Emergency Meeting took place at the amphitheatre on January 11, 2006 2008 at 2 pm
Bridgetta Bourne-Firl opened the meeting saying she knows we all are scared and what Jack O’Connell said on the radio was scary. When reading the transcript of the interview with Jack O’Connell, we do not know exactly what he meant however; we do know that it is scary.
Bridgetta quoted Jack O’Connell’s two points that has the community wanting to take action and the two things were 1) “I guarantee you that deaf and blind kids will GO home” and 2) “I guarantee you that teachers will be laid off” and his guarantee is based on the budget cut that California State is looking into.
Bridgetta then gave the floor to David Eberwein explaining the “Game Plan” for this situation.
When David got on the floor, he said he was shocked. When he first read the transcript, he was shocked then filled with fear and thought of his home, job and nearly panicked. But then, he allowed himself some time to think some more and calm down. He realized, after analyzing, that we must take action. He explained that the budget cut is happening because everyone wants money and does not want to be the one that’ll experience the cut. They want someone else to get cut, “not me.”
David then explained that Jack O’Connell must have said it for a reason and there could be two reasons. He presented a chart through a whiteboard on an easel stand. David said Jack’s motive could be either seriously closing the school or about politics.
But first, he wanted to emphasize that CSD is home and what does Jack mean, send the kids home as of send them to CSD? Everyone cheered and agreed. CSD is home to everyone, it always has been home for generations and it will be home for the future generations to come. Therefore, CSD has to STAY open.
David then explained his chart on the whiteboard, which were split between A and B explaining Jack’s possible “tactics” when making his guarantees.
Possible Reason A, CSD will close for real but we cannot allow this to happen. The world watches CSD and if we fight and win, we will help everyone involved in the Deaf community. He emphasized that we must protect our home and stick a huge flag into the ground and put a claim on our property- a claim where CSD is here to stay.
David mentioned the transcript part where Jack O’Connell says 20,000 prisoners shouldn’t be freed, and that the public school would keep their budget however, the deaf and blind school will lose theirs. David expressed his indignance that CSD is considered less than the prisoners and that we must object to this type of priorities set by Jack O’Connell.
Continuing his discussion on Reason A, he said we must be prepared to protect ourselves by knowing all possible argument points made by the opposing side. Such as, the opposing side could mention how the Deaf students rate low on test scores therefore, CSD is not effective and not worth keeping. He then switched to Reason B.
Reason B, according to Jack O’Connell’s possible tactics, is politics. Jack possibly said it in the interview to “save” us. Within these tactics, we must act by getting the media involved, have the public aware and show our objections to the legislature and show them that CSD is number one. We have to convince them that we are not less than the prisoners and not less than the public education.
For either Reason A or Reason B, we must have the same action plan and that would be, act NOW. We could hire a professional PR company, hired by the Deaf community, not by CSD. We need to have our objections heard and seen through the news, newspaper, radio and any other means. David mentioned that this is simply a suggestion, but he thinks we should do this.
David said we must have community action even though it may happen a year from now, we need to use this early time frame as an opportunity to start strong with the main goal to show that CSD cannot be touched because it is a banner school!
David wrapped up by saying O’Connell may have had two possible meanings and they are 1) to actually close the school or 2) used his tactics because he trusts in us, a strong community, to fight back and win.
David asked Cat Cassidy to take the floor and explain the people at the rally about what they can do RIGHT now.
Cat Cassidy took the floor. She explained that after the meeting, the rally goers can call Jack O’Connell’s office at this number, 916-319-0800.
She explained the steps:
1) You will reach the CDE
2) Ask for Jack O’Connell or to be transferred to his office
3) If he is not there, ask to leave a message
4) When leaving your message, say you have a Deaf child, or a Deaf relative, or you are a community member and/or alumnae, and to express your concerns about Jack O’Connell’s comments/apparent threat.
Cat emphasized that you shouldn’t call as a teacher or as a staff member, because it would cheapen the purpose of your objections, since they could argue that you just want to keep your job. Our main goal is to object for the sake of our children’s future.
Another thing we could do, Cat added, was to spread the word and have the friends and all stakeholders make the calls as well. Be active and make sure everyone is actively involved.
Cat Cassidy gave the floor to Bridgetta Bourne-Firl. Bridgetta opened the forum by saying there would be ten minutes for the public to come and discuss or express concerns or to ask questions.
Person # 1 asked if anybody has personally talked with Jack O’Connell to ask him for clarification?
Bridgetta wanted to know if she meant a parent, a community member or someone officially from the school? Person # 1 clarified and wanted to know if anyone from the school has asked O’Connell. It was explained that no employees from CSD are allowed to do that, since we are subordinate to the California Department of Education.
Person # 2 said it does not matter if Jack’s words was a political motive, it’s an insult that CSD is a target and something for him to “demean.” Person # 2 also added that she remember years ago California state ran out of funds and were unable to pay state employees. She recalled that the state employees actually had gotten “iou” checks. However, CSD employees were not affected because CSD is written into the state constitution. She wishes to know how this type of information would be of help in this current situation?
Person # 3 came up to explain that CSD is indeed written into the constitution, as each state is required to have a Deaf residential program. She then explained that CSD is not the only Deaf school in California, therefore, the closing of CSD can happen. She then added that we should not focus on the ‘closing of CSD,’ but rather, focus on taking action plans now to show that nobody can mess with CSD and our community.
Person # 4 came up and said we need to make sure we are calm and not blow things out of proportion. We need to take action, but not to lose our heads.
David Eberwein got up to explain that we still need to take action plan to protect ourselves and to make it clear that this school cannot be touched.
Person # 5 came up and shared that he read through the Argus news that Prop 98 is supposed to protect the school and should not cut the budget. He also said there would be a final budget decision next Thursday. (it was unclear whether this meant that the governor’s proposal would be final or if the Legislature would have made a final vote)
David Eberwein then said we have to investigate that over the weekend to check it out.
Person # 6 came to make an emphasis that we have to say we are taking action plan as a community member, not as staff or teachers because CDE is strict about this type of thing, because CDE employees shouldn’t be “speaking against CDE” or taking action during work hours.
Person # 7 wanted to start now with vlogs saying it would spread the word faster that way and the wider range of community will know what is happening. Person # 7 expressed concern that the number of people at the rally was small, it has to be bigger than this to be effective.
David Eberwein said the main thing now is to just to do it, take action now and that we need to have the same ‘sign’ points to be on the same page. He also added that the comments made by Jack O’Connell were wrong.
Person # 8 discussed two things; first she thinks we should involve other Deaf organizations such as CAD and DCARA to make this stronger. Then she added that when finding out and sharing with her friends, a lot of them said “oh this has happened before” and she’s concerned that people will think we are crying wolf. We need to make sure that those people know that it’s for REAL.
Person # 9 said we shouldn’t limit to Deaf community only, we should involve the entire community of Fremont because CSD is one of the largest facility that has the highest number of employees. If closing the school, it will greatly affect the community, business and the city in general.
Person # 10 wanted to point out person # 8’s “cry wolf” comments. He said CSD has had threats and CSD fought them and won. It’s not like we cried wolf, it has actually happened. So this situation isn’t “crying wolf.”
Person # 11 said he’s going to Sacramento tomorrow for a regional meeting. He said he tried having some of his friends join but some made excuses such as, oh I have a football game, etc. He said to go tomorrow, to watch and listen and make clarifications if needed. We need to have more people involved for a louder voice.
Person # 12 said we have to act now and fight now like the Civil Rights movement. If something racial was said, it’d be immediately brought to attention and actions would be taken in an instant. She said we need to treat this situation like that.
Bridgetta had to stop the open forum and Cat Cassidy wrapped up by explaining what could be done. To call Jack O’Connell, to forward everyone in the community the transcript of the interview made by Jack O’Connell and asked everyone to go to the APTC meeting on Tuesday to discuss further for parental involvement and a possible establishment of the Task Force. Several people then gathered to follow through on some of the suggestions made above, including this website.
shared by Clare Cassidy, alumni, parent, and community member
Deaf Children are Precious 
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