded him to go with them against his mother’s wishes. A day after arriving in Seaside Heights, Beck awoke in a motel room to find the people were gone, along with all of his belongings and money. He wandered the streets “distraught, fearful, hungry and without a place to stay,” said the Press. His luck changed when he encountered a police officer who brought him to headquarters, where Steve Korman, a detective who can sign, took over the investigation. Sharon Suttell, on vacation with her husband in http://www.deafweekly.com/backissues/062106.htm[6/15/2011 2:10:17 PM] Deafweekly June 21, 2006 Buffalo, N.Y., learned of her son’s predicament and made arrangements for bus transportation back to Florida. Beck is now safe at home and says he will never go back to Seaside Heights – “but not because of the police; they saved me.” SCHOOL TREASURER CHARGED WITH THEFT OF FUNDS Denise Horner was charged last week with third degree grand larceny after allegedly stealing $10,809.12 from the Lexington School for the Deaf’s Parent Association. Horner, 40, who was treasurer from October 2005 to April 2006, “is accused of using the school association’s funds as her own private piggy bank,” said Queens district attorney Richard Brown in the North Country Gazette. Criminal charges allege that Horner made 10 cash withdrawals totaling $7,790 from the PSA’s bank account and used the account to pay for her own accounts with Time Warner, Con Ed, Target, T-Mobile as well as credit cards. The Fresh Meadows, N.Y. resident faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. NEW HAMPSHIRE CHARTER SCHOOL CLOSING AFTER ONE YEAR New Hampshire’s only public school dedicated to sign language is closing after one year, unable to meet its goal of 10 students. According to the Concord Monitor, the Laurent Clerc Academy received over $500,000 in state and federal aid but managed to recruit only six students. Three are deaf and three are the children of school director Susan Brule and her husband, Mario Mauro, the school’s only full-time teacher. “It’s not about which of those children who were hearing or deaf were my children,” Brule told the Monitor. “That’s not the issue.” But state Board of Education member Fred Bramante said the school’s family ties were a concern under charter school rules. “We clearly did not intend for a school that was catering to just their kids,” he said. UNIVERSITY IN MARYLAND TO PHASE OUT ASL INSTRUCTION The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is phasing out American Sign Language courses, reported UMBC’s campus newspaper, The Retriever Weekly. Modern Languages and Linguistics department chair Judith Schneider said the decision was the result of “difficult choices in times of decreased support for state universities” and was not meant to suggest that learning ASL was not a valuable or useful experience for students. Department resources were spread too thin, an internal report had suggested, and “it would be best to focus on our strengths and primary goals.” In the end, department officials decided that their primary function is to teach languages other than English and cultures other than U.S. culture, which eliminates ASL instruction as a main goal. ETHEL BRIGGS, LONGTIME DISABILITY ADVOCATE, TO RETIRE The National Council on Disability (NCD) has announced the upcoming retirement of Ethel D. Briggs, the council’s longtime executive director. Briggs will retire on June 30 after more than 30 years of public service, including 21 years with the NCD. Briggs, a former chief of the Office of Staff Development and training for the Washington, D.C. Rehabilitation Services Administration, “helped NCD improve the lives of millions of Americans with disabilities,” said NCD chairperson Lex Frieden. NCD, an independent federal agency, will appoint an acting executive director to begin on July 1 and create a search committee to find a permanent director. ++++ADV+++++ADV+++++ADV++++ Switch to Sprint Try the latest version of the FREE Sprint IP Wireless application for BlackBerry users! · Click on your Blackberry Internet browser http://www.deafweekly.com/backissues/062106.htm[6/15/2011 2:10:17 PM] Deafweekly June 21, 2006 · Go to www.sprintrelay.com/download/ to begin the FREE download. · Check out the new updates on Sprint IP Wireless! Don't have a BlackBerry device, add SprintIP to your AIM Buddy list to make a relay call. ++++ADV+++++ADV+++++ADV++++ GOV. BAXTER TO RENT SPACE TO ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL The Governor Baxter School for the Deaf plans to rent out two classrooms and an office to the REAL School, an alternative high school for hearing students from southern Maine who have trouble learning in traditional schools. The lease, which will bring in $22,460 annually, has not yet been signed but the plan has been approved by school officials. Gov. Baxter serves 67 students on its Mackworth Island campus, and the REAL School will add about 18 students, three teachers and a few staff members, reported the Portland Press Herald. REAL School students, who traveled to New Orleans in May to work on Hurricane Katrina relief, will benefit from the exposure to deaf culture and sign language, said the report. FUND RAISER EARNS OVER $4 MILLION FOR SECOND YEAR The Starkey Hearing Foundation’s annual “So the World May Hear” Awards Gala raised more than $4 million for the second year in a row, reported Business Wire this week. The fund raiser, held Saturday in St. Paul, Minn., was headlined by Tonight Show host Jay Leno, who autographed his own shirt and sold it in a live auction for $4,000. He was joined by stars Dionne Warwick, Lou Ferrigno, Marie Osmond and John Mellencamp, whose hearing-impaired father wears Starkey hearing aids. The Starkey Hearing Foundation donates more than 20,000 hearing aids each year to those in need around the world – over 150,000 since 2000. Information: www.sotheworldmayhear.org. TEST PREP FIRM REACHES AGREEMENT WITH JUSTICE DEPT. One of America’s largest providers of preparatory courses for law school admissions exams has reached a consent agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the provision of interpreters and other auxiliary aids. TestMasters, a subsidiary of Robin Singh Educational Services, Inc., had been targeted in a complaint by a deaf student who said the company failed to provide an interpreter and note-taker and then canceled his registration in retaliation for his accommodations request. According to the U.S. Newswire, TestMasters has agreed to re-admit the student free of charge; provide interpreters, note-takers and other auxiliary aids to those who need them; adopt a policy on nondiscrimination; train employees on ADA obligations; and pay $20,000 in damages to the complainant and $10,000 in civil penalties. INVESTOR SETTLES LAWSUIT WITH MORGAN STANLEY A deaf investor’s lawsuit against Morgan Stanley, which allegedly refused to accept stock trade orders through the relay service, has been settled, said a National Association of the Deaf news release last week. The NAD represented plaintiff Donald Brunner, along with Stamford, Conn. attorney Gary Phelan. The “first of its kind” agreement is designed to ensure that businesses comply with Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act and provide accessibility to people who use relay services, said the release. Under the settlement, Morgan Stanley agrees to accept trade orders through relay services and will train its workers to accept trades over the phone. The financial services firm is “taking the right steps,” said NAD attorney Kelby Brick. PHOTO STUDENT DRIVES OFF WITH CAMERA ON CAR A deaf Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology photography student lost an expensive digital camera when http://www.deafweekly.com/backissues/062106.htm[6/15/2011 2:10:17 PM] Deafweekly June 21, 2006 he drove off with it on the roof of his car. Dustin Sipp, 19, forgot his black camera bag was there, said sister Davida Baker, and didn’t hear it fall because he’s deaf. Sipp, who is home for the summer in Lincoln, Neb., believes the bag fell in the Havelock area.
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