Former deaf-school student sues archdiocese - JSOnline
A civil lawsuit filed Thursday against the Milwaukee Archdiocese is the first by a former student of St. John's School for the Deaf in St. Francis, where the late Father Lawrence Murphy is believed to have molested as many as 200 boys from 1950 to 1974.
The lawsuit, filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court by Dean Weissmuller, 50, of Phoenix, is the 11th civil fraud case pending against the archdiocese alleging sexual abuse by priests.
Documents filed as part of the lawsuit suggest that the archdiocese knew of allegations against Murphy as early as the 1950s and worked to protect his reputation for decades after.
They include a letter from a Chicago priest who said he met with then-Archbishop Albert G. Meyer about the allegations in the 1950s, and another by now-retired Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland saying a private funeral was necessary for Murphy to "to protect his good name."
"What this shows is an institutional, deliberate policy of fraud that's existed over the last five decades," Peter Isely of the Midwest chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said in response to the lawsuit.
"This is not a problem of individual priests or bishops, but a fraudulent system constructed around sexual crimes against children," he said.
The archdiocese issued a statement in response to the lawsuit saying it has long acknowledged the abuse by Murphy, calling it a "violation of everything our Church and the priesthood represents," and apologizing to victims.
Weissmuller's lawsuit alleges he was molested by Murphy and dorm supervisor Thomas Tannehill between 1970 and 1972 while a student at the residential school for the deaf. It maintains the archdiocese knew Murphy and Tannehill had previously abused students, deceived families about it, and allowed the men unsupervised and unrestricted access to vulnerable students in spite of it.
Murphy died in 1998, Tannehill in 2007. Neither man was charged criminally in Wisconsin, though a database maintained by the Web site bishopaccountability.org says Tannehill was later arrested on accusations of abuse in Indiana.
Milwaukee Archdiocese documents at the site say Tannehill, a former student at the school, groomed victims for Murphy.
A social worker who evaluated Murphy for the archdiocese in 1993 estimated that he sexually assaulted as many as 200 boys during his tenure at St. John's. He was placed on the archdiocese's list of priests with substantiated claims of sexual abuse in 2004.
Weakland, a central figure in the lawsuits, outraged victims this spring when he claimed in his 2009 memoir that he and church leaders did not understand early on the "criminal nature" of child sex abuse or the long-term effect on victims.
Weissmuller's is the second of the civil fraud lawsuits to allege abuse by Murphy. Last year, Donald Marshall of West Allis alleged he was sexually assaulted by Murphy in the late 1970s at Lincoln Hills School in Irma, where Murphy worked after retiring from St. John's in 1974.
Murphy, well-known in the deaf community, was fluent in American Sign Language and a tireless fund-raiser during his time at St. John's.
In 1974, several former students went to authorities alleging abuse, but Murphy denied it and the investigation was dropped. No charges were filed because the men were adults and the statute of limitations had expired.
Victims later met with then-Archbishop William Cousins. Murphy and others were present. Cousins acknowledged that the church had been aware of the problem for years but that officials felt Murphy was too important to the school to lose.
Murphy resigned after being questioned by a reporter about the allegations. He was allowed to retire and moved to Boulder Junction, where he assisted in two area parishes until 1994. Church disciplinary proceedings were under way when he died.
Wisconsin law bars most lawsuits regarding older claims of sexual assault. But the state Supreme Court ruled last year that the church can be sued for fraud if victims show it was aware of misconduct and did not warn others.
The Milwaukee Archdiocese has said it could be bankrupted by a judgment in the lawsuits after a 2008 ruling that it could not tap its insurance policies to cover intentional fraud.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Local teacher interprets president's message for deaf
Local teacher interprets president's message for deaf - EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA
Being in the same room with the president of the United States is not something most people have the chance to do.
Being in the same room while helping to relay his message to deaf people in the audience is even more unusual. Luce Aubry, the newly hired coordinator of the deaf studies program at Northern Essex Community College, did just that this week.
Aubry was chosen to be the sign language interpreter for President Barack Obama during his town meeting in Portsmouth, N.H. At the meeting, the president talked about his plans for health care reform. Aubry translated his message for deaf and partially deaf people.
Aubry lives in Portsmouth and is one of 50 licensed interpreters for the deaf in New Hampshire. She also is listed on a database as being available for events.
Saturday night, Aubry received an e-mail from an interpreter service asking her if she would be available to sign at the event at Portsmouth High School.
"I was amazed I was available," she said, noting that it was short notice and she is busy with her duties at NECC and signing at events.
As Obama spoke, Aubry stood next to him and relayed his message.
"I was so close I had to make sure not to bump elbows with him," she said.
She said standing next to the president was "very stressful, but cool."
She didn't have the opportunity to meet or talk with Obama. There were "too many Secret Service people around him," she said.
However, she did get his autograph, she said.
Lane Glenn, vice president of academic affairs at NECC, said the college is excited to have Aubry on the staff.
"There is a desperate need for interpreters in the state of Massachusetts," Glenn said.
NECC has many students who want to become interpreters. The college works with other colleges to teach sign language and is a regional center for those studies.
"She will bring tremendous experience as an educator and interpreter," Glenn said.
Obama's event was not the first time Aubry has been asked to sign for a major political figure. During the 2008 presidential primary in New Hampshire, she interpreted for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
__________________
Being in the same room with the president of the United States is not something most people have the chance to do.
Being in the same room while helping to relay his message to deaf people in the audience is even more unusual. Luce Aubry, the newly hired coordinator of the deaf studies program at Northern Essex Community College, did just that this week.
Aubry was chosen to be the sign language interpreter for President Barack Obama during his town meeting in Portsmouth, N.H. At the meeting, the president talked about his plans for health care reform. Aubry translated his message for deaf and partially deaf people.
Aubry lives in Portsmouth and is one of 50 licensed interpreters for the deaf in New Hampshire. She also is listed on a database as being available for events.
Saturday night, Aubry received an e-mail from an interpreter service asking her if she would be available to sign at the event at Portsmouth High School.
"I was amazed I was available," she said, noting that it was short notice and she is busy with her duties at NECC and signing at events.
As Obama spoke, Aubry stood next to him and relayed his message.
"I was so close I had to make sure not to bump elbows with him," she said.
She said standing next to the president was "very stressful, but cool."
She didn't have the opportunity to meet or talk with Obama. There were "too many Secret Service people around him," she said.
However, she did get his autograph, she said.
Lane Glenn, vice president of academic affairs at NECC, said the college is excited to have Aubry on the staff.
"There is a desperate need for interpreters in the state of Massachusetts," Glenn said.
NECC has many students who want to become interpreters. The college works with other colleges to teach sign language and is a regional center for those studies.
"She will bring tremendous experience as an educator and interpreter," Glenn said.
Obama's event was not the first time Aubry has been asked to sign for a major political figure. During the 2008 presidential primary in New Hampshire, she interpreted for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
__________________
Caught in the Deaf Trap
The Times - Caught in the Deaf Trap
Most of South Africa’s deaf and hard-of-hearing citizens are functionally illiterate and likely to remain unemployed
Deaf education in South Africa is failing miserably. Although there are about four million deaf or hard-of-hearing people in the country, the overwhelming majority never make it to matric — and only a handful reach university.
Startling figures provided by the Deaf Federation of South Africa show that:
Only 12 of the country’s 47 schools catering for the hearing impaired offer matric;
Only 14% of teachers are fluent in sign language; and
There are 47 schools catering for the Deaf, 44 of them exclusively while the remaining three have units;
Although about 6600 deaf children attend school, thousands more have no access to education.
The federation puts the functional illiteracy rate among South Africa’s deaf and hard-of-hearing at 75%, and unemployment at 70%.
In a document titled Deaf Education in South Africa: A State of Emergency, the federation highlights its battle to have S A sign language officially recognised in our schools.
Although more than a million South Africans use sign language as a first language, it is not among a string of languages, including German, Portuguese, Arabic and Latin, that will be written in this year’s grade 12 year-end exams.
But matric is the least of many deaf South Africans’ worries.
Just getting an education is an uphill battle. Even those at deaf schools struggle because few of their teachers can communicate in sign language, said Tim Stones, a researcher at the National Institute for the Deaf’s Deafnet Centre of Knowledge . As a result, said Stones, it was not surprising that “the average deaf school leaver in South Africa has the same written language comprehension as the average eight-year-old hearing child”.
Only 12 out of the country’s 47 schools catering for the hearing impaired offer matric;
Only 14% of teachers are fluent in Sign Language; and
Shocking figures provided by the Deaf Federation of South Africa, DeafSA, revealed that:
There are 47 schools catering for the Deaf, 44 of them exclusively while the remaining three have units;
While about 6600 Deaf pupils attend school, thousands more have no access to education.
In addition, South Africa has just one tertiary institution catering for the deaf or hearing impaired — the National Institute for the Deaf College in Worcester in the Western Cape which receives students from all over Africa.
It offers occupational and skills training in a variety of study fields including Hospitality, Cosmetology and Beauty, Construction, Upholstery, Welding, Agriculture, Early Child Development and Office Practice.
Tim Stones, a researcher at the institute’s DeafNET Centre of Knowledge said that teachers for the Deaf who did not know Sign Language, was a “far-reaching and seemingly chronic problem in South Africa”.
He said it is not surprising that
“It is perhaps not surprising then that “the average deaf school leaver in South Africa has the same written language comprehension as the average eight-year old hearing child”.
Even gaining a school-leaving qualification is no guarantee that a deaf or hearing-impaired pupil has a bright future.
South Africa has just one tertiary institution catering for the deaf or hearing-impaired — the institute’s college in Worcester.
It offers training in hospitality, cosmetics and beauty, construction, upholstery, agriculture, early-child development and office practice.
The number of deaf or hearing-impaired students at mainstream universities is negligible. The University of Cape Town has no deaf students, but has six hard-of-hearing students registered — including one completing a PhD that focuses on the challenges of placing disabled people in the workplace.
Those who make it to UCT are generally prepared, but those coming from the deaf education system do not have the skills to cope, according to the university’s disability service manager, Reinette Popplestone.
“Deaf learners coming out of the deaf education system just do not have the skills and they don’t get the points to get them into UCT,” she said.
The Nelson Mandela Metro-politan University in Port Elizabeth has two hearing-impaired students — one completing her master’s degree in applied languages, the other a music student.
Six deaf students are registered at the University of the Free State, according to Hetsie Veitch, head of its unit for students with disabilities. She said the results of these students varied.
“Deaf students need a lot of extra assistance with English if sign language is their first language and their language of learning.”
The University of South Africa has 113 deaf students registered in fields of human and social sciences, economic and management sciences, and law. Very few venture into the sciences, according to university spokesman Lehuma Ntuane.
The pass rate is about 60% and a BAdmin degree is the highest qualification obtained so far by a deaf student at Unisa.
Jace Nair, CEO of the KwaZulu-Natal Blind and Deaf Society, confirmed that the skills base among the deaf was very low and that students who managed to get into tertiary education often took longer to finish than their hearing counterparts.
He added: “If one is confined to low-paying menial jobs without hope of advancement, which is the case with the majority of deaf South Africans, then it may seem more preferable for them to survive on welfare grants than seek employment.”
Zanele Mngadi, spokesman for the Department of Social Development, said there were 5314 deaf and hearing-impaired people on disability grants in the Eastern Cape, but that other provinces did not capture statistics according to specific disabilities.
Penny Vinjev old, deputy director-general for further education and training at the Department of Basic Education, had previously stated in papers that there was no consensus among organisations representing aurally impaired communities about the exact definition or components of sign language. This had resulted in the delay to formally recognise it.
Most of South Africa’s deaf and hard-of-hearing citizens are functionally illiterate and likely to remain unemployed
Deaf education in South Africa is failing miserably. Although there are about four million deaf or hard-of-hearing people in the country, the overwhelming majority never make it to matric — and only a handful reach university.
Startling figures provided by the Deaf Federation of South Africa show that:
Only 12 of the country’s 47 schools catering for the hearing impaired offer matric;
Only 14% of teachers are fluent in sign language; and
There are 47 schools catering for the Deaf, 44 of them exclusively while the remaining three have units;
Although about 6600 deaf children attend school, thousands more have no access to education.
The federation puts the functional illiteracy rate among South Africa’s deaf and hard-of-hearing at 75%, and unemployment at 70%.
In a document titled Deaf Education in South Africa: A State of Emergency, the federation highlights its battle to have S A sign language officially recognised in our schools.
Although more than a million South Africans use sign language as a first language, it is not among a string of languages, including German, Portuguese, Arabic and Latin, that will be written in this year’s grade 12 year-end exams.
But matric is the least of many deaf South Africans’ worries.
Just getting an education is an uphill battle. Even those at deaf schools struggle because few of their teachers can communicate in sign language, said Tim Stones, a researcher at the National Institute for the Deaf’s Deafnet Centre of Knowledge . As a result, said Stones, it was not surprising that “the average deaf school leaver in South Africa has the same written language comprehension as the average eight-year-old hearing child”.
Only 12 out of the country’s 47 schools catering for the hearing impaired offer matric;
Only 14% of teachers are fluent in Sign Language; and
Shocking figures provided by the Deaf Federation of South Africa, DeafSA, revealed that:
There are 47 schools catering for the Deaf, 44 of them exclusively while the remaining three have units;
While about 6600 Deaf pupils attend school, thousands more have no access to education.
In addition, South Africa has just one tertiary institution catering for the deaf or hearing impaired — the National Institute for the Deaf College in Worcester in the Western Cape which receives students from all over Africa.
It offers occupational and skills training in a variety of study fields including Hospitality, Cosmetology and Beauty, Construction, Upholstery, Welding, Agriculture, Early Child Development and Office Practice.
Tim Stones, a researcher at the institute’s DeafNET Centre of Knowledge said that teachers for the Deaf who did not know Sign Language, was a “far-reaching and seemingly chronic problem in South Africa”.
He said it is not surprising that
“It is perhaps not surprising then that “the average deaf school leaver in South Africa has the same written language comprehension as the average eight-year old hearing child”.
Even gaining a school-leaving qualification is no guarantee that a deaf or hearing-impaired pupil has a bright future.
South Africa has just one tertiary institution catering for the deaf or hearing-impaired — the institute’s college in Worcester.
It offers training in hospitality, cosmetics and beauty, construction, upholstery, agriculture, early-child development and office practice.
The number of deaf or hearing-impaired students at mainstream universities is negligible. The University of Cape Town has no deaf students, but has six hard-of-hearing students registered — including one completing a PhD that focuses on the challenges of placing disabled people in the workplace.
Those who make it to UCT are generally prepared, but those coming from the deaf education system do not have the skills to cope, according to the university’s disability service manager, Reinette Popplestone.
“Deaf learners coming out of the deaf education system just do not have the skills and they don’t get the points to get them into UCT,” she said.
The Nelson Mandela Metro-politan University in Port Elizabeth has two hearing-impaired students — one completing her master’s degree in applied languages, the other a music student.
Six deaf students are registered at the University of the Free State, according to Hetsie Veitch, head of its unit for students with disabilities. She said the results of these students varied.
“Deaf students need a lot of extra assistance with English if sign language is their first language and their language of learning.”
The University of South Africa has 113 deaf students registered in fields of human and social sciences, economic and management sciences, and law. Very few venture into the sciences, according to university spokesman Lehuma Ntuane.
The pass rate is about 60% and a BAdmin degree is the highest qualification obtained so far by a deaf student at Unisa.
Jace Nair, CEO of the KwaZulu-Natal Blind and Deaf Society, confirmed that the skills base among the deaf was very low and that students who managed to get into tertiary education often took longer to finish than their hearing counterparts.
He added: “If one is confined to low-paying menial jobs without hope of advancement, which is the case with the majority of deaf South Africans, then it may seem more preferable for them to survive on welfare grants than seek employment.”
Zanele Mngadi, spokesman for the Department of Social Development, said there were 5314 deaf and hearing-impaired people on disability grants in the Eastern Cape, but that other provinces did not capture statistics according to specific disabilities.
Penny Vinjev old, deputy director-general for further education and training at the Department of Basic Education, had previously stated in papers that there was no consensus among organisations representing aurally impaired communities about the exact definition or components of sign language. This had resulted in the delay to formally recognise it.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Carbon Offset Scam
If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, you cut your driving and cut back on purchases that leave carbon footprint.
Buying carbon offsets is basically a license to an even bigger carbon footprint.
OCDAC did a lot of work to reduce carbon footprint.
Among this is;
Moving 2/3 of our agency into our group homes. This way our group home residents can be trained and tapped to do advocacy, referrals, fundraising, and marketing work without having to drive them to the office in Irvine.
Restricting our travel to the Irvine office 1 or 2 times a week.
We have plans to experiment with solar generation and cooking system that will cut back on the carbon emissions at our foodstand fundraising projects.
Reducing carbon footprints is reducing them yourself instead of paying someone else to cut back on their carbon footprints.
Buying carbon offsets pretty much sounds like a scam.
Buying carbon offsets is basically a license to an even bigger carbon footprint.
OCDAC did a lot of work to reduce carbon footprint.
Among this is;
Moving 2/3 of our agency into our group homes. This way our group home residents can be trained and tapped to do advocacy, referrals, fundraising, and marketing work without having to drive them to the office in Irvine.
Restricting our travel to the Irvine office 1 or 2 times a week.
We have plans to experiment with solar generation and cooking system that will cut back on the carbon emissions at our foodstand fundraising projects.
Reducing carbon footprints is reducing them yourself instead of paying someone else to cut back on their carbon footprints.
Buying carbon offsets pretty much sounds like a scam.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Message From Bill Zenovich
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 9:48:52 AM
Subject: FBI and bad name for ICSD
http://www.deaflympics.com/news/enews/backissues.asp?ID=1400
http://www.viable.net/company/release/2009/2/5/1
http://www.gazette.net/stories/07202009/businew183955_32539.shtml
Subject: FBI and bad name for ICSD
HELLO EVERYONE,
I am from Canada. I am an old man. I go to the WGD since 1961 many times ( before it was IGD ).
Please read 3 different news from websites below
http://www.deaflympics.com/news/enews/backissues.asp?ID=1400
http://www.viable.net/company/release/2009/2/5/1
http://www.gazette.net/stories/07202009/businew183955_32539.shtml
I am not very happy that FBI of USA investigates and arrests deaf people and the name of ICSD is published .
Now, ICSD is now becoming a bad and dirty name!
Many people are very confused with name of ICSD.
Why Ammons chose Viable as partner because Viable does business with the ICSD - two different organizations serving the deaf: International Committee of Sports for the Deaf ( ICSD ) and Innovative Communication Services for the Deaf ( also, ICSD )????
Before start to do business with Viable Ammons need carefully investigate Viable and everything.
Again, Ammons is negligent and unprofessional.
What was purpose for Ammons to change name to ICSD?
What did deaf sports in world gain from this? What did we gain from Ammons created name of Deaflympics?
Before we had the CISS and World Games for thedeaf - we should keep it that way.
I am very disappointed at Ammons.
Please elect new leadership next month in Taiwan.
We are fed up with Ammons who confuses everyone!
Bill Zenovich.
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