Deaf

When Heather Whitestone signed ''I love you'' after she was crowned Miss America in Atlantic City last week, she also signaled the distinction she brings to her year of travel and promotional appearances. The new Miss America is deaf, and her selection is one more indication that for deaf people, these are heady days.Sara Engram is editorial-page director of The Evening Sun.

Former Baltimorean Katherine Bouton abruptly lost the hearing in her left ear at age 30. One minute she could hear, and the next, she could not. Over the decades, her impairment worsened. By the time she was 60, she was functionally deaf. But her reluctance to disclose her ailment only increased. And who can blame her? She worked in a highly competitive environment, as a senior editor at The New York Times. In retrospect, Bouton says, remaining silent was a mistake; her hearing impairment contributed to her abrupt departure after 22 years at the newspaper.

Folklorist Simon Carmel knows all of the popular jokes in the deaf community. For instance, there's the one about the woodsman who decides to cut down three trees. He cuts down the first tree, calls 'Timber!' and the tree falls with a mighty crash.He cuts down the second tree, calls 'Timber!' and the tree falls with a mighty crash. He cuts down the third tree, and calls 'Timber!'-- but nothing happens.Alarmed, the woodsman calls a tree surgeon who examines the tree and tells him it is deaf.

Roland Park Country School graduate Jocelyn Young-Hyman, who is now a Peace Corps volunteer, has big plans for the money raised Thursday by her alma mater in its annual All-School Walk. Young-Hyman, a 2007graduate of the all-girls school on Roland Avenue, is assigned to work at Kichakamkwaju School For The Deaf, in Kenya. On April 1, she emailed Roland Park Country School Upper School Head Ereni Malfa, asking for help in raising money for art supplies and academic games. "My school is an extremely poor school with absolutely no resources or parents who can support their children," she wrote.

Whisk away the past five years. Forget everything that radio, television, newspapers and word-of-mouth communication have said about AIDS since then. It's 1985. In the nation's cities, the death toll is mushrooming. Rock Hudson, having looked drawn and frail for many months, is now dead.The disease has been around for half a decade, but a slowly awakening nation finds the epidemic impossible to ignore. Everywhere, people want answers: How do people get AIDS? From food, swimming pools and toilet seats or just from sex?

Sometimes she takes a 90-year-old man out for ice cream and rides. Other times she sends cards to strangers just to let them know that homebound deaf people have someone who cares about them -- and her name is Bernice Hoeper.Mrs. Hoeper, of Columbia, is founder of the A. Eugene Hoeper Foundation, an organization that visits and provides support for homebound deaf people. Her activities with the foundation earned her Senior Citizen of the Year honors Saturday during the Howard County Salute to Seniors in Columbia Mall.

As the world's only full-time, classical percussion-soloist, Scottish-born Evelyn Glennie bewitches audiences worldwide with her talent. And this weekend, as a featured soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Glennie is expected to mesmerize Baltimore as well.Ms. Glennie is respected among some of the world's most heralded musicians as a percussionist of great skill. Yet what seems to fascinate those who first learn about her is that Ms. Glennie cannot hear. By age 10, she had lost all hearing.

I. King Jordan, a champion of the rights of deaf individuals and thepresident of Gallaudet University in Washington, is one of four people to receive honorary degrees at Western Maryland College's 121st commencement.Jordan will be awarded a doctorate in humane letters at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Gill Physical Education Learning Center.Other doctorates will go to Erich Willen, WMC Class of 1958, for science; and Clarisse B. Mechanic and Allen Quille for public service.In March 1988, Jordan's appointment as the first deaf president of the world's only liberal arts university for deaf people was approved widely by students who had, days earlier, demanded the resignation of a hearing woman chosen by the board of trustees.

When Western Maryland College launches the first deaf-education master's degree emphasizing American Sign Language this summer, Rachel E. Stone will be leading the way -- as she has for most of her life.A notable student even in elementary school, Stone became the first deaf professor at the Westminster college, which has the world's largest graduate program for training teachers of the deaf.Stone, 48, is an example of the revolution in deaf education that has occurred in her lifetime -- changes reflected in her career.

Finding a church in Carroll County to meet the Alfords' needs was initially a challenge.Not only did they have to consider the congregation, the pastor and the doctrine, they also needed a sign languageinterpreter.But rather than travel to the Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf in Baltimore, as do some deaf families in Carroll, Mark and Patty Alford decided to try St. Paul's United Methodist Church. After all, their two children -- who both can hear -- were already happy atthe services.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Toys "R" Us, alleging the company broke the law when staff at its Columbia store refused to provide a sign-language interpreter for a job applicant who is deaf. The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, says the retailer discriminated against the woman, Shakirra Thomas, after she applied for a position at the store in 2011. It alleges the company violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires employers to provide "reasonable accommodations" for job applicants and workers with disabilities.

An aide at the Maryland School for the Deaf was charged Thursday with molesting three girls when they were students at the school between 2008 and 2010, Howard County police said. One of the three girls – now ages 15 and 16 and no longer at the Columbia school – recently reported her allegation to a teacher, after learning that she might not have been the only student repeatedly inappropriately touched, police said. That led to the investigation, and detectives are exploring the possibility that there may be more victims, according to police.

There goes Madonna, classing up the joint again. To show her support of Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot and critically wounded by the Taliban because of her advocacy for girls' education, the Material Girl (a.k.a. Madge, Esther, the Queen of Pop, the Hottest Bod in the AARP) took the opportunity during a recent concert at L.A.'s Staples Center to pull her pants down and reveal a (fake) tattoo of the girl's name inked across the small of her back. Take that, Taliban!

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's political blind spot on the issue of pensions apparently knows no bounds. A man who has secured for himself and some of his closest political associates a retirement benefit far beyond what ordinary county workers would be allowed is, once again, seeking to reduce the benefits for others. First, he pushed legislation in Annapolis that would reduce benefits for county workers who had previously been employed by the state or another local government, and now he is trying to do so for a group of union laborers in the Department of Public Works and other agencies.

A lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Baltimore accuses McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant in Oxon Hill of firing a disabled prep cook in violation of federal law. Vernon Davis, who has been deaf since childhood, was demoted from prep cook, had his hours reduced and was finally fired, though he had performed satisfactorily since he was hired in May 2008, the lawsuit said. The suit said the restaurant demoted and fired Davis in retaliation for his complaints about mistreatment.

Et cetera Meyers sets second World Deaf record Becca Meyers , a rising junior at Notre Dame Prep, won her second gold medal and set her second meet record Thursday at the World Deaf Swimming Championships in Coimbra, Portugal. It was the second deaf world championships record for Meyers in three days. She lowered her 800-meter freestyle record, finishing in 9minutes, 16.22seconds to defeat Anna Tovsta of Ukraine for the gold. Tovsta finished in 9:26.16. In the qualifying heat Tuesday, Meyers broke the record of 9:31.76 set in 2007 by Kristin Ates of the United States.

A deaf cabinetmaker who did poorly on a written aptitude and personality test was illegally denied a job by a Prince George's County company, the Maryland Human Relations Commission has charged.Such written tests unfairly discriminate against deaf persons, who typically score low on tests that have nothing to do with their occupational abilities, the commission argued in filing handicap discrimination charges against Pittcon Industries Inc. of Riverdale.The commission said the company turned down Curt H. Garden for a job in June 1987 after he scored poorly on a pre-employment test.

Jennifer Curran Manager of deaf services The League for People with Disabilities, Baltimore Salary --$37,000 Age --34 Years on the job --18 months How she got started --Curran went to college as an education major, hoping to concentrate in special education. However, she decided teaching children wasn't exactly what she wanted. Taking a break from college, Curran worked in customer service at a women's clothing company. She went back to school and graduated from Towson University with a degree in deaf studies.

A federal appeals court upheld a ruling Friday that requires the Washington Redskins to make game content broadcast over the FedEx Field public address system accessible to deaf fans through captioning — including song lyrics. "Whatever the poetic merit of the lyrics and their relevance to the sport of football, we agree with the district court that the music played over the public address system during Redskins home games is part of the football game experience … and that the [Americans with Disabilities Act]

A deaf Maryland woman and her mother, who is also deaf, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, alleging that the hospital refused to provide — or pay for — a sign language interpreter when the younger woman experienced a medical emergency in late 2009. "Plaintiffs requested but were denied sign language interpreter services and were thus unable to communicate effectively with Defendant's medical personnel during critical periods," reads the 11-page civil suit filed by Jennifer Simmons of Frederick and Susanna Paulay, who lives in New York.