[Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind

[Don Mitchell]

I am a graduate of the Oregon School for the Blind. I completed my education 
there in 1966. I then went on to attend high in Klamath Falls Oregon. I 
consider my time spent at the school the best years of my educational life. 
Considering the family background of myself and many of my school mates the 
school was a necessary rescue mission. I was a partially sighted student 
who, eventually, was taught braille. I went on to loose my residual vision 
at the age of 35 At that time the population of students at the school in 
Oregon averaged near 100 students. We had two paraplegic students and 
several students with mild mental problems. I know this is not the best 
argument for not closing the school, but it was my home, and I grieve it's 
loss. I think a mix of residential school and main streaming is the best 
answer. I think the Washington State School for the Blind has a good 
moderate approach. The school has an open door policy students who are in 
public school can come for specialized training when they need it and attend 
public school when they are prepared. I agree with so much that is stated 
below, and am hart broken that the school is closing. The OSB alumni is 
having an alumni reunion this weekend in Salem Oregon. I am not attending 
because It is painful to say good by to the school.

Don Mitchell
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sarah Baughn" <sarahb006 at comcast.net>
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind


> Yes, I hope the same thing, Mike, because I was in the Washington State 
> School for the Blind for one year, and I have to say that my education 
> suffered because they catered too much to the multiply handicapped, 
> although I have heard that they are getting better about educating the 
> kids who are only blind.  The thing is, I had a lot of friends in summer 
> school too, but I also had a roommate with whom I was friends, and my mom 
> started pointing out, after a while, that I was starting to act like her, 
> picking up her iabits, and it wasn't a good thing, and so I stopped acting 
> like that, wanting to be thought of as a competent, smart blind person who 
> didn't do those silly things, and, maybe it's a shame to say this, because 
> it may come off a little shallow, but I stopped hanging around with her 
> for that reason.
> Sarah
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mike Sivill" <mike.sivill at viewplus.com>
> To: "'Blind Talk Mailing List'" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 9:19 AM
> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind
>
>
>>I agree with you Sarah. I was in mainstream school for my entire education
>> and had a horrible social experience but the blind school was not an 
>> option
>> academically at all. Although the mainstream teachers were not much 
>> better
>> (luckily I had a good VI teacher ) but I would have had amuch better
>> experience academically with teachers trained to teach a blind student 
>> and a
>> better social experience with other blind kids. I always had lots of 
>> friends
>> at the blind summer camps and events and I believe that the people who 
>> say
>> kids have to attend mainstream schools in order to learn to act normal 
>> are
>> mostly sighted and don't know what they're talking about. Other blind 
>> kids
>> are just as harsh about telling someone who has blindisms that they are
>> being idiotic while sighted peers usually just figure all blind people do
>> that type of thing and they shouldn't be mean about it.
>> I really hope that this closure of OSB spreads and helps start a real 
>> change
>> in the blind school's role, from being a dumping ground for 
>> multi-disabled
>> and troubled blind kids.
>> Mike
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Sarah Baughn
>> Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 7:55 AM
>> To: Blind Talk Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind
>>
>> Steve, that's my thought as well.  You see, there are so many
>> multihandicapped students in the schools for the blind these days that 
>> those
>>
>> of us who are only blind suffer in terms of our education.
>> Sarah
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Steve P. Deeley" <stevep.deeley at insightbb.com>
>> To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 2:52 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind
>>
>>
>>> David:  Don't you think that the best and brightest blind students were
>>> leaving schools for the blind during the past 30 years?  Are schools for
>>> the blind still able to accomplish their missions with all of the multi
>>> disabled students now attending the schools??  I'm not certain how
>>> effective the schools can be under the present circumstances.
>>>
>>> Steve
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>> From: "David Evans" <drevans at bellsouth.net>
>>> To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 5:04 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Dear All,
>>>>
>>>> There are some facts that need to be stressed here.
>>>> Back before ww-2, most blind children were sent to a residential 
>>>> school,
>>>> where they were educated and taught all of the skills of blindness
>>>> including
>>>> some kind of trade skills.
>>>> Regardless of the amount of vision they had, they were taught Braille 
>>>> as
>>>> well as print , if they had any vision at all and something like 84% of
>>>> all
>>>> blind students were literate in Braille, print or both.
>>>> After WW-2, children were mainstreamed into the Public schools, mostly
>>>> because some people felt that they would have better social skills and
>>>> because more parents wanted to keep their children closer to home 
>>>> instead
>>
>>>> of
>>>> sending them off to a remote school some where.
>>>> There are always some blind children who have the need to attend a
>>>> residential school instead of getting what they can from the Public
>>>> school
>>>> system, especially Deaf-Blind and those with additional disabilities as
>>>> examples.
>>>> Since the advent of mainstreaming into the Public schools, literacy in
>>>> general and Braille literacy specifically have declined tremendously.
>>>> Today
>>>> Braille literacy is only 8 to 9% and general literacy is not as high as
>>>> it
>>>> was, even with the increase in the numbers of blind children alive 
>>>> today.
>>>> Along with mainstreaming, into the Public schools, real education
>>>> declined
>>>> sharply and so has employment for the Blind.  Employment has always 
>>>> been
>>>> difficult at best for the Blind, but the lack of teachers who could 
>>>> teach
>>>> Braille and understood how to work with blind students has been
>>>> systematically eliminated and discouraged in the Public schools and in
>>>> many
>>>> of the rehab agencies because the people in charge held low 
>>>> expectations
>>>> of
>>>> the blind and had the attitude," they are blind and can't do anything
>>>> anyway
>>>> so why bother teaching them."
>>>> Public school districts generally lump all of their "special needs"
>>>> students
>>>> together with an overworked and underserved teacher who is given poor 
>>>> or
>>>> no
>>>> resources to provide the specialized training that is needed for their
>>>> students who have a wide variety of disabilities and the ones that act 
>>>> up
>>>> and are the most disrupted usually get most of their attention.
>>>> The teaching of Braille has been discouraged by every fantasy 
>>>> imaginable.
>>>> I was fed the same old lines myself, for years, that Braille was "old
>>>> fashion," "bulky and hard to learn and that all the new technologies 
>>>> were
>>>> going to replace it.  I bought into this idea until I was exposed to 
>>>> the
>>>> outstanding examples I found in the NFB.  It changed my belief and
>>>> attitudes
>>>> and at the age of 49, I taught myself Braille with the help of the 
>>>> Hadley
>>>> School for the Blind.  I learned and was using Grade One Braille for 
>>>> all
>>>> my
>>>> personal written communication in just 3 weeks and learned how to use a
>>>> slate and stylist, which I carry everywhere with me now.  "
>>>> I make good use of technology, but I have also learned that as long as
>>>> the
>>>> sighted still use paper and pen to write things down and carry them 
>>>> with
>>>> them; there will be a place for Braille in the hands of the Blind.
>>>> It is a well known axiom among the Blind that 96% of all working Blind
>>>> People know and use Braille in their work and their lives.
>>>> Something else that the residential schools did was they taught
>>>> employable
>>>> skills to the Blind, i,e, chair caning, piano tuning, sewing, 
>>>> weaving,and
>>>> other such manual skills that the Blind could always sell as personal
>>>> services.
>>>> The Blind of China invented the first trade unions back 2,000 years
>>>> before
>>>> the birth of Christ to set prices, standards and to regulate Blind 
>>>> trades
>>>> that included basket weaving, pottery, massage and even prostitution,
>>>> which
>>>> were considered common Blind trades back then.
>>>> The parents of Blind children have had to fight alone with the Public
>>>> schools systems to get them to provide the education and help that 
>>>> their
>>>> children need and have to keep fighting the entire time their child is 
>>>> in
>>>> school for what the Law says is their Right to a Free and Equal 
>>>> Education
>>>> that evidence shows they are not getting in Public school.
>>>> They use excuses such as "well, the child has too much vision to be
>>>> taught
>>>> Braille, inspire of the fact that maybe the child has RP and will lose
>>>> their
>>>> ability to read or even see print as a young adult, as happened to me.
>>>>
>>>> As a former resident of Roseburg Oregon, now living in Florida, I can 
>>>> say
>>>> that the legislature of the State of Oregon does not care about the 
>>>> lives
>>
>>>> of
>>>> Blind children and likely has political motives behind their vote to
>>>> close
>>>> the Oregon School for the Blind.
>>>> They have wanted that land for some time and de-funding the school is 
>>>> the
>>>> way they intend to kill it and steal the land and the birth right of 
>>>> all
>>>> Blind  children in their State.  This whole thing Bothers me, the whole
>>>> situation stinks and I hope the smell comes back to haunt each and 
>>>> every
>>>> one
>>>> of these legislators who voted to close this school.
>>>> Shame on them and a pox on their House for doing this unnecessary and
>>>> despicable act of murdering the School for the Blind of Oregon.
>>>>
>>>> David Evans, NFBF
>>>> Nuclear/Aerospace Materials Engineer
>>>> Builder  of the Lunar Rovers and the IF-117 Stealth Fighter
>>>> Legally blind since age 16 due to RP.
>>>> Without a good education they doom blind children to a life of 
>>>> idealness
>>>> and
>>>> little potential.
>>>> Lucky for me, I got a good education and have done many things people
>>>> thought impossible.
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>>> From: "Steve P. Deeley" <stevep.deeley at insightbb.com>
>>>> To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
>>>> Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 11:54 AM
>>>> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> You are maintaining a complete campus for  31 students.  There is
>>>>> something
>>>>> known as cost efficiency.  I believe the days for schools for the 
>>>>> blind
>>>>> are
>>>>> just about over.  In the 1960's, the Kentucky School for the Blind had 
>>>>> a
>>>>> census of 150 or more.  Now, there are very few blind students on the
>>>>> campus.  In the day, KSB had one of the most respected wrestling teams
>>>>> in
>>>>> the state of Kentucky.  Those days seem to be gone, sadly.
>>>>>
>>>>> Steve
>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>>>> From: "T. Joseph Carter" <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com>
>>>>> To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
>>>>> Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 8:39 AM
>>>>> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Full time students?  31.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Served each year in some capacity?  About 400.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Twenty years ago?  I don't know, it was a lot more-but Oregon has
>>>>>> changed its laws in the interim to forbid placement at the school
>>>>>> unless there is no other placement possible.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The school is being closed for students that are only allowed to be
>>>>>> there because there is no other placement possible.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The first argument to close the school was that the buildings needed
>>>>>> substantial maintenance, including seismic upgrades.  We countered
>>>>>> this by pointing out that funding for this maintenance has been
>>>>>> secured time and again, but the Oregon legislature has consistently
>>>>>> redirected it over the past 20 years to efforts to close or relocate
>>>>>> the school, rather than maintain it.  Consistently, as in every
>>>>>> single time.  They dropped that argument.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The next argument was that enrollment was down and the cost per
>>>>>> student was extremely high.  They argued that Least Restrictive
>>>>>> Environment forbade placement at the school.  It would save money,
>>>>>> too!  We gave the correct definition of LRE and pointed out that
>>>>>> counting costs for 400 and dividing them by 31 is outright deception.
>>>>>> We also pointed out how much closing the school would cost elsewhere.
>>>>>> They mostly dropped that argument.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The following argument was an empassioned plea to save these poor
>>>>>> children from a life of seclusion.  Those poor children came and told
>>>>>> the legislature that they were not secluded, that they had no other
>>>>>> chance at the same education anywhere else in Oregon, and that they
>>>>>> needed this school.  Another argument down.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Finally, the legislature abandoned any pretense of arguing that this
>>>>>> was "for the sake of the children" because we'd proven it was not.
>>>>>> They stopped pretending that it would save money, because it would
>>>>>> not.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The effort to close the school was put forward by Oregon Democrats,
>>>>>> and they maintain a strong majority in the Oregon legislature.  So
>>>>>> they crammed it through with little public comment, offering
>>>>>> minimally required time for an amendment to be published before it
>>>>>> was voted on (without public comment, of course), and then they
>>>>>> pulled every shenanigan they could to try and escape public notice,
>>>>>> since the public almost unanimously opposed this bill.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Joseph
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 07:18:26AM -0400, Steve P. Deeley wrote:
>>>>>>> How many blind children were currently enrolled in the school in 
>>>>>>> 2008?
>>>>>>> How many blind students did the school have 20 years ago?
>>>>>>> Steve
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
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