Parents see need for deaf school

Gena Marino's 10-year-old son David is in fifth grade. While some of his classmates delve into the classics, he reads at a second-grade level.

"And, to be honest, I don't think he really comprehends what he's reading at that level," his mother said.

This is not a matter of a student being pushed through the system and having a chance to "catch up" later. It goes deeper than that.

As an infant David didn't react to startling noises, didn't respond to Gena clapping near his ear. Tests confirmed what she knew in her heart. Her son was deaf.

"I thought, 'How am I ever going to tell this child that I love him?' " she said.

The Marinos took David to Special Children's Clinic, 6171 W. Charleston Blvd., a state-run early intervention program. Gena learned signing and, at 8 months, David signed "drink" -- his first word. It was a cause for celebration.

David attended preschool at Ruby Thomas Elementary with other deaf children. He seemed to thrive and picked up more sign language, though he didn't read lips.

Then the rules changed and he was mainstreamed into a hearing class in first grade. Hurdles appeared daily like trying to watch both the main teacher as she wrote on the blackboard and the signing teacher across the room or the slow process of getting information and relaying questions through an intermediary. After two weeks, David was so frustrated, he cried, not wanting to go to school.

So Gena went with him and got permission to sit in on his class. What she saw shocked her.

"The teacher would throw a Kooshball at the deaf kids when she wanted their attention," she said. "I couldn't believe it. They were treating deaf kids no better than animals."

Like other parents of deaf students at Ruby Thomas, Gena tried to get the children back in a separate classroom. Each time, she said, her efforts were frustrated by a system that makes decisions without taking time to be truly informed.

So David continued in a system that mixed hearing students with deaf students. Although he did not comprehend many of the lessons, was well behind in reading and writing, he kept getting passed to the next grade. This year, David was put in an all-deaf class but Gena feels he'd be better off in a school for the deaf where everybody signs.

There's hope one such school is coming to Las Vegas.

For the past three years, Maureen Parente, a substitute teacher who signs, has been working to establish the Las Vegas Charter School for the Deaf. Her own grandson is one of the dozens of deaf students at Ruby Thomas. He is 11 and reads at a first-grade level.

She has everything in place to open her school in August -- the building, the paperwork and, most importantly, teachers who are trained to work with deaf students.

"Parents shouldn't have to send their children out of state (for an education)," she said.

To help raise the last $400,000 needed, the school will benefit from Springfest III. The concert is to be held from 4 to 9 p.m. May 12 at Faith Lutheran High School's outdoor amphitheater, 2015 S. Hualapai Way. Tickets are $25.

The line-up of performers includes Mel Carter, Clint Holmes, Bill Acosta, Paige O'Hara, Michael Piontek, Sonny Turner, Woody Woods and The Scintas. For additional information on Springfest, call 658-7654. Maureen Parente can be reached at 242-8890.