ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 9, 1996 TAG: 9612090084
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VIRGIL A. COOK
YOUR NOV. 19 Associated Press news article (``Deaf pupils report new abuse") greatly troubles me as well as many other former students at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Staunton.
For a second time, Mary Willetts and her Parents Spearhead Committee have raised the specter of alleged sexual abuse at the Staunton school. The news article states that Willetts read an anonymous letter to the State Board of Education on Nov. 18. That so much bad publicity should result from an anonymous letter is at best unfortunate and at worst extremely alarming. How much credence should the board give to allegations made in this kind of document?
This latest episode represents one more installment of a saga about alleged problems at VSDB in which Willetts seems to be a central character. When she spoke to the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association for the Department for the Blind in the spring, she merely expressed concern about the quality of education at the school, especially the failure of students to pass the state Literacy Passport Test, and she alleged the lack of parent involvement with students' Individual Education Plans.
Then in July, the first allegations of sexual abuse came to the attention of the State Board. As a result, the board conducted an investigation. According to an article in the Staunton Daily News Leader on Nov. 1, the compliance office of the Department of Education cleared VSDB of misconduct related to the earlier abuse charges.
I am deeply distressed by the charges and the negative publicity they have brought to the school. The Nov. 19 news article and other media coverage of the latest allegation left the impression that VSDB had not properly notified authorities about the alleged incidents. When he spoke to the Alumni Association far the Department for the Blind in August, Joseph Panko, superintendent of the Staunton school, said that the police and the Department of Education were duly notified of the first incident. Why did Willetts and the Parents Spearhead Committee choose to make these allegations prior to completed investigations by the Virginia State Police and the Department of Education?
The concerns about possible abuse and the LPT failure rate are legitimate concerns, but unsubstantiated allegations from anonymous letters are inappropriate methods of addressing the issue. Such publicity threatens an invaluable service to deaf and blind children in the commonwealth who need the intense, one-on-one training that public schools are ill-equipped to provide.
Many students need to spend some time - sometimes as little as a few months - at a special school to receive necessary, intensive training in what many in the blind community term "blind skills" and what many in the deaf community term "deaf culture." Indeed, I question whether I would have been able to earn a bachelor's and two graduate degrees, and then function in my chosen profession had I not developed the Braille skills and independent-living skills that I acquired at the Staunton school. I know scores of VSDB alumni who are productive, tax-paying citizens of Virginia. Thanks to our training at VSDB, we are on the tax rolls instead of the welfare rolls.
The Virginia State Board of Education should give no credence to charges stemming from anonymous letters. Of course, the board, VSDB's administration, parents, teachers, alumni and the public all want to know what happened. But we must hear the truth from reliable, accountable sources. The school must no longer be forced to devote energy to the sexual-abuse charges to the exclusion of lowering the LPT failure rates and enhancing other academic areas. I hope the school can return to its mission of addressing the very special needs of these very special children.
Virgil A. Cook is associate professor of English at Virginia Tech, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association for the Department for the Blind at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Staunton.
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