Pastorek: Deaf School will reopen

• By SONIA SMITH
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 10, 2008 - Page: 2B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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In a letter sent home to parents of students of the Louisiana School for the Deaf, state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek explained his rationale for temporarily closing the school amid reports of inappropriate behavior and reiterated his pledge to reopen it once changes are put in place.

“I am committed and determined to see that the Louisiana School for the Deaf remains in operation,” Pastorek wrote. “It is of immeasurable value to the state of Louisiana.”

About 50 students protested at the close of school Wednesday, carrying signs and refusing to let buses exit the campus until law enforcement authorities intervened.

On Thursday, Pastorek met with the school’s 180 faculty and staff to reassure them that he intends to open the school as soon as safely possible, said Renè Greer, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

No exact timeline for reopening has been determined, Greer said, but officials are considering allowing students to return in phases.

Pastorek announced the closing at a Tuesday news conference, 11 days after a 16-year-old high school boy allegedly  sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl on a bus chartered by the school to take students home.

Also, The Advocate has reported that five people — three of them current or former school employees — had been arrested between November 2007 and April for alleged sexual misconduct with juvenile students.

The problems at the school go deeper than the alleged  sexual incidents, Greer said. State officials are worried about the general level of safety at the school, she said, and are concerned that adequate academic and support resources are not currently available to meet each student’s Individualized Education Program.

Currently, five of the school’s six nurses are not proficient in American Sign Language, Greer said. The department plans to recruit more professionals already fluent in the skill,  she said.

Ann Maclaine, co-director of legal services at the New Orleans-based Advocacy Center, said her organization will provide legal counsel to any parents to ensure their children receive appropriate special education services while the deaf school is closed. “We just want to make sure they know they have rights,” she  said.

Livingston Parish resident Yvette Jackson said the education her 4-year-old daughter has been receiving at the deaf school for two years has been wonderful and unique.

Even a brief pause in instruction will do irreparable damage to the progress her daughter, who has multiple disabilities, has been making, she said.

“This is an atrocity, what they’re doing to her and every other child who is having a wonderful specialized education that they absolutely cannot receive anywhere else,” Jackson said. “I’m absolutely sure about this — there is no comparable service.”