Don Grushkin's Piece on Dylan Quick : Self-Flagelation Begins

The news hit with blaring headlines after headlines on the tragedy of 14 students who got stabbed at the Lone Star Community College by a crazed student. I dreaded reading such depressing news but read I did.  Then I saw the words, "deaf," and then "wears a cochlear implant" but nothing on whether Dylan Quick knew sign language or whether he was another culturally deaf person who went on a killing spree or rampage.  A rampage that would make the cut for the Texas Chain Saw Massacre movie like this culturally deaf woman did by using a chain saw on her dead lover after murdering her. I knew it would be a matter of time until somebody from the culturally deaf community would take advantage of the news as a clarion call against cochlear implants, AGBell, auditory-oral schools, cyber/bullying and Auditory Verbal Therapy for deaf and hard of hearing kids all on the premise of Dylan Quick's supposedly intolerable upbringing as a deaf kid. Some actually made the claim that this stabbing spree was a manifestation as a result of the "oral-only philosophy" impact which "destroys deaf children."

Whatever.

But lo and behold it wasn't long until a deaf person named Donald Grushkin, a PhD holder (more of him in YouTube) in the field of deaf studies wrote a piece called "I was Dylan Quick" empathizing with Dylan Quick's own deafness issues as if Donald Grushkin knew what Quick's own psychological or social issues were in the first place.

However, an even more important issue soon arose: it was revealed that Dylan Quick is a Deaf (capitalized to indicate ethnicity, regardless of cultural affiliation) person who was orally-raised and uses a cochlear implant. My thoughts just as rapidly turned from gun control to the issue of mental health, especially where Deaf and hard of hearing people are concerned, and moreover, I quickly envisioned the media reports characterizing Dylan Quick as an “isolated loner” without mentioning he is Deaf, or focusing on causes and issues related to his rampage which have nothing to do with his being Deaf, insinuating that this is an isolated incident. Yet, finding out that Dylan Quick is Deaf himself, I immediately empathized with him in his expression of what must be intolerable rage and frustration, for I, at one point in my life, could have done almost exactly what he did. 

If I may say so while I'm at it the capitalized "D" in "Deaf" as explained by Donald Grushkin was used to indicate "ethnicity" presents numerous problems.  Aside from that in Donald's piece he seems to be assuming a lot of things on what Dylan's personal and social life growing up as a deaf person might have been like and whether his life was a "tolerable" one or not. Rather than wait and see exactly what the media may report on what Dylan Quick's own life was like growing up as a deaf person, Donald Grushkin took the empathy route and attempted to project his own life experiences growing up as a deaf person with that of Dylan Quick's even though we know nothing about Quick's own social and life background while growing up as a deaf kid.  Although there are a few tidbits of information gleaned so far on Dylan's supposedly eccentric behaviors we can only assume so much (but shouldn't anyway) at this point.

"He was an eccentric kid, so a lot of people thought he was weird," Chalflan explained, adding that students sometimes would make fun of the suspect behind his back. "He was always in his own little world but was super friendly."

The suspect, who was rumored to be hard of hearing, was known for his odd clothes and the pair of work-out gloves he'd always wear, according to Chalfan. He was often seen carrying a stuffed monkey toy.

Perhaps we will know more in the coming days what Dylan's personal and social life was like, and what his preferred mode of communication? Eccentricity or weirdness does not equate with tendency towards extreme violence.  Even if a deaf person who made a zombie clip mocking another deaf person would not necessarily mean anything other than a person was simply venting or having a bit of fun when all else fails and having a PhD just won't do.

Donald proceeded in his article piece describing his experiences while growing up as a deaf person:

I was born Deaf.  Upon finding I was Deaf, my parents decided to do exactly as Dylan’s parents did: raise him as an “oral” person, meaning we were taught to speak through auditory pathways and to use whatever hearing capacities we had to the best of our abilities.  Unlike Dylan, I was (in my view, fortunately)born too soon to receive a cochlear implant; this technology did not become commonplace until around the 1980s. Through the use of lipreading, hearing aids, intensive and ongoing speech therapy, I learned to speak; my speech is nearly indistinguishable from that of a Hearing person’s.

His speech is nearly indistinguishable from that of a hearing person's? Must've been really hell during all those speech therapy sessions but I'll bite.

But what about the hypocrisy some "Deaf" people have against deaf or hard of hearing people who prefer to speak and listen, even if they know sign language?  As long as speech is intelligible then everything is fine. Speech intelligibility is the important key here rather than how well a deaf person's own voice ranks with that of hearing people. Why even bother? Ever hear a native southerner speak with a deep, southern drawl while chewing on wad of tobacco?

The term "born Deaf" with the capitalized "D" has its own problems, too. As for Donald Grushkin's own hearing loss situation we don't know when Donald was fitted with a hearing aid as a toddler or a young child at age 3, 4 or 5 years old.  Studies have shown that early exposure to auditory input can make a huge, huge difference along with parental involvement.  We don't know exactly how much his hearing loss is or the type of hearing loss he has. Or what his word discrimination is like. Or the whether he derived any real benefits from using his hearing aid that gave him his speech ability that is "nearly indistinguishable from that of a Hearing person’s."

He further described how his life was peppered with bullying experiences and how it was "hell":

Prior to the sixth grade, my family moved to another state, where I entered Middle School. As almost everyone knows, these “tween” years are quite often stressful for many students, especially those who stand out as “different” –intellectually, physically, or socially. Being Deaf, I naturally stood out among all these other Hearing students, and as a result, I experienced extreme ostracism and what today would be termed “bullying” wherein certain students would deliberately use my abilities to lipread and inability to hear against me, in order to elicit reactions they thought were funny.  It is fortunate that my parents are not gun owners, for I can all too easily envision myself at that time taking a gun or two to school and shooting my tormentors.  All too likely, some innocent students would have become “collateral damage” during my expression of rage, if I had done this, and I am thankful today that this never took place.  After two years of this personal Hell, I convinced my parents to allow me to attend a school for the Deaf, where I knew that my being Deaf would NOT be a cause for such bullying.  I cannot begin to express my gratitude for my education within the Deaf world, for without it, I know I would not today be where I am – a successful, happy, married with children Deaf man with a doctorate who teaches at a major state university.

Luckily parents are not gun owners? I'll bite, again, but the most startling revelation was Donald Grushkin's own statement that he could've been the "Dylan Quick" of his day 30 years ago while as a young adult had his parents owned guns at home.

Scary.

He  acknowledged his own past repressed rage because his life was deemed "impossible" to live in a "hearing world" or so it seems.

Of course, not all deaf or hard of hearing people are the "Dylan Quick" kind. In fact, Richie's, who grew up as a deaf person since birth with profound hearing loss. He is a big gun advocate. His own life turned out pretty darned well. He wrote his own rebuttal article piece, "Not all Deaf People are Dylan Quick," against Donald Grushkin's empathy piece.

Some deaf people empathize with the crazed guy who stabbed 14 people in Texas, pointing out the frustration in gaining acceptance with the mainstream given the deafness. I don't buy it.

According to the news, Dylan Quick received his cochlear implant at the age of seven and had fantasies of stabbing people at the age of eight. Is there a correlation? Or was it sheer coincidence? You decide. I was offered the opportunity to hear at the age of six but declined. I was very content and saw no reason to change anything. Thirty-five years later, I have no regrets whatsoever. Furthermore, the technology was crude back then and was in desperate need of being perfected. Now that the technology is much closer to perfection, I will still decline for I am now an old dog who cannot be taught new tricks. However, I have no qualms with younger deaf children being given the opportunity to hear. The younger, the better. Although, I'm more of a stem cell guy.

Was it the deafness that prompted the stabbing or was it the fact he was a loner? Not all loners are deaf nor are all deaf people loners. Some deaf people get along with those who are not deaf while some don't. It could be due to impropriety as deaf people have the tendency to lack familiarity with social norms particularly with humor or sarcasm. Or it could be that people don't have the patience to scribble on a piece of paper to communicate with the deaf person. There are other factors as well. Less than 1 out of 1,000 people can claim fluency with sign language so it is a very rare language. I can assure you the repeated claims of American Sign Language (ASL) being the third (or fourth) most widely used language is a myth. If there was any truth to this, I would encounter a lot more signers in shopping malls or in public settings.

Despite my profound deafness, I have friends who are not deaf, some from high school, some from my childhood neighborhood, and some co-workers. In fact, my oldest friends are not deaf and I see them regularly. They do not know sign language but they are used to me as well as me to them. I also see my former co-workers whenever I'm in the area of my former job. We're close although they don't sign.

My friends who are not deaf won't scribble on a piece of paper nor have they expressed interest in meeting other deaf people. They like me for who I am. Perhaps it's my sense of humor. Also, they don't see themselves as "hearing." Here's a perfectly logical explanation behind this:

Blind people call us "seeing," assuming we are not also blind. The word "seeing" is foreign to us since we don't encounter blind people very often. Since we're deaf, we regularly use the word "hearing," but most hearing people have yet to encounter a deaf person so they are not accustomed to that particular word.

I was born without hearing. I was classified as profoundly deaf since birth. Hearing aids were moot and I stopped wearing them at the age of seven very much to the chagrin of my teachers who insisted I keep them on to maintain my speech. They were sorely mistaken, hearing aids never worked on me but I retained my ability to speak. I do not claim to be educated since I dropped out of high school at the young age of sixteen. I went to college for only one year and realized it wasn't my cup of tea seeing how it would have no effect on my future or my success.

I started using sign language at the age of six and still sign. I sign fluently and easily pass for a native ASL signer. I have deaf friends too but I am also very fortunate to still speak. The thorny issue is that had I been unable to speak, I would not have been able to work in a company. Sure, I could find work in the VRS industry, the government, or at a school for the deaf. Instead, I chose to work as a marketing manager responsible for graphics, writing proposals, ensuring production milestones are met, and making sure our marketing materials are up to date. There are times I wish there were more deaf people working in non-governmental jobs. The level of discrimination is at unbearably unacceptable levels but we also need to look at it from their perspective. Would you hire a Navajo speaker to do the job? Exactly.

Frankly, it is a difficult dilemma. An interpreter just won't cut it, hence my sheer frustration. I usually spell frequently, thus risking misunderstandings when I say something such as, "The animation sequence is messing up the shadow effect." A simple sentence that took me 20 seconds to describe to the interpreter so she could relay it to the person on the other side of the line. Saying it would take only three seconds. Mind you, that was an experienced interpreter. Sometimes it'd take me three seconds to sign something and the interpreter would take 30 seconds to explain it. ASL is funny sometimes.

Anyways, not all deaf person are Dylan Quick so hearing people mustn't fear us.

This is insofar about a deaf or hard of hearing college student who had this lurid and unhealthy obsession to stab people since he was in elementary school. He finally acted out his fantasy to stab people at random. He fulfilled his own wish to hurt or attempted to murder them during the stabbing spree which appears to have been done at random. Quick was mentally unstable. Off his rockers. Nuts. Just like how a culturally deaf man murdered two culturally deaf people with a 20-gauge shotgun. He was mentally unstable. Or the Joseph Mesa case, a Gallaudet University student who murdered another deaf student on campus. Or a culturally deaf woman who murdered her own culturally deaf lover and then cut her up into pieces with a chain saw. No doubt mentally unstable. It's no surprise that deaf people do go out and kill/murder other people whether they're deaf or hearing. They're just a bunch of mentally unstable people who don't know any better. I have no sympathy for them at all. I side with the true victims of the crime. I don't make excuses for them.

Each of us as a deaf or hard of hearing person we deal with adversity in our own ways. Some see themselves as perennial victims, complaining and bitching every step of the way and rail against the "hearing system." Others do not see themselves as victims but see the very people who attacked or looked down on them as simply a bunch of misinformed, uninformed, and uneducated lot. But thank God for my hearing aid, my mother and for her to not put me into a "Deaf school" because I did very well in regular schools, made friends and competed in sports winning national championships otherwise I would not be who I am today. 

Let the self-flagellation begin by some in the deaf community in the effort to assuage their own internal guilt complex.




Hat tip for the help with thanks to Richie B.