Louisiana Voice

Because we are extremely frugal in the control of expenses, LouisianaVoice is not one of those news services that requires thousands of dollars a week just to survive. That’s a lot of pressure.

We’re pretty much low-budget because we have to be. Though the plural “we” is used frequently in posts, it’s really an “I” operation. I am the sole proprietor and the only staff writer. I can’t be everywhere at once, though I try to be in as many places as possible.

Despite that, there are expenses. That’s why I come to you twice a year – October and April – to ask for your support. Occasionally, I’ll have a book offer that brings in a few bucks but basically, this is our only source of income.

Fortunately, we’re not too far from our goal of $2500 for this six-month period (that’s only about $400 a month), so please help with what you can if you like stories like the one above this.

I know it’s been tough coming off the pandemic shutdown only to plow head-on with runaway inflation, so I’m not asking you to give if you cannot afford it – only if you feel comfortable helping. If so, click on the big, oblong yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this pathetic post and follow the directions to give by credit card. If you prefer, send a check to Capital News Service, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727.

As always, I humbly thank you.

In the fall of 2017, the Louisiana Department of Education (DOE), with a few discretionary dollars lying around, funded a 17-page study of findings and recommendations for the Louisiana School for the Deaf (LSD), the Louisiana School for the Vision Impaired (LSVI), and the Louisiana Special Education Center (LSEC), all of which are under the umbrella of the Special School District (SSD). The report by the Education Development Center was submitted on Marcy 5, 2018.

Today, 4½ years later, that report is gathering dust on a shelf somewhere, few of its proposals ever implemented. Morale, meanwhile, particularly at LSD, is at an all-time low as the school finds itself in a state of turmoil, and uncertainty.

Worst of all, no one at DOE seems to really care about anything but establishing some sort of political fiefdom at SSD and members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) are either oblivious to conditions or derelict in carrying out their duties. And if a sit-down with one BESE member is any indication, then dereliction may well be the applicable term.

DOE appears hell-bent on ridding itself of qualified personnel while replacing them with appointees with little or no credentials in educating hard-of-hearing or vision-impaired students – even to the point of installing LSD administrators with zero experience in sign language skills.

At the same time, LouisianaVoice has learned that a former DOE official was hired in 2014 after the department advertised her position only in a Washington, D.C. publication at the time she was residing in Washington. The position was not advertised in say, Baton Rouge, where the job was, and it just happened that at the time, she was preparing to move to Louisiana so that her husband could work in the gubernatorial campaign of then-US Sen. David Vitter. Sometimes the dots are so easy to connect that it’s almost laughable. Almost.

Moreover, that individual, State Special Education Director Jamie Wong, launched her own consulting company, SPED Strategies, and has obtained consulting contracts with several parish school systems without having to go through a bid process because she provided affidavits that falsely claimed that her company was a “sole source” provider of services she offered (more on that tomorrow).

Meanwhile, the purge of personnel qualified to work with deaf and hard-of-hearing students is in full swing and no one seems to fully comprehend why.

On July 25, Dr. Ernest Garrett, III, superintendent of Louisiana’s Special School District which oversees LSD, LSVI, AND LSEC, was fired by the SSD board from the position he had held for nearly three years.

Then, in quick succession, LSD Director Dr. Heather Laine and Gloria M. Ramos, one of only three speech-language pathologists who is fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) in Louisiana, were terminated. Actually, Ramos resigned as it appeared she was about to be shown the door. She has since been banned from the campus because on her way out, she paused with some of her students to say goodbye.

The reasons given for discipline and/or dismissal of all three were pretty much cookie-cutter justifications with no real specifics provided other than insubordination for Ramos’s expressed concern about taking on an excessive number of student cases which she feared would leave her exposed to legal liability, a position ridiculed by Garrett’s successor, acting superintendent Katherine Granier. For Garrett, the reason given was “payroll discrepancies and attendance issues,” again vague justifications which will, in all probability, invite legal action on Garrett’s part.

Jay Isch, executive director of Deaf Focus, said of Garrett’s termination, “He was absolutely sabotaged.”

“All these problems with the administration go to show how critical competent leadership at deaf schools is,” Isch continued. “These people do not understand. They continue to ignorantly and maybe inadvertently discriminate against deaf or hard of hearing members of the faculty. They do not understand how deaf schools should operate. Deaf schools also carry a lot of weight in being a beacon for deaf communities across the country. The school has a moral obligation to employ deaf and hard-of-hearing professionals to work with [these] children and sustain the economy of the ‘deaf ecosystem’ to ensure employment opportunities are there [them] rather than filling the campus with incompetent people who do not understand deaf education.”

Garrett, who is deaf and who possesses extensive experience in working with deaf students and who is proficient in signing, was replaced by Katherine Granier, who has no background in teaching deaf students and who is unable to communicate in ASL.

Granier has been rejecting new students because of staff shortages and then cutting staff positions based on the low number of enrolled students, one person with knowledge of the school told LouisianaVoice – even as available grand funds from the state have gone unutilized to fill the gaps.

“Grievances from multiple employees have been filed. Former employees have shared their experience at the district as recently as a few weeks ago, and it is horrendous,” Isch said. “The blatant discrimination against Deaf professionals and the abuse of power are appalling and I feel that the Louisiana Commission for the Deaf needs to step in to call out the administration for their inexpertise (sic), incompetency, and pettiness. We need to support the newly-appointed SSD Board in their navigation towards being knowledgeable and aware. As the Board of the district, they play a critical role in ensuring that the Louisiana School for the Deaf receives the support they need and the appropriate guidance from competent administrators to do so. 

“We feel the administration is taking advantage of the fact that the SSD Board is new and not aware. As an advocate, I have been personally involved in advocating for competent leadership at LSD for over 5 years, and we are going back to square one. Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been spent on the assessment of the district, and the search/hiring of competent leadership. Now, they’re tearing all of that progress apart, taking us back to where we started. The administration is hiring incompetent people with no qualifying background, hiring people before the application period even concludes, and allowing them to run the school into the ground.”

Folks, LouisianaVoice’s October fundraiser is a little more than halfway through and I’ve tried not to be too big a pest this time, choosing instead to leave the real grifting up to the professionals – people like Donald Trump and certain televangelists who seem to be fundraising 24/7/365. Just today, I have received 24 solicitation from Trump – and it’s only 3:15 p.m.

But I have to be honest. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been beating the drum daily for your generosity to kick in, but whatever the reason, it’s been down this month. Check out the story right below this one (and the one above it) to see what we’re trying to do here.

No one else is going to bat for these students at the Louisiana School for the Deaf and the Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired. Perhaps it’s because LSD serves fewer than 100 students. But so what? They deserve a quality education just as your kids do. And the administration at LSD is encouraging them not to use sign language, but to speak instead. It kinda reminds you of how they tried to assiminate Native Americans into the Ango Saxon culture and to abandon their own native languages.

But back to my shameless panhandling. We need your help to do what we do. I’ve got a trip to north Louisiana coming up on another story and gas isn’t 30 cents a gallon like it was when I got my first reporting job more than half-a-century ago. So please click on the magic yellow DONATE button in the column to the upper right of this post and give what you can. Or mail a check to Capital News Service, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727.

And as ol’ Tennessee Ernie Ford used to say, “Bless your pea-pickin’ heart.”

Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to the board of directors for the Louisiana Special School District by the Louisiana Association of the Deaf board of directors in an effort to address growing concerns about the loss of qualified staff at the Louisiana School for the Deaf. The letter was written after repeated attempts, without success, to address the SSD board about mounting problems at the school:

As you know, the Louisiana Association of the Deaf (LAD) wrote to you on June 3, 2022, July 8, 2022, and again on August 8, 2022 concerning urgent issues affecting the continuing and successful operation of the Louisiana School for the Deaf (LSD). Each of our good faith attempts, as stakeholders, to communicate with the SSD Board was ignored. Most blatantly, our August 8, 2022 correspondence, which was sent Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested, was refused by Acting Superintendent Katherine Granier.

Since the inception of LAD almost 115 years ago by alumni of LSD, our organization has supported and advocated for the staff, students, and parents of the Louisiana School for the Deaf. Never, in those 115 years, has LAD been so disrespected by the SSD leadership by being ignored and dismissed in our attempt to address such significant issues affecting the future of the school.

We have attempted to come to you, as concerned stakeholders and advocates, to proactively discuss serious issues affecting LSD. Now, months after our first formal correspondence to you, these same issues have multiplied to the point of endangering the very existence of LSD.

We have repeatedly attempted to communicate to the Board that actions taken by Acting Superintendent Granier have subverted and ignored all recommendations made in the Louisiana Department of Education-commissioned Special School District Review. This review by the Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative/Education Development Center, Inc., Perkins School for the Blind, American School for the Deaf, and the Cotting School, done at considerable taxpayer cost, stated that “For SSD and the schools to be successful, it is essential that Leaders have the appropriate levels of expertise.”

Pursuant to the SSD Report of 2018, a Strategic Plan for 2021-2024 was developed and adopted by the SSD Board. Since the appointment of Katherine Granier as Acting Superintendent of SSD, the goals of the Strategic Plan, as well as the recommendations of the 2018 Report, have been abandoned.

The first guiding principle of the Plan was to implement a streamlined organizational structure with system-wide policies and collaborative decision-making. Instead, Ms. Granier immediately began implementing wide-ranging changes without the input of SSD administrators and staff, including the hiring of unqualified administrators such as the new Chief Academic Officer, Venesa Harris-Edwards, who lacks any certification in deaf education of education of the blind/visually impaired, and the hiring of her child’s former Gifted Teacher who lacks any special education certification or experience, as an Instructional Specialist, without regard for their lack of experience and certifications, and without input of SSD administrators and staff.

The next guiding principle of the Plan is to cultivate an organizational culture that is engaging, collaborative, and inclusive, and built on open communication and transparency. Instead, SSD staff have been left out of all decision-making. Instead of working in an inclusive environment, numerous staff have reported they live in fear of unjust harassment and discipline and are treated rudely by Ms. Granier and the new CAO. Ms. Granier’s and Ms. Harris-Edwards’s total disregard for open communication are exemplified by Ms. Harris-Edwards and the new Instructional Strategist, Ms. Perpetra Frazier, visiting classrooms and staff without bringing interpreters with them, thus rendering any authentic communication between them, staff, and students impossible, and in possible violation of the ADA.

The Strategic Plan discusses an integrated talent management approach to attract, develop, and retain a team of high-performing employees. Instead, school administrators are left out of all hiring decisions, uncertified/unqualified people are hired, and multiple staff have resigned or been fired since Ms. Granier’s tenure as Acting Superintendent began.

Since our last attempted communication with the Board, staff have been prevented from performing their job duties as delineated in their job descriptions. Students continue to not receive the Speech/Language Therapy services mandated in their Individual Education Plans (IEPs). Federal IDEA funds continue to remain unexpended by both SSD and LSD/LSVI.

Now, in the most egregious action to date, Dr. Heather Laine has been terminated for charges that we believe will lose on the merits if taken to a court of law. The aforementioned 2018 Report stressed the need for qualified leaders, with the educational credentials, expertise, experience, and cultural competency to direct the growth and progress of the SSD schools. Dr. Laine exemplifies those qualities and credentials. She has the support of the LSD staff and students, and her integrity and performance have never been called into question prior to Ms. Granier’s appointment as Acting Superintendent. The termination of such a well-respected, and supported, deaf leader is the complete antithesis of what was recommended in the 2018 Report.

The actions of Ms. Granier, especially towards faculty and staff who are deaf, gives the appearance that she is attacking in a systematic way all who use ASL. Ms. Granier and her CAO have made statements in meetings and in classrooms that students WILL be taught to talk—period. Their apparent distain for ASL violates the rights of students and their parents, who have chosen LSD to provide a unique, language-rich environment. Her blanket attempt to prioritize spoken English, while encouraging the use of hearing aids and cochlear implants, may well also be in violation of students’ IEPs and the provisions of the ADA.

For the reasons described above, as well as those communicated in previous correspondence to the SSD Board, LAD formally requests that the following actions be considered at the November 1, 2022 SSD Board Meeting, and that the public be allowed to speak in support of these demands:

1. We are requesting the immediate removal of Ms. Granier and Ms. Harris-Edwards from their current positions. Neither administrator possesses academic certifications in Deaf Education or Education of the Blind/Visually Impaired; neither person possesses Ed Leadership certifications required for all administrative positions in public school districts. Furthermore, neither administrator is capable of communicating using ASL, and refuse to use interpreters in their campus visits to LSD. The majority of LSD staff have no confidence in either Ms. Granier or Ms. Harris-Edwards, as they feel bullied and disrespected by them, as well as living in constant fear of undeserved discipline and/or termination. We believe the recent survey, if provided to all staff members, will confirm these assertions.

 2. The history of SSD reflects the need for leadership that possesses a deep knowledge of the low incidence, unique disabilities represented in each of the three SSD programs. Because such experience, expertise, academic certification, and cultural competency in the disabilities represented in the three SSD programs are critical to the success of the schools, we are supporting a Tripartite Superintendency: that the Directors of each of the three SSD schools, together, fill this role. This innovation will not only save SSD millions of dollars in a Superintendent’s salary and benefits going forward, but most importantly, will provide for the unique leadership requirements needed to best serve SSD’s unique populations. Even if this model is not adopted permanently, it is imperative that it be implemented immediately during the pendency of the superintendent search.

 3. We are asking for the immediate reversal of the termination of Dr. Heather Laine, her reinstatement of Director of LSD, as well as an investigation of all other disciplinary actions taken by Ms. Granier and Ms. Harris-Edwards towards other SSD staff.

4. We are requesting that the Board assures that no retaliatory measures of any kind will be taken against any current SSD employees from any of the schools if they chose to participate, outside of work hours, in any public demonstration held to express support for Dr. Laine and the other requests listed in this memorandum.

5. We are requesting a public report on the outcome of all outstanding grievances filed against Ms. Granier and/or Ms. Harris-Edwards, including the timelines followed in the grievance process.

 6. We are requesting that the SSD Board investigate and report to the public the failure to use IDEA funds allocated to both SSD and LSD/LSVI since at least 2018, along with Ms. Granier’s role as CFO in not expending such federal funds.

 7. We are requesting that the SSD Board quell suspicions that the actions of Ms. Granier and Ms. Harris-Edwards have been designed to undermine the continued existence of LSD and LSVI. Their unjustified actions, especially in disciplining and terminating the most qualified staff, give the appearance of a deliberate sabotage of the schools, leaving the public to wonder if charter school investors are waiting in the wings to take over the campuses for financial gain.

Despite being ignored in our repeated good faith attempts to communicate with the Board, LAD will continue its long legacy of supporting and advocating for the staff, students, and parents of the Louisiana School for the Deaf 

Sincerely,

Jimmy Challis Gore, M. Ed

President

Board of Directors

Louisiana Association of the Deaf, Inc.

Please don’t forget our October fundraiser. We try to bring you stories that get overlooked by others but which are vitally important to those who wish to make wise decisions come election time.

We’ve covered State Police, the legislature, the Department of Hospitals, legal developments, wrongful convictions, private prisons, and a multitude of other subjects. But it does take money to pursue some of these stories. For instance, I am working on a story about how jury selection can be just that – selective and to get that story, I’ve had to make records requests of all 64 parish clerks of court. Some are helpful and forthcoming with information. Others want to be paid. One parish wants $1,000 while another has sent a bill for $285.

I’m not buying a mansion or a jet with your contributions. I don’t even own a suit. At my age, I don’t even buy a full tank of gas. I’m using your hard-earned money to go after the hard-to-get stories.

If you can squeeze a little out of your inflation-riddled budget, please click on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post and pay by credit card. Or you may send a check to Capital News Service, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727. (That’s the way the bank account is set up and my bank is getting picky about checks to LouisianaVoice because the account is in the name of Capital News Service.)

As always, your generosity is deeply appreciated.