[Nfbwv-talk] WVSDB News Article

[Smyth, Charlene R]

Subject: Article from Hampshire Review Opinion 2013 02 06
Date: 
Wed, 6 Feb 2013 16:56:26 -0500 (EST)

The hurt comes from the breaking up of family Editor: As I returned to
school following our respected Pierre Sevigny's funeral on Friday, it
finally came together in my head why all these changes and rumors and
plans
have been so upsetting for many on our campus. The WV Schools for the
Deaf
and Blind have been family for 140 years. Perhaps we have not been so to
the community, but to the students and staff who have existed together
in
this microcosm in Romney, we have supported each other, loved each
other,
fought at times like brothers and sisters, but we have always been the
WVSDB family. We have raised the children of West Virginia, who are deaf
or
hard-of-hearing and blind or low vision when they were not with their
own
parents. In the funeral home, there were current students, former
students/alumni, staff present and past, and friends. All packed in
there
together were members from the School for the Blind, School for the Deaf
and the Multisensory Unit. They talked (signing is talking, too),
visited,
comforted and held each other as only family members do. This feeling
was
palpable, because we are, or were, the WV Schools for the Deaf and the
Blind. This is something that outsiders who see us only as a commodity
for
economic or political use will never understand. Our hurt and mistrust
comes from the breaking up of our family as we have known it. I realize
times change, and things change. But, to tear apart the family unit that
has always been WVSDB is something that must not be taken lightly by the
powers who be. Many of us will be in mourning, and we may be that way
for a
very long time. Because, you see, we held our students Always Child
First
long before you paid any attention to us. Robin Dohrman Ayers, M.A. Ed.,
Teacher, Family Member for 30 yrs., Romney.