Mocking Hearing Inpaired

[ShockMe]

To be quite shocked that after a member of the public had posted that they had found a hearing aid and hoped to re-unite it with it's owner.. Our local school's SEN teacher commented 'Pardon?'

Deaf is the inability to hear

It has nothing to do with sign language

I am severely deaf. That is not me saying that. That is my medical diagnoses. The next step up from that (or down I suppose) would be profound deaf.

I don't sign because I never learned to. It would have been massively beneficial to me but I've gotten by this long.

By that reasoning, I am less deaf than a hearing person who can sign?

a large percentage of them identify as Deaf - they sign (BSL/ASL etc)

It's not a large percentage at all. Deaf sign language users are a tiny minority of the entire deaf population.

Nevertheless Very is right. The proportion of deaf people who are Deaf is very small. Even the proportion of deaf people who sign is very small. That's why I always hang back when you get these petitions calling for all schools to teach BSL. Most deaf people couldn't understand even of you did speak to them in BSL.
However it is of course very very important to that minority.

very i think you missed my point, which was they identify as being Deaf.

You're right, I must have missed your point, because your post stated that "5% of the world's population are deaf, a large percentage of them identify as Deaf."

That is the part of the post I was responding to. That statement simply isn't accurate. Only a tiny minority of audiologically "deaf" people identify as Deaf.

What is it you think I'm missing?

Responding to the OP. I've worn hearing aids for over 20 years and get this all the time. I laugh it off but to tell the truth, after all this time I'm pretty fucking sick of it. Being deaf seems to be a really hilarious disability to some people.

Whether anyone here finds the 'joke' funny or unfunny or offensive or otherwise isn't really the point. No one knows who the owner of the lost hearing aid is and how they would feel about the remark.
It is only acceptable in any way if the SEN teacher is herself the owner of the lost hearing aid. ( I assume she isn't.)
Even if she were, given her known position in the community, it was an insensitive and unprofessional thing to post.

Bigfatbollocks you crack me up and I really could do with slapping you around the faceof a few of the FB idiots. IYKWIM

Shock is going to slap people around the face with Bigfatbollocks.

I'd pay to watch

I was just stating how out of hand this thread has become, gone off piste a fair bit in some posts, don't know how this happens!? I agree that the comment was unnecessary but its beginning to read like a public hanging, the OPS depth of offence has blown up and lots of people seem to be getting caught up in the waves of it to an amplified degree not necessarily proportionate to how the comment was intended, there by causing more offence to a wider audience that would not have seen the original comment.

and your point is? You have one opinion and many people have another.

I wouldn't want the teacher in question teaching a deaf child of mine.

Shock is going to slap people round the face with BIGFATBOLLOCKS and CHIPPEDNAILVARNISH

I suppose the point I'm making is, nobody else can decide for you how offended you should feel about certain things, if the OP felt that this comment was career breaking offensive then lodge a formal complaint to appropriate person's, to have come on here in the first place to ask whether its funny or not is head scratching to me as an adult I wouldn't need to use others opinion as a barometer of how offended I find something, its gut instinct, act on that, not others.

User I have actually become more offended you are right. Not angry or aggressive or out for anyone to lose their job. But I have become more offended because I have thought about it more, and I have listened to people on this thread and realised just how fucking out of order it is for the 'hearing' community (for want of a better description) to tell me (on the FB thread) that 'Pardon?' Is an hilarious and inoffensive comment to make to a deaf person. I have realised even more just how isolating deafness can be for some people and how vulnerable they can feel, and to have frequent piss take comments by people who have absolutely no fucking idea is absolutely not on. It is a disability, and that fact should be shown some fucking respect and treated in the same way as other disabilities by all. I have never been one to snigger at a 'pardon?' joke, or laugh at someone's disfigurement, disability, mental health state or colour of skin. And I think everyone should be equally respected. I feel ashamed of the members of my community (hearing) that still think it is funny. And I am quite shocked too.

Also she may not have intended the comment to offend, but it did - and she hasn't apologised to the people who have said it did. And she is qualified more than most to realise it could offend, but she still posted it on a community page where she is a SEN teacher at the local school. Stupid? Maybe. Careless? Maybe. I don't know why she did it but I know it is a shit example to set in a small community by someone who should know better.

User the woman works as a SEN teacher. If someone in that role can't demonstrate a bit of tact and empathy, and think how flippant 'jokes' like hers can affect people when they get it time after time, then is she really in the right line of work?

My dc has a Teacher for the Deaf (comes to visit at mainstream school). I could no more imagine her making a public crack like that than I could imagine her streaking on the pitch next time England play at Wembley. She's highly professional and passionate in advocating for the children she works with, and that's how it should be.

X-post with OP.

Totally agree with feeling offended about the FB responders finding it funny and I too feel despair if anything towards this, what I hope is a minority of people.

User I'm not deaf. And I was being told (on the original FB thread) that anyone who took offence to the 'joke' was 'over-sensitive', the comment was 'meant in fun' we (people that raised an issue with it) needed to 'chill out and go and do some charity work as we had too much time on our hands' it was 'tongue in cheek' '2 deaf friends of mine found it funny therefore it must be' etc etc etc. My gut told me it was not a very nice comment to make especially by someone in her position in our community. There are deaf children in our community who would fall under her remit. I posted on here because I originally worried that I may be being over sensitive about it and because I am not deaf it was hard for me to judge. The comments made by posters here reinforced my gut feeling.

Are you going to take it any further?

As I understand it there are parents whose children are at the school who are going to raise it with the Head.

Margot your schools Teacher for the Deaf sounds fabulous. Just as they should be. Brilliant to hear.

I apologise OP, this does go some way to explain your offence! Its the bloody FB community that sound worse!!

I'll be interested to see what the outcome is OP. Even if she just deletes the post in question.