School District Bans Girl From Using Sign Language on Bus

[Chris_]

School officials have threatened a hearing-impaired girl with suspension if she uses sign language to talk to her friends on the school bus, the girl's parents say.

Danica Lesko and her parents say sign language is the only way to for the 12-year-old to communicate, especially while riding to school on a noisy bus.

But officials at Stonybrook School — which is not a school for the hearing-impaired — and district officials in Branchburg, N.J., apparently believe signing is a safety hazard. They have sent a letter to the Lesko family ordering Danica to stop using sign language on the school bus or risk a three-day suspension.

The March 30 letter from her principal that said Danica was "doing sign language after being told it wasn't allowed on the bus."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93532

[Chris_]

Safety hazard?!?

Isn't this taking away her freedom of speech?  Yeah.... I think so.

[Mike220]

Hope that school district likes being a defendant.

Pretty sure they're on the wrong side of the ADA on this one.

[The Village Idiot]

From the FR thread... this was in 2001.

She is 20 now, apparently.

[soleil]

How can this be real? No way, no how would I tell  my deaf child to shut up. Because that is basically what they are asking. Sick.

[Texacon]

LOL!  My wife, who is an interpreter for the deaf, would have been down at the school whuppin' on someone and they would never even have heard her coming. 

 

KC

[formerlurker]

Unless the principal forbid speech on the bus from every student, he simply cannot do this.  Old case, and this student is an adult now with issues:

Two women were charged with giving a false report after telling police that a gas station clerk had molested one of them.
Shirley Henderson, 38, of High Bridge, and Danica Lesko, 20, of Bloomsbury, were charged with the fourth-degree offense after an investigation by Patrolman Harry Bugal.

http://flemington.injersey.com/tag/danica-lesko/

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

From the FR thread... this was in 2001.

She is 20 now, apparently.

Do you recall any resolution?

BTW - I wonder how much sign language the school understands?

Let's start with this:

 

[The Village Idiot]

Do you recall any resolution?

BTW - I wonder how much sign language the school understands?

The school gave in, it was other kids that were being disruptive anyway.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

The school gave in, it was other kids that were being disruptive anyway.

Those signers can get really loud, ya know.

[Ralph Wiggum]

This is a bizarre story.  Was the school district afraid that allowing sign language would encourage flashing gang symbols or something?