Discriminatory job posting for ASL Teacher at high school

CORRECTION: Krystill Brown is a hearing alumni of Fallbrook and is an interpreter.

CORRECTION: #2: Dr. Rain Bosworth is now a NTID professor as of August 2019.

———

A job posting for a full-time ASL teacher at Fallbrook Union High School, located between Los Angeles and San Diego, requires applicants to be able to “conduct verbal conversation” and to be able to “hear normal range verbal conversation (approximately 60 decibels.”

Look at the screenshots from the job posting.

[Screenshot of three images. The first image has a job posting with the words, "World language, American Sign language Teacher (80%". The second image is a wall of text from the job posting with the words highlighted: "Able to conduct verbal conversation. Albe to hear normal range verbal conversation (approximately 60 decibels)." The third image is another wall of text from the job posting with the words highlighted, "The Fallbrook Union High School District prohibits unlawful discrimination against and/or harassment of district employees and job applicants on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ancestry, religious creed, age, marital status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability,"]

The discriminatory job posting caused an online uproar with several deaf people.

A deaf alumni of Fallbrook, Krystill Brown, posted on her Facebook wall a call of action for members of the deaf community to stand up to this “blatant discrimination.” She is encouraging people to show up to a board meeting scheduled on December 16.

A deaf professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Dr. Rain Bosworth, tweeted that the job posting was ableist against those who use wheelchairs because the job requires the teacher to be able to walk.

The posting also requires the teacher to be able to see handwritten or typed documents, which excludes Deafblind individuals.

I reached out to the person-of-contact on the job posting, Jean Proctor, via email and asked her about the discriminatory language, but have not received a response.

The links to the job posting and social media reactions are below.

Job Posting: https://bit.ly/2rZTZLq

Brown Posting: https://www.facebook.com/fox5sandiego/posts/10157987930229940

Rain Posting: https://twitter.com/rain_bosworth/status/1202563569621065728