The father of a deaf child is frustrated with what he sees as a lack of progress made after a human rights tribunal that ruled his son was discriminated against by the English School District.
Todd Churchill is upset after seeing a job ad posted by the school board for an itinerant teacher who will be working with his son.
Churchill says although the successful candidate will be teaching his son Carter at St. Paul’s Junior High next year, there is no specified minimum American Sign Language Proficiency required.
A high proficiency in ASL is preferred according to the ad, which outlines an ability to communicate in American Sign Language. Churchill says a French teacher has specified minimum requirements and testing to prove that proficiency. When it comes to ASL, says Churchill, “there doesn’t seem to be any change in the district’s attitude toward the necessity of ensuring a teacher has the required proficiency to teach our son.”
Carter Churchill is shown in this 2019 file photo.
The English School District says the ad read “preferred” instead of “mandatory/required” because there are not enough applicants to fill the need. The district says it will seek and hire qualified staff with superior proficiency, but “history has proven” they would be lucky to secure even one successful candidate.
The district tells VOCM News by using “mandatory/required” in its ad, it runs the risk of leaving four itinerant positions vacant. As a result, the district says it is better to hire training Deaf and Hard of Hearing Itinerants, and provide training, than to risk not having any Deaf and Hard of Hearing Itinerants at all.
Earlier this week, Churchill discovered through an ATIPP request that the English School District had paid close to $700,000 dollars to defend itself in a human rights complaint made by the Churchills.
