Archives for May 2001

Editorial: Bullets of ignorance

May 1, 2001

Originally appeared in Silent News, May 2001.

This month’s issue is of particular interest to me. There are many stories that relate to lawsuits, and three stories that relate to protests or rallies (Maryland, Connecticut and California). I’m not sure why there are so many stories this month on these topics…perhaps because of our new president and the party change to Republican. Or perhaps it’s because it’s that time of the year – legislation being passed and signed into law and school years coming to an end with faculty/staff preparing for next year. Whatever the reasons – it makes me wonder if we’ve truly made progress in our lives. With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we all had hope that our lives would finally become convenient with closed captioning, TTYs, and simple accessibility.

To explore this further, I went back into our storage room where we keep all the old issues dating back to 1969. I sat down and found countless issues even back in the 1970s with front-page stories that proclaimed problems with communication accessibility. It’s been 30 years, and we still are struggling. We are probably more aware of our rights today, which may explain the influx of lawsuits and public protests, but we’ve still got a long way to go.

Another story this month that really hit home for me was the James Levier shooting. As I read the official report that ruled the shooting by Maine police as justifiable, I was suddenly reminded of the Eric Smith shooting in Illinois. Eric was someone I grew up with at summer camp, and then a fellow student at Gallaudet. He was beaten by Washington, DC police in a case of mistaken identity, and severly traumatized by that experience. He left school to go back to Joliet, Ill., to try and recuperate from that experience. Eric was attending therapy and drug counseling when he got into an argument with his mother along I-55. They pulled over and to make a long story short, two police cars, both with volunteer policemen, pulled up and eventually shot Eric six times, finally killing him with the sixth shot.

The night I heard about the shooting on the local news, I e-mailed my notetaker from stats class and told him that he and the cops had screwed up (though I used far more colorful words).

You see, my notetaker at that time — purely by coincidence — was Captain Kenneth Bouche, who is a top administrator with the Illinois State Police. Ken, who was in charge of the investigation into Eric’s shooting, told me to wait until I knew the whole story before I pointed the finger at the police. We discussed the shooting at length later on. After I learned the details of the case, I realized that indeed, the shooting was justifiable – even as much as it pains me to say that.

Eric (6’1”, 260 pounds and a former state wrestling champion) held one of the policemen —  who was 5’3” — up in the air with one hand around the uniformed policeman’s neck, shaking him “like a rag doll,” as a witness said. There were 20 witnesses, and 19 had the same account of what happened. Eric should also have immediately ceased when he saw the uniformed police (regardless of his past trauma with the D.C. police). Still, I wonder if the police had misunderstood Eric’s gestures (they claim he was hitting his mother in the car. I wonder if he had simply been tapping her on the shoulder).

Within a month, another shooting took place in Illinois — this time, downstate — where a deaf man was killed. Again, a miscommunication was the cause. The police claimed Stephen Helmig — a man who couldn’t speak — had voiced repeatedly, “I’m going to kill you” as they encountered each other in the dark during a reported break-in.

With the two shootings, Captain Bouche, a wonderfully aware and keen man, determined that the unifying problem in all these shootings, in addition to having heard some of my own personal experiences with police, was miscommunication. As he said once, police can be idiots when it comes to understanding communication with deaf people. Another point he made that I found especially valid was that in all of his years as a policeman, he’d only met one deaf person. Meanwhile, every deaf person out in the community has met many, many police officers.

Bouche then formed a committee or a task force of sorts, and after two years of research and studies, that committee began teaching courses on communication issues (mind you, not teaching sign language, but rather, teaching about resources available and how to communicate with various types of deaf people, hard of hearing people, and others) at the Illinois Police Academy in Springfield. A “picture book” was also created by Sergeant John Garner of Springfield, and is in nearly every state police vehicle. These are only temporary patches and by no means anywhere near the importance of having full communication access. Even so, it does distress me to see this continuing over and over in so many states. Errol Shaw, James Levier, Eric Smith, Stephen Helmig.

Whenever I visit my parents in Illinois, I often have to drive on I-55. I know exactly the spot where Eric was shot and killed: 1/4 mile north of Harlem Avenue. And when I drive by, I think about all the times we get pulled over by police (my infamous speeding!) and how many times I get worried that communication will get mangled because of ignorance both on the police’s part and the deaf person’s part.

So, as I read the story about Levier, I felt a sense of horror and worry. First, that Levier was so despondent he felt he had to go to such extreme measures. Second, that the police felt the need to keep shooting at him — not twice, not thrice, but seven times. Third, that this won’t be the last time someone gets killed because of being deaf, or ignorance.

The next time we get pulled over for speeding or call the police for an incident in our homes, we’d better hope that the next bullet isn’t for us.

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Filed Under: Editorial, Humanity, Media, Silent News, Stereotypes

Maryland deaf citizens may get office for deaf/hard of hearing

May 1, 2001

Originally appeared in Silent News, May 2001.

Located so close to such famed civil rights events such as Deaf President Now and the passage of Americans with Disabilities Act, one would think that the state of Maryland would be a leader in achieving a program that promotes a high level of awareness about deaf and hard of hearing issues.

Think again. Maryland is one of the remaining states that does not have a commission or office serving deaf and hard of hearing people. This is almost a cruel twist of irony, considering how close to Washington, D.C. and Gallaudet University Maryland is.

The Maryland Association of the Deaf (MDAD) has been working closely with Maryland deaf residents and advocates for the passage of Senate Bill 407/House Bill 1187, which proposes the establishment of an Office for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHH). SB 407 passed unanimously on March 9 in the Senate, 45-0, and passed again in the House on March 29, 126-5.

MDAD President Astrid Goodstein said, “Both SB 407 and its companion bill HB 1187 have cleared both chambers – the Senate and the House – with some amendments to strengthen the bill. The amendments include the addition of an advisory council including members of different state departments and agencies and the Maryland School for the Deaf. I think this amendment is excellent as it ensures representation from the state agencies and better collaboration, networking and ‘partnering’ among them.”

The state of Maryland has made recommendations and performed several state-commissioned studies on this possibility, dating as far back as 1966. In 1979, the governor’s office recommended the establishment of an office after a study showed that issues were routinely ignored by the state. A document presented to the current governor’s office by Goodstein on behalf of MDAD stated, “It is astonishing to see that in the year 2000 the state of Maryland has yet to address numerous issues which were identified more than thirty years ago.”

Bea Rodgers of the Governor’s Office of Individuals with Disabilities (OID) said, “While we are not in a position to speak to why previous administrations have chosen not to establish a separate office, we believe this was not needed at the current time. Many of the states to which Maryland was being compared has service provisions as one of their key functions, resulting in annual budgets from $1 million to over $6 million. Offices in the Executive Branch of Maryland state government are traditionally not service providers. In most instances, service provision is best provided at the local level, closest to where the customer is.”

Delegate James Hubbard’s office disagreed, saying, “The proposed office to serve people who are hard of hearing or deaf is a very worthwhile endeavor. Currently, more than 60% of the people who contact the Governor’s OID for assistance are hard of hearing/deaf.”

A rally was held on March 2 in Annapolis, with signs proclaiming, “ODHH NOW!” Goodstein said, “[Fred Weiner, the master of ceremonies], brought a doughnut and showed it to the crowd. In his analogy, in the hole of the doughnut is Maryland surrounded by its neighboring states that have a central office or commission for the deaf and hard of hearing.”

This is reminiscent of Illinois’ many years of struggle to establish a commission. After a long battle, Illinois – which was also surrounded by states that already had a commission – passed a bill in 1997. The Illinois Deaf and Hard of Hearing Commission (IDHHC) opened its doors on Nov. 1, 1998, with Gerald Covell at its helm as director.

“I think it is great that Maryland [may have] one, but I am concerned as to its establishment and being assigned to the governor’s office as opposed to being an independent executive agency,” said Covell.

The rally brought appearances from Sen. Thomas Bromwell and Sen. Timothy Fergusen,  both  sponsors of SB 407. Bromwell is also chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

The only opposition comes from the Office of Individuals with Disabilities. OID’s Rodgers said “[We] have taken a position in opposition to both SB 407 and HB 1187 as being duplicative of the functions that it is currently mandated to handle.”

Rodgers continued, “We are concerned that a separate office for those who are deaf and hard of hearing will set a precedent that may result in the proliferation of other single-focused offices thereby undermining the overall need for coordination of the resources, services and expertise currently available. In addition, we are concerned that many of the problems…are service-related problems and will not be effectively addressed by the legislation as written and as a result of the accompanying fiscal note which does not provide for any service funding.” Rodgers also noted that OPD is defining services broadly to include interpreting services funding.

This poses a concern for Covell, who sent a letter of support to MDAD. “The way IDHHC is established now, we are 100 percent independent and accountable to the governor and legislators. We have more flexibility and the commission can decide what direction to go without anyone telling us one way or the other. If we are to be assigned to an agency we become part of their overall agency mission and budget with little independence,” he said.

Covell cited the Illinois School for the Deaf (ISD) as an example of how being part of an office can affect crucial decisions. “It is similar to ISD right now as they are assigned to the Department of Human Services [in Illinois] and the school has to struggle for their budget requests which is part of the bigger budget proposed by DHS,” states Covell. “Suppose DHS is requested to cut their budget by, let’s say six percent. Who gets the cuts? Programs such as ISD.”

Several community advocates testified in support of the bill on March 12. Wendy Cheng represented the Association of Late-Deafened Adults. Cheng, who lost her hearing in 1996, said, “In terms of information dissemination and referral, the existing OID does not provide quality, up-to-date information of interest to late-deafened individuals.” Cheng cited the example of her visiting the OID webpage in search of information about captioned live theatre in Maryland, which led her to another page for the Arts Access page. There was no TTY number listed, and the voice number had been disconnected when Cheng called via the relay service.

“In contrast, both Massachusetts and Virginia provide fact sheets for individuals dealing with various aspects of late-deafness,” Cheng said.

In addition, Cheng emphasized the importance of first impressions for people who may be calling the OID for initial information. “Also, the very experience of just requesting for information to OID was extremely painful. The person who answered my TTY call typed at the rate of 10 words per hour, and could not answer my question of whether OID had any information to help individuals adjust to late-deafness.”

She went on to say, “My understanding is that the receptionist is developmentally disabled, but quality customer service was compromised by having him placed in a position where the first impression can make or break a potential relationship between the late-deafened consumer and the state government.”

Three TTY calls made by Silent News to the OID resulted in hang-ups or slowly typed responses stating that the appropriate person was not available.

Delegate Joan Pitkin, one of the co-sponsors of HB 1187, said, “It is my view that Maryland is lagging behind other states in addressing the unique barriers presented to deaf and hard of hearing citizens, and the current structure of the Governor’s Office on Individuals with Disabilities does not adequately serve them – and [the OID] indeed has been historically focused on other disabilities which have received priority in attention and funding.”

Pitkin also referred to the deaf and hard of hearing community’s need for communication access rather than physical access. “They need inclusion, but on pertinent and logical terms to their type of disability,” she said.

Del. Hubbard added, “If thegovernor is creating an office for Smart Growth to protect land, he needs to create this office to protect the hard of hearing and deaf community – they are people.”

Pitkin agreed with Hubbard. “I will argue strongly to the governor that if he can find funding for a new Office of Smart Growth and a new Office of Women’s Health (a bill which did not even enjoy support from most of the women legislator – it was referred to committee and did not survive the legislative process), he can certainly find the funds to pay the start-up costs for this much needed office.”

In an e-mail response from the governor’s office, a staffer said when asked if the governor would sign the bill, “Governor Glendening is currently reviewing more than 1,000 new bills passed during the 2001 legislative session and will most likely sign most of the legislation. If upon careful review of the bill creating [the office] there are no unexpected issues with the legislation he is expected to sign the bill into law.”

Maryland has over 575,000 deaf and hard of hearing citizens. More information about MDAD and the bill may be found at www.mdad.org.

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Filed Under: Silent News

Man upset over abuse, shot by police

May 1, 2001

Originally appeared in Silent News, May 2001.

“I give my life to free deaf people from hearing slaves” was the message written on James Levier’s white mini-van as he paced the parking lot of a grocery store in Scarborough, Maine, with a hunting rifle in hand.

Last month, yet another incident drew attention to the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf (GBSD) located in Falmouth. Levier, 60, paced with a rifle outside of a Shop ‘N’ Save grocery store. 200 people hid in the back of the store during the incident.

“Should I trust lawmakers?” he wrote on his van.

Governor Baxter has been plagued with proven accusations of sexual and physical abuse dating back to the 1950s. The state, in March, determined that victims of the sexual abuse would not be compensated due to a number of reasons, including a lack of specific definition of what ‘abuse’ consisted of.

Levier attended GBSD from the ages of 7 to 18, said Josie Little, Levier’s niece. “James was the first person to ever testify on the abuse that took place in front of legislature. He had been fighting for years to have things changed and the people punished for what they did.”

However, charges could not be pressed due to a statute of limitations. Levier was part of A Safer Place, a support group for victims of abuse at GBSD that meets monthly.

In an interview with News 8 WMTW (Portland) TV in June 1999, he said, “Deep inside, I feel like a prisoner. I feel like something’s controlling me, keeping me.”

The hopelessness that Levier apparently felt was what drove Levier to that parking lot on March 16, says his family.

Just exactly what happened in that Shop ‘N’ Save parking lot is where the differences in accounts begin to emerge.

The Maine Attorney General’s office released a report that labels Levier’s shooting by the Scarborough police as justifiable. “Several officers from Scarborough, the State Police, and other area departments quickly contained Mr. Levier to a confined area of the parking lot, while other officers evacuated shoppers and employees from the mall stores and other businesses, including a nearby day-care center. Attempts to persuade Mr. Levier to relinquish his rifle were unsuccessful, although it appeared to several officers that Mr. Levier understood the repeated commands to do so. On several occasions during the standoff, Mr. Levier shouted for the officers to shoot him,” the report outlined.

Levier’s niece Little explained, “He knew he had to bring something that would get attention, so he brought his rifle. He never threatened anyone in the parking lot or the stores. He stayed next to his van and passed back and forth, holding his rifle up in the air. He never fired his gun at all. The police came and after about a half hour, they called in the interpreter who was hearing, she knew James for about 12 years.”

The report continued, “The police were successful in getting an interpreter qualified in American Sign Language to the scene, but her attempts at communicating with Mr. Levier were unsuccessful because of the distance that had to be maintained between the two for her own protection. It was while the police were attempting to devise a plan that would safely allow for the interpreter to get closer to Mr. Levier that Levier threatened to shoot at a group of officers and was shot.”

Little disagrees with this. “They would not let [the interpreter] get close enough to talk with James. He did not know she was there. The police kept asking her what is he saying but she could not tell them even with looking through binoculars – she was that far away.”

The report also said, “Approximately one hour after the stand-off began, Mr. Levier advanced to within approximately 60 feet of a group of officers. Seconds later he assumed a shooter’s stance, raised the rifle to his shoulder, and sighted in on the group of officers.”

According to the attorney general’s office, Levier was armed with a .30-.30 caliber rifle that had a ballistic velocity that could easily penetrate vehicles. After the shooting, the state found that his rifle’s hammer had been fully cocked and his rifle was loaded with several live rounds, including one in the chamber.

Police initially claimed that Levier was the first to shoot, but several individuals later disputed this, including the interpreter and witnesses. A Scarborough officer’s single shot was the first, followed in quick succession by three rounds from a second officer, and then a single shot from each of two other officers.

“The police said that his gun was loaded, but the interpreter said he was cocking his rifle while he was marching – which I have been told kicks out the bullets. She says he did this about seven times while she was there, and that one of the officers told her he had done this a few times before she got there…if this is true, he would not have had anything in his rifle. This was also a one-shot rifle, so even if he had shot, they would have known he was done,” said Little.

Indeed, after investigating the matter further, the attorney’s office found that Levier never once fired his weapon. “The impression of several witnesses who told investigators that Mr. Levier discharged his weapon was attributed to the combination of hearing the sound of Trooper Sperrey’s shot, accompanied at the same moment by the observation of Mr. Levier’s gun shoulder recoiling, which was a result of being struck by the shot,” the report said.

With these details in place, it is quite difficult for Levier’s family to understand exactly why things happened the way they did. The family also learned of Levier’s death through secondhand information. Little said, “The family was never notified at all, [even though] the police had James’s daughter’s number on file because she was who they called when they arrested him [previously for an unrelated charge]. The family found out of his death on the news, and they showed him being shot on the 10:00 news.”

Sara Treat is a licensed counselor who works with A Safer Place. “It was well known that he was depressed a lot and felt a lot of pain from his past. We can never know exactly what he was thinking or going through the day he went to Shop ‘N’ Save,” she said in a recent talk at the New England Mental Health and Deafness conference in Maine.

“It seemed clear though that he wanted to get a message out that would wake people up about the Deaf community and the abuses and discrimination that they suffer. That day he apparently thought that by dying, he could to that,” Treat added.

The family of James Levier is still reeling from the chain of events. Little said, “There is no way to justify this in my eyes. We have to make sure this does not happen to another person.”

Perhaps, most fitting to this story is a note that Levier left on his door before he drove to the shopping plaza. In the note, he wrote, “I would rather die than suffer a slave to a hearing world. Please protect my deaf friends, family and children, etc. I go to war with lawmakers fail to protect me my rights. The end. James Levier.”

Copyrighted material. This article cannot be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the written consent of the author.

Filed Under: Interpreting, Language, Silent News

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