TTMW Issue #67
***** THE FINAL CHAPTER Cece Winkler In what is the final chapter for me, and what I hope will be the final chapter for all of you, I feel compelled to make these comments. After this I will abide by my decision not to read or discuss The Tactile Mind Weekly, as long as Ryan Commerson continues his diatribe. My name is Cecelia Winkler. I am the principal at the Michigan School for the Deaf. Approximately seven (?) years ago, I became Lead Teacher and then Principal. The school was "dying on the vine" to quote the outside evaluation report done by Joe Finnegan and associates. MSD had no support at the state level, from the Alumni Association, nor from the administration on campus. The then deputy director told me that the school was "on its way out." When I asked him to give me a chance, to give me a number when we had to give up, and let us TRY to thrive, he gave me that opportunity. We were at approximately 90 students at that juncture, Mr. Williamson said he felt 70 would be the cut off number if not before. We worked hard. I went to school nights and worked 10-hour days to get the credentials needed to be recognized as an administrator. The school grew to over 100 from the efforts of MANY people. Word of mouth, from parent to parent, began to spread and enrollment increased. I stayed on call 24/7 to make sure kids were safe and to cover for the lack of leadership and shared vision we needed to change the school. I began to review the ASL instructors and curriculum and follow up on those who did not attend classes as mandated by the SCPI policy. I began to supervise by implementing the collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with both of the unions I work with, AFSCME and the UAW. I have gotten people to resign, suspended staff, written letters of reprimand AND most importantly I have supported, gotten professional development for and tried to get the training my staff needed to do a good job. With the CURRENT administration in Lansing, we have hired an Assistant Principal, Mental Health therapist, School Psychologist, Transition Coordinator and Communication Specialist, and a person with a degree in social work heading our dorm. MSD Alumni Aassociation is back with us, partly due to the 150th birthday but mostly because of their new committed leadership who want to guide us in our stewardship. With the advent of Deaf professional staff from Gallaudet and outside the state I have had my consciousness raised. There are many things we have to address for equality to exist between Deaf and Hearing staff. This is a good school and a GREAT staff. Currently with the financial crunch in the state, our Governor balanced the budget with considerable contributions from state workers. My professional staff earns almost $10,000 less a year than the school across the street. In addition we ALL are required to give back 5 days a pay this year and for every 40 hours we work we get paid 38. The other hours are "banked" for us until the state gets on her feet. We are working on several initiatives concurrently right now. (1) Working with Dr Moses from Central Michigan University to have a balanced discipline system uniformly applied across all campus and all shifts. It was drafted after meetings with every staff member on every shift having their voice heard. (2) Working with the State Monitors to take back the IEP process, train staff in data reporting, more measurable goals and objectives, and to have regular professional development through out the 04-05 year. (3) School Improvement Team which is working with Michigan State University to align all the state benchmarks, textbooks and assessments including AUEN, the MEAP and Mi Access testing so all children's gains can be measured. (4) A Communication Specialist to raise the level of awareness of ASL, best practices in teaching, serve as a support to classroom teachers and provide me the feedback as to where our strengths and weaknesses. We are moving forward on drafting clear, concise, ENFORCEABLE communication expectations and procedures. She may also help repair some of the damage Ryan left behind. (5) A Communication PLAN to put in visual communication system throughout the school and see where Vis/Com and VRS can be added. In my opinion Ryan Commerson is the "Swiftboat Ad" in this community. He took his viewpoint and decided there was only one way to look at things and it was his. HE would decide if what I was doing was courageous, if the school was on the right track, and if kid's needs were being met. He is wrong, misinformed, flings half-truths, misrepresentations, and lies about like confetti at a wedding. Ryan encouraged us all to sign up for TTMW. We put it in our parent newsletter to encourage dialogue with the Deaf community. I now encourage you to Unsubscribe until this toxic dialogue comes to an end. Certainly between the time he left here mid year . . . disappointed all the children counting on him . . . and now . . . he must have something else to write about? Has he not seen a beautiful sunset? Has no one been more evil than me? Can he take up kickboxing or knitting? If anyone has any comments, questions, or concerns, please email me at winklerc1 at michigan.gov To quote Nikki Giovanni, one of my favorite poets: "engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer depression, despair and disrespect." Ryan is removed. I told him that privately. Much to my sadness I am removing TTMW also. I will miss the wonderful articles by others who contribute. We do not deserve to work this hard to be trashed weekly by a boy who spent a brief time here. By the way we are 125 and climbing for those who like some happy news. Cece Winkler--Still a recovering Audist, and Recovering from an almost lethal dose of Ryan ***** READERS REACT We welcome brief letters from readers. E-mail letters to creative at thetactilemind.com * Re: MSD I would like to respond to 'Deaf in the UP.' Why assume Ryan Commerson is an angry individual who makes hearies "think all Deaf are angry, confrontational people?" If he had said nothing would he then have the power to make hearies think that all Deaf are passive individuals who run from their Community's problems? From your letter I don't get a sense that you even care just so long as his power is removed because then at least Deaf people won't be seen as confrontational and hearing people will be happy! What kind of Deaf person are you? I am sick and tired of hearing administrators of institutions FOR the deaf who refuse to test out bi-lingual/bi-cultural educational even in small pilot programs within their schools. I am sick of institutions FOR the deaf who employ ten times the amount of hearing people than they do deaf people. I am sick of sign language institutions FOR the deaf who continue to employ teachers who can barely sign. Is MSD guilty of these things? I do not know for sure nor do I know Ryan Commerson personally but neither am I blind to the reality of the country I live in. What he says matches my own thoughts. Does that also make me an angry individual if I happen to agree with him? If I want to change these realities does that make me confrontational? You talk about revenge motivating Mr. Commerson's editorials. Revenge for what? There is a big difference between commenting on a person's personal life and commenting on their performance in their professional capacity. Mr. Commerson has not made statements against these administrators' spouses or families or friends so where is he displaying the behavior of someone bent on revenge? How can you call yourself Deaf and yet continue to tolerate the educational rape of the children we count on to strengthen our culture? Because that is what it is, rape, and more than a few of our instiutions FOR the deaf have employees who could seem to care less! Mr. Commerson isn't hurting our culture, he's helping it. I haven't seen anyone else with the bravery to stand up against these issues since the Deaf President Now movement. Do you know that there are hearing teachers in institutions FOR the Deaf who don't even know what DPN was? Apalling! No self-respecting culture would tolerate teachers like this and still you find it within yourself to blame Ryan Commerson. Do you know who I blame? I blame you and myself and us all because it isn't just these administrators and teachers doing this to us we are doing this to ourselves. We have an ongoing chance to change things for the better and we never take it all we do is privately complain about it. Don't you ever wonder what kind of world we could build for ourselves if we stop complaining and start organizing to publicly protest it? J. Stein
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