Pocono News Section

Rally Held to Save Scranton State School for the Deaf

Rally Held to Save Scranton State School for the Deaf - Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 6:55PM EST

SCRANTON, LACKAWANANNA COUNTY- Students, parents and other supporters vow to continue the fight to keep the area's only school for the deaf open. A rally was held Saturday where demonstrators had a message for Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.
Kayla Miller is a second generation student at the Scranton State School for the Deaf, and can't imagine life without it. "It's so hard for me to list everything, there's so much. This school has changed my life,” she told Eyewitness News through an interpreter.

Daphne Jones started school here last year after being in mainstream public schools. "My first year of school - so different. My public school, I seemed to get Fs, I failed," she explained.

Supporters held a rally with local government officials, hoping the governor puts the school back in the budget.

A petition was started three weeks ago to keep the school open -- they have 25,000 signatures - and counting.

Ruth Gerrity, President of the SSSD Teachers' Association said, "We have people calling every day, when can we drop them off, so we're by no means finished."

The SACDHH tells Eyewitness News the cost per student per year here is about $80,000. If those students were sent back to the public school system, it would cost more than $100,000 per student.

Jeffrey Weber, SAC For Deaf And Hard Of Hearing, said, "The main thing is need for interpreters, and that would cost between $56,000 and $60,000 alone, then regular ed costs on top of that."

Students know what they'd say to the governor. "I'm not going to give up the fight for this school. I'm not. I'm going to argue. I want this school to stay open," explained Miller.

"It's hard for us to express this, you're hurting us. This is school, it's my home, it's my family," added Jones.

And they hope Governor Rendell will use his ability to hear -- and start listening.

If the school closes, students would be forced to go to mainstream public schools, pay for private school, or move to another state that funds a school for the deaf.