02 | April | 2007 | Deaf News Network

Archive for April 2nd, 2007

:: WBAY-TV | Questions Remain About Naked Man Hurt in Traffic ::

April 2, 2007 in Deaf, Health, Interpreter, News, Sign Language

Questions Remain About Naked Man Hurt in Traffic

April 2, 2007 07:25 PM
By Jeff Alexander

Police are piecing together a bizarre chain of events in an east-side neighborhood, where a 19-year-old naked man threw himself in front of a minivan.

It happened Saturday evening on University Avenue near the intersection of St. Anthony Drive.

Police say it began when a couple at a home on St. Charles Drive heard a pounding at their door and discovered a naked man on their porch. Frightened, they shut the door and saw the man run off.

Moments later, and just a few hundred feet away, police say the man darted into traffic on University.

“Very bizarre. Very unfortunate that this gentleman threw himself in front of a moving vehicle — and we’re still trying to determine what caused him to do that,” Dave Wesely of the Green Bay Police Department said.

Police say the man, whose mother reported him missing five hours later, suffered serious injuries to his neck and remains in the hospital.

He’s also deaf, and investigators used a sign language interpreter Monday to try and find out what happened.

They’re still not sure, but Police Chief Jim Arts says investigators have learned enough to rule out foul play, even though the man was already bleeding from injuries before he jumped in front of the van.

Police say it’s fortunate the 63-year-old driver didn’t get hurt.

“You can imagine if you were driving the vehicle and a naked person suddenly appeared in front of you. It would be pretty traumatic to you also,” Wesely said.

:: Megsign | Deaf History ::

April 2, 2007 in Culture, Deaf, History | Heritage

Deaf History

While researching Deaf Culture, I came across a timeline that explained some of the history of deaf culture. At first I wasn’t too interested, but after reading a little of it, I was very moved. The timeline dates back as far as 1000 B.C. and some of the things that were done to deafs were just horrible.

The first record of deaf history occured in 1000 B.C. when deaf people were forbidden to own land. Also on the timeline, you see other forms of discrimination towards deaf people. Deafs were considered barbarians, were committed to asylums, rejected from churches, were thought to be possessed by demons, etc. Some of the things that deaf people endured and names that were given to them were just awful. People rejected the unfamiliar back then and were scared of the idea of someone not knowing how to speak or hear. They did not realize then that it is not unnatural for someone to be deaf, and that no one chooses what they are to be.

Also on the timeline, there are some good things that occur. For example, finally in the 1500’s deaf education began to grow. It still took quite awhile for deaf education to become accepted, but there were a few famous names that stand out today for standing up for the deaf then.

The timeline that I used went from 1000 B.C. to 1996. It was fascinating to learn about some of the history of deaf life. I can’t believe that deaf people were treated so badly at one point in time. Just because they were different, and people did not understand them, does not give anyone the right to ridicule and discriminate against them. I was also very happy to see that deaf education started much earlier than I thought. At first I believed that deaf education was fairly new to our world. However, I was mistaken and learned that there were many people that stood up for what was right and worked together to make the gap between hearing and deaf better so long ago.

The website I used for this post is http://www.aslinfo.com/trivia5.cfm.