A hearing white man was appointed to be the superintendent of West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, but he stepped down today.
The West Virginia State Board of Education chose a hearing white man who has never worked with deaf children or blind children to be the next superintendent of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind in Romney on Friday, but the person backed out of the job today.
His name is Scott Cochran and according to local news, he does not know sign language. He was a superintendent of Webster County’s school system and has experience as a special education director. He was appointed, but he’s out.
He was supposed to lead WVSDB on August 12 and would have earned a $124,000 salary. He was chosen over 9 other candidates.
I was able to talk with someone within the school who was willing to discuss the hire, but only anonymously. This conversation was before news broke this afternoon that Cochran backed out, but I will still share what the individual said. I also followed up with them after the news and will share what they said.
The individual from the school said nobody from the school (neither the blind and the deaf programs) were involved in hiring of the superintendent — that the application screening and the interviews all happened several hours away at the state capital in Charleston.
The individual said they felt the state said, “here is your boss” without providing transparency in their process.
The individual questioned how Cochran would lead the school if he did not know the culture — pointing out that he doesn’t know ASL or braille. The individual said it felt like a slap in the face.
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WVSDB once had a deaf superintendent, Dr. Martin Keller, but he was fired in November 2017 after two years in a controversial decision. The state appointed the school’s finance director and Blind school principal to lead WVSDB.
The state searched for a permanent superintendent and appointed Cochran, but he’s stepped down. The individual from the school said they do not know who the other applicants were or whether they were deaf, blind, or hearing. They knew nothing.
After Cochran stepped down, the individual said they are worried about the process because the state has already appointed superintendents without contacting or asking for involvement from the deaf or blind communities. Will it happen again?
The individual said at WVSDB, there are no deaf people in the Deaf school’s administration.
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