CAL-ed’s Facebook access restored after inexplicable ban
California Association of the Deaf responded by launching a petition on change.org which garnered almost 3,000 signatures.
This was covered in a Melmira episode on Friday. Here are some clips.
Melmira:
California Educators for the Deaf Association, had their Facebook page taken down and it disappeared. As a result of that, all board members who were associated with that Facebook page’s own personal Facebook pages were deleted too. Right?
Janette Duran-Aguiree:
Yes. Right.
Melmira:
Can you expand on that, Janette?
Janette Duran-Aguirre:
Really, I’m still in shock, At the same time I’m not, because I expected this kind of retaliation. I expected people would be upset. I want to be clear that we, Cal Ed, never received any reasoning for why our Cal ED Facebook and the personal accounts of who run the Cal-Ed page were taken down… No explanation was given for why they were banned, other than not meeting Facebook’s standards. I’m in shock. And really, our last post in that account was the live stream webinar with Amy and Victorica about the U.S. Capitol insurrection and how we can address that in Deaf education
Amy Parson:
Our discussion was about the effects on Deaf ed and how we can navigate and bring politics in school, as they’re typically considered forbidden or taboo conversations. Really, schools exist in our communities and they are a part of us, and we must discuss this because we can't ignore it. If we do, that means we’re ignoring students. They want to know what’s happening.That’s a part of their history, and we don’t want to deprive them of that.
Alex (Daily Moth): The page was reactivated January 18th with the seven administrators’ personal pages reactivated later that night.
Neil Sprouse, a guest reporter with “The Daily Moth,” was able to meet with three representatives of CAL-ed, Lauren Maucere, Past President, Janette Duran-Aguirre, President, and Dr. Julie Rems-Smario, Conference Co-Chair. He will share some remarks.
Neil Sprouse (Daily Moth Guest Reporter):
Thank you, Alex. I had the honor of talking with Lauren Maucere, the previous president of CAL-ed, Janette Duran-Aguirre, the current president of CAL-ed, and Dr. Julie Rems-Smario, who is the Board liaison for CAL-ed and the California Department of Education. We talked about the community impact of the ban. The ban didn’t stop CAL-ed from working in solidarity with the Deaf community. CAL-ed is proud to have strong ties with the community here, not only in California but the rest of the U.S. We saw almost 3,000 people sign a petition. That shows there is strong community support alongside with CAD. We talked about how this was a good model for Deaf children to see advocacy in action. It was inspiring to see the young deaf generation involved with TikTok and advocacy in new levels. They hope to see the Deaf community continue to be active and not only wait until a bad situation comes up. It shouldn’t be in cycles but a consistent thing, hopefully.
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Alex (Daily Moth):
Now, Neil will explain why Cal-ED’s work has significance.
Neil Sprouse (Daily Moth Guest Reporter):
CAL-ed is in a historic position now because the Board is made up of a majority of Black and Brown individuals. The second thing is that it is Deaf-led. It’s been transformative. CAL-ed was formed under a different name, California Association of Educators for the Hearing Impaired or something like that, and now it’s CAL-ed. It used to be led by hearing people, but now it is led by Deaf people.
Alex (Daily Moth):
Thank you Neil for covering this. We hope to see Cal-ED continue in its important work without any hindrances. You can follow their Facebook page to see what their future discussion topics are. The topics apply not only to California but to the rest of the nation.
https://www.facebook.com/caledorg/
https://www.facebook.com/melmira/videos/698440017485732