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SJ4st as being deaf presents many chal-
nges, gaining acceptance to college
isnot an easy task.
"For a deaf person to get here, it is
very difficult," Smith said.
"Obviously because of communica-
tinn problems."
This year, there are 28 deaf students
the University.
"The group of (deaf) students here
is so well-adjusted, but lonely," Smith
said. "It only takes a second to get
used to a deaf person's speech. People
often ask, 'Can deaf people drive?' or
say, 'Oh, they're deaf and dumb."'
Smith said she looks forward to a
time when falsehoods about deaf peo-
ple end, and communities begin to
embrace sign language.
The only way for students to learn
*ign language on campus now is
through a not-for-credit course Smith
teaches one night a week. The
University, unlike Michigan State
University and Madonna University in
Livonia, Mich., does not offer
American Sign Language as part of its
language curriculum.
'Do we teach sign language?"
Smith asked. "No - we teach Ojibwa.
epple call every day asking where
Vhey can learn sign language."
Smith's first sign language class on
Sept. 18 was well attended, and she
ipes more students will become
involved during the rest of the year.
"(The University) has been telling
me for years that they will offer sign
fanguage as a class," Smith said.
Things only get done when students
do it."
RC first-year student Suzanne
*ong, who attended Smith's class, said
sign language is vital to society.
"It's important for everybody to
know sign language," Song said. "It's
uhiversal - so we can communicate
with everyone."
LSA senior Edgar Gamboa, who
has no deaf relatives or friends, said
sign language can prove to be a useful
$ool for almost anyone.
"I'm curious about sign language
ecause it's the third most common
language in this country" Gamboa
said. "It's important for people to learn
in case they need it."
In addition to the sign language
plass, there are other social activities
that are planned to include the deaf
jommunity.
"People here are more open, and
seem to know more," said LSA first-
year student Rachel Arfa, who is hear-
*ng-impaired. "I try to tell people not
to be afraid to talk to a deaf person."
David Duarte, a graduate student
who works as an interpreter in
University classes, said it is important
to look a deaf person in the face when
speaking.
"(Deaf) people look at your facial
expressions, they lip read and look at
body language," he said.
As a child, Smith said she knew
wvhat her future held.
"Both of my grandparents were
deaf," Smith said. "So I was kind of
born into my profession"
The photos in Smith's office are a
rich reflection of the experiences she
has shared with people at the
University and throughout the coun-
try. She said she looks forward to
working with deaf people, educating
the non-deaf and discreetly pushing
he University to develop sign-lan-
guage courses that offer academic
credit.
"If I'm a pain in the butt, they'll dis-
like deaf people," Smith said. "But
they notice me."
Check out the
Daily online.
http://wwwpub.umich
eduldally!
LOCAL/STATE The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 25, 19
'U' students conduct anti-violence workshops
D96 - 7
Students team up with
Washtenaw County Court to
preach non-violence
By Christopher Wan
Daily Staff Reporter
In an effort to develop a less aggressive com-
munity for future generations, University students
and faculty are working with several area groups
to inoculate children against violence.
Psychology Prof. L. Rowell Huesman heads the
SafeMichigan Children's Initiative, a violence pre-
vention program sponsored by the University in
collaboration with the Juvenile Division of the
Washtenaw County Probate Court, the Family
Independence Agency and the Ann Arbor Public
Schools.
Huesman said the project serves to "intervene
with children's lives and make them less likely to
grow up to be aggressive, violent individuals."
"Children form scripts in how to behave social-
ly," Huesman said. "We hope to catch the children
before the scripts crystallize."
Under the program, second- and fourth-graders
from participating schools and foster children
attend workshops weekly for one school year. The
workshops are conducted by University under-
graduate psychology students who earn credit for
their participation, and are supervised by graduate
students.
LSA senior Heather Rettke, who conducts the
workshops at Mack and Mitchell elementary
schools, said the program is beneficial to the chil-
dren.
"They are not only learning from us, we are
also learning from them," said Rettke, who is con-
centrating in psychology. "We get back from them
an overall standpoint of what violence can do to
them.
"It has been an invaluable experience," she
added. "From their reactions, I think (the chil-
dren) enjoy it."
Judge Nancy Francis of the Washtenaw County
Probate Court, a member of the program's coordi-
nating council, said the court has a "statutory
obligation" to assist in the project.
"We are very interested and committed to pre-
venting delinquency and we see this as a preven-
tion program that has great potential," Francis
said.
She added that a significant increase in vio-
lence is one reason for such a program.
"When I took over the bench seven years ago,
the crime that showed up most in the court was
shoplifting," she said. "Now, assault is the crime
that is committed the most by children in this
county.
"Because the society in general has become
more violent, adults have become more violent
and kids imitate adults;" she said. "Our job is to
teach them that violence is not an accepted
response."
Francis said she issued a court order June 21
that requires all foster children from 6 to 11 years
of age to participate in the program.
Ralph Patterson, director of Washtenaw
County's Family Independence Agency, said
many foster children have been exposed to vio-
lence in their lives.
"This project would help them if they can
develop means to handling violence," said
Patterson, who is also a member of the project's
coordinating council.
Huesman said the workshops are divided into
four focus topics.
The first serves to help children "form appro-
priate social scripts and change their attitudes
about what is appropriate and what's not."
Second, focus is placed on stereotypical beliefs
about aggression. The children are taught to avoid
making the mistake of "hostile attributional bias"
- the tendency to detect hostility from another's
motives.
Third, children are advised "to take TV and
movies with a grain of salt - to understand that
people do not behave that way in the real world.
We know a lot of kids learn a lot from TV."
Children are then taught alternatives to vio-
lence for dealing with conflicts.
A teaching method used during the entire pro-
gram involves the children making a video of
themselves expressing their opinions on the four
focus topics.
"If kids express their views and see themselves
express their views, they tend to change their atti-
tudes,' Huesman said.
Project Director Carla Herrera, a graduate stu-
dent in developmental psychology, said she hopes
the project will be successful.
"But we won't know that it works until we
assess (the children) again and they are deemed
less aggressive by their peers, parents and teach-'
ers,' she said.
Detroit school for.,.
dropouts to open
4.
Dancin Queen
Dancer extraodlnaire liz Mustard leads the line In the University's folkdance club's weekly meeting. The club meets at
the North Campus Commons and welcomes new and experienced dancers.
T wo Pontiac police oficers
supectd n alleged beatings
ROMULUS (AP) - The Romulus
school district is planning to open a
public alternative school this week for
dropouts in Detroit.
But some have criticized the school
as an effort to make a profit, not to help
disenfranchised students.
"They are looking at our youngsters
as being cash crops. That cannot be tol-
erated," Arthur Carter, a deputy super-
intendent of Detroit Public Schools,
told the Detroit Free Press in an article
published yesterday.
"We think this is an act of school
piracy. It destroys the fundamental con-
cept of local school district autonomy,
he said.
The idea for the public alternative
school for dropouts came from
Romulus Superintendent Bill Bedell,
who had opposed charter schools.
But Bedell says he's only giving stu-
dents and parents what Gov. John
Engler and the state Legislature said
they want: greater choice.
"Apparently, it's OK for private
schools and colleges to make money on
kids by recruiting them from public
schools, but it's not OK for public
schools to do so," Bedell said.
The alternative school is scheduled
to open tomorrow in the former Detroit
Business Institute in downtown Detroit.
Officials expect to fill the school with
500 to 1,000 Detroit dropouts, ages 15
to 19.
The battle between two public
school districts is among the first
involving the schools of choice law
signed by Engler on June 19, the Free
Press reported.
The law allows students to attend any
school in their intermediate school dis-
trict (ISD) that agrees to open its
boundaries. In the metropolitan Detroit
area, ISDs roughly follow county lines.
But Romulus' plan would open the
Baron-Romulus School of Choice
within another district's boundaries.
The Romulus Community Schools
board voted 6-1 Monday to approve hir-
ing Baron Schools Inc., to run the
school and share some of its profits
with Romulus. Each transferring stu-
dent comes with a $5,300 state grant,
according to the choice law.
Bedell said profit was a primary,
motive for opening the school, but said;
the idea wasn't meant to take students
from Detroit Public Schools.
He said that because all the students
at Baron-Romulus School of Choice,
are not now attending school, he is sim-.
ply dipping into an unserved pool.
"There are a lot of dropouts out there.
This contractor has found a way toy
recruit them, give them another shot;
he said.
Besides local critics, Bedell said
opponents of the alternative dropout
school are making it difficult for him to
recruit students.
He said state school Superintendent
Arthur Ellis denied a waiver to allow
the school to recruit students past the.;
Aug. 15 enrollment deadline provided
in the school choice law.
Bedell said that because the school
serves dropouts, it made sense to wait
until Detroit schools were back in ses-
sion to recruit students.
Ellis said Romulus never officially
filed for a waiver, but even if it had, he,
would have rejected it.
"I will not use the office of super-
intendent to facilitate the creation of
that kind of program," Ellis said.
"I'm troubled by what's involved in
this."
State Rep. James Agee (D-.
Muskegon) doesn't think the program=:-
meets the goals of the choice law. He;
said the Legislature never meant for
public school districts to open schools
within other districts' boundaries.
Such a loophole could have extreme,
and far-reaching effects on the state's
public school system, he said.
PONTIAC (AP) - Two Pontiac
police officers have been suspended
after being accused in alleged racially
motivated beatings of two black men.
Kenneth Anthony 11, 21, of Waterford
Township, said he and Kenyatta
Anthony said one officer jabbed him
in the eye with a flashlight, then hit him
20 to 25 times on the head and back
with it.
"It was a modern-day lynching;" said
Anthony's father, Pastor Kenneth
Anthony of Redeemed Christian Center
Metoyer, 22, of Pontiac, were so
with pepper spray and
repeatedly beaten with
flashlights by white
officers who used
racial slurs, The mo0
Oakland Press report-
ed yesterday. ly
The men said the
assaults occurred ear-
lier Saturday when, as
their hands were
cuffed behind their
backs and they were blinded by p
gas, they were being driven t
Pontiac police station. They had
arrested after a fight.
The pair were being held on c&
of felonious assault, mali(
destruction of property and assaul
battery on a police officer, the
said.
It was a
Sdern-day
Pching"
m
in Pontiac.
On the
way to the
police sta-
t i o n ,
Anthony
said he
a n d
M etoyer
asked the
lone offi-
cer driving
beat them
hitting Metoyer, Anthony said. The offi-
cers then sprayed the two with pepper
gas inside the car.
Anthony's former girlfriend, 17-year-
old Roshanda Riley, told the newspaper
she witnessed the assault from the back
of the second patrol car.
She had been arrested for obstructing
a police officer during the fight at her
home.
The younger Anthony suffered an eye
injury and was hospitalized overnight.
Both men had numerous head and back
bruises, and Metoyer had a cut over his
eye, the Press said.
Anthony said he called Mayor
Walter Moore after seeing his son's
injuries. Moore ordered Pontiac Police
Chief Larry McNeary to handle the
case.
McNeary launched an internal probe
and asked the Oakland County Sheriff's
Department to investigate too.
Two four-year officers were sus-
pended with pay during the investi-
gation. No action has been taken
against a third officer, the newspaper
said.
- Kenneth Anthony
Alleged victim's father
epper the car why the officers
o the before their arrest.
We have SEX... oops, we mean
six machines to serve YOU!
Use our high-speed, automated self-serves.
Then, he told the newspaper, the
officer stopped the car, opened the
back door where Anthony was sitting
and began pummeling him with a
flashlight.
Within moments, two officers from a
second car joined the attack and began
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