Story of the Day 3/20/2011

Today was Purim. We went to the Lubavitch dinner and party and sat with some of our Deaf friends and chatted. And chatted. And chatted.

One girl and her mother spoke with Sarah at length about the interpreter problems Sarah’s had at her school, verses the very minor problems the other girl has had at her school with interpreters.

One day, an interpreter was using his cell phone to text. She asked him to put it away. He told her it was important. She asked him- if it was more important than her access to her education.
She told him that if he texted again, she would report him.
In a later class, he was texting. She reported it and the school will not have him back again.

This is totally different than how things work at Sarah’s school. The interpreters can spend entire days texting, reading books, using 4 letter words, and Sarah can complain and the school blows her off.

Furthermore, this girl’s school has a list of really good interpreters that they use, She has one long-term terp, but if that terp is out for an illness or an appointment, they use a name from the list of good interpreters. This is the list from which we got some names to give to Sarah’s school. Although, Sarah’s school hasn’t contacted them.

This coming week will be a rare week. All of the interpreters scheduled are good! All of them. Last week, she had three bad days. And the only reason that all of the interpreters scheduled, this week, are good is because we contacted them to fill in the schedule.

As the meal and conversation progressed, I started thinking.
I turned to Sarah and I said, “If things aren’t resolved at North Central by the end of this school year, we could rent an apartment in Carmel (the other girl’s school district) and you could go to school there!”
Sarah looked at me with disbelief.
“Well, it would give us another option.”
“No way, I can’t go to Carmel HS, all of the kids in that school are white!”