Dr. Raymond Bryant

As most of you know, I hail from upstate NY where I attended mainstreamed schools. I have to share with you about one individual in the school district that I came across.

The name is Dr. Raymond Bryant. He was the superintendent in the school district. Little history about him; He received Doctor of Philosophy, Educational Administration from the University of Maryland. Before being ECSD superintendent, he was:
-Associate superintendent for Special Education Reform, Washington, DC
-Associate superintendent, director of special education services, principal, coordinator of special education, teacher and speech pathologist
-Taught at universities including Gallaudet, James Madison, and George Mason.

Gallaudet?! You heard it right. I was excited when he came, because I heard that fact and his background with special education. I am NOT special education but I thought he would have better understanding of the needs, boy was I wrong. I had too much of high exceptions for Dr. Bryant. He was the BIGGEST disappointment to the area.

High number of citizens wanted him out, and he recently resigned in 2009 so I'm sure there was a huge party celebrating that. Rumors are that he resigned for stealing money from the District and shredding documents. Who knows?

First action that he did that disappointed me greatly was cutting ASL classes from our school district. We had ASL classes at my high school. My brother was going to take that class as well some relatives. My cousin already begun ASL I and was about to go onto ASL II & ASL III when the program got cut. Dr. Bryant felt like it wasn't worth it to keep the program. There were even rebelling from community to keep ASL programs in the schools. I remember that incident so well because it caused a uproar. I wrote a letter to the local newspaper with help of my father to express my feelings about the cutting of ASL programs. The school had French, Spanish, and German. Come on, seriously how many French-speaking and German-speaking people you come across? ASL is one of top 5 most common language used in America among with Spanish. It would make more sense to cut German and replace it with ASL in relation of statistics with which languages are most common used.

I graduate from my high school in June 2007. At my high school graduation ceremony, everyone had to go up on the stage to receive their diplomas and shake hands with four people. The four people were Principal Chris Krantz, Assistant Principals Tim Hassen & Margaret Thurber, and of course, Dr. Bryant.

I was so mad at myself for not standing up to Dr. Bryant at the graduation ceremony, because he had been asking every graduates what their future goals were. I shook hands with Krantz and went over to Dr. Bryant. Krantz followed me to Dr. Bryant and reminded him that I was deaf. I already was aware that Bryant was asking all graduates that question. I should have signed to him "RIT" to emphasize how important it is to keep ASL in the schools. Heck, Bryant should know some sign language anyways if he had previously "worked" at Gallaudet. Krantz also should have not reminded Bryant that I was deaf anyways because Bryant already knew who I was because my hometown is a small town and I have had encounters with him where we had to communicate. When I shook hands with him, it was clear that he didn't recall who I was. It was very disappointing that someone I held expectations for to end up to be a huge disappointment to the area.