“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.”

— 

Sign Language Ban Imposed on N.J. Girl - ABC News (via vincenzof)

Wth

(via teletub1es)

…I just want to know how that could possibly be a safety hazard. Is she a firebender and her signing is threatening to set people on fire or something?

(via jadelyn)

The only context I can think of where sign language could be dangerous would be if you are in an area where there is a lot of gang activity in which case people might mistake sign language for gestures gang members use to identify themselves to each other or some such thing and assume the people signing are from a rival gang, which could provoke attacks on the people signing.  I think that kind of thing may have even actually happened to a few deaf people (but am too lazy to try googling for examples).  But … I might just be ignorant (since I know so little about gang activity) but I hadn’t thought of NJ as being a hotbed for gang rivalry. I tend to think of that as being an LA thing.

But, yeah.  As a deaf person, even though I can lipread SOME people in SOME circumstances sort of okay-ish and speak clearly enough to be understood by most native English speakers who are accustomed to American accents, I would *still* be pretty upset if people tried to tell me that I wasn’t allowed to sign to others (or allow others to sign to me, which is when I need it more).  Because speaking/lipreading (but especially lipreading) doesn’t work for me in all circumstances, only some. So signing is still important back-up when it’s available to me (i.e. when around others who know some signs).

I have heard of wheelchair riders being accused of being fire hazards and refused admission into schools and movie theaters because of it.  But this is the first I’ve heard of someone trying to claim sign language (!) as a hazard.

(via andreashettle)

I have seen cases where similar excuses got pulled out for trying to stop people from speaking other minority languages in schools and workplaces. With the real xenophobic reasoning being “they might say things we don’t like if we can’t monitor every word”. They can wrap that up in “safety” concerns about possible bullying and insults (which the supposed targets won’t even understand) all they want to, but it still boils down to “they might say things we don’t like”. :( (via clatterbane)