Category: News and Views
This week in the UK, it was claimed that the late Jimmy Savile sexually abused blind children at Henshaws School for the Blind in Yorkshire. These are serious allegations and I wouldn't be surprised if they were true. Though I hope these are isolated incidents, I wonder if children have been sexually abused at other residential schools for the blind in both the 20th and 21st centuries?
I know of other types of abuse at several residential blind schools, but usually these involve imposing restrictions on blind children (including teenagers) that would not be imposed on them in mainstream schools, such as unfairly limiting when they can use their phones and not letting them leave the premises.
Restricting the communications and movements of blind children in residential schools mmakes it easier for people to get away with committing what ever sort of abuse they want against those blind children. The less they are allowed to use communications technology and the less they are allowed to leave residential school campuses, the fewer opportunities there are for blind children to report abuse they or other blind children may have suffered, and the more intimidated or frightened they may feel when considering reporting abuse.
Yes I have heard similar things about other concentration camps for the blind.
The way residential schools are currently set up, I think it’s abuse to send blind kids off to these schools in the first instance. I’m glad I never attended one. I’ve seen some people who went to residential schools, and I have to say that many of them are rather socially backward. Just my observation and my opinion.
I was forced to go to one, and live there by my parents, from the time I was 12 to 18. Fucking awful.
I attended a residential school for the blind all twelve years of school--from age six to eighteen.
I never encountered, nor heard of anyone else encountering sexual abuse.
The physical abuse is a different story. I had to eat the tobacco out of a pack of cigarettes as punishment for smoking. And I had a friend who had to smoke a cigar with a trash can on his head.
However, times were different. Not being allowed to leave the campus was not a punishment, it was the normal way of life.
I've often wondered how that crap effected me as an adult. I don't think it did.
I got an excellent education, for which I'm grateful. My social skills were terrible for a while when I first went to college, but I had wonderful parents and a good socialworker who helpped me get rid of the worst effects.
Bob
I would erge anyone who is thinking of contributing to this topic in the form of first hand knolige or roumers to strongly consider the possible legal ramifications for doing so, especially given the closeness of the blind community. As the op said, this story broke in the UK last week so it's a perfectly reasonable topic, but if you're thinking of posting, you probably shouldn't tell us that MR blogs made you feel his long cane in exchange for a new braille note for example.
I don’t think anyone’s gunna name names; besides, I’d submit truth is an absolute defense. Not only that, it’s hard to believe the average sighted person would even come to this site, but I could be wrong. There are a few here, but it’s not as though people generally care about this topic, safe and sad to say.
Physical abuse? If any of those cunts at CSDB had tried to hit me or something, they wouldn't have lived to tell about it.
There are more ways to abuse than hitting.
Bob
I know.
Think I'll start asking the more general question, "do you believe you were abused as a child, and why?"
Wish me luck on starting a new topic.
Bob
I was just talking about what happened at the school for the blind I went to with a friend of mine. I was residential longer than I wanted to be but at least we only came in on Mondays and went home on Fridays. Anyway, one year there was this one staff member who randomly grabbed boobs and pulled down pajama bottoms as soon as her boss left for the night and before we all got ready for bed. Well she did that to the wrong girl. That girl's mother? A cop! The girl blew the whistle and that staff member disappeared and a no hugging rule was in place. Also I heard roomors about another residential worker hitting young boys. Some of that staff's co workers tried to write an annonamous note explaining what was going on and it was ignored. Don't know how much of that was true though.
I wish I had gotten myself expelled on purpose. Sure I woulda been in trouble with my folks, but that would've been a picknic.
my experience at a school for the blind was similar to Bob's, in that it was the best option for me, from an educational standpoint.
although most staff members had extremely low expectations about what blind people could and should do, no abuse went on that I'm aware of.
Hahaha! I thought about doing that, but I was too afraid my dad would have killed me.
Bob
I've never been to any type institutional education or whatever.
This abuse isn't only in the blind schools, but other places disabled people attend I've read.
Lots of news stories, and first hand reports.
Yes in the case I mentioned, the blind school is the latest revelation. Before that there were revelations about the BBC, hospitals and other institutions.
As most users of this website are blind and several went to residential blind schools, I think it is a good time for discussions about the sort of abuse that people have either encountered or heard about at residential blind schools. Like other institutions, residential blind schools like to manage their reputations, and this can mean that bad experiences are swept under the carpet.
I think abuse is based on the feelings of the abused.
At the school for the blind, I never really ever felt abused. I think that's because it was happening to everyone.
There was one guy who was outed as gay when I was at school. He was expeled immediately, whereas his confidants were given lighter punishments. That, I would call abuse, mainly for the unjustice of the situation.
Bob
The math teacher at CSDB was quite a professor Snape.
I lost much of my dwindling respect for schools in general after a stor where a kid was suspended from school after he kneed another kid in the crotch. Of course on the surface it seems perfectly understandable, but not when you add in the fact that the kid he kneed in the crotch was choking him. He was sent home for sexual harassment. Then there was an incident where a nine or ten-year-old kid was suspended for sexual harassment simply for remarking to his friend that he thought their teacher looked cute.
WHAT!
Yeah, those schools, along with a sizeable portion of society are still hung up about sex.
It's kind of a hangover from the eighties, when "tough love" became synonomous with just plain mean.
Bob
Bob is right, about the hangups that people at schools for the blind often have.
in my sex ed class, there was a girl who was very outspoken, and flat out told the teachers, "you know, by acting like sex is something to shy away from, you're only making us wanna do it more."
I'm glad she spoke up, cause no one else would, including me.
No kidding. And I always thought the idea of sex ed was to teac kids that if they were going to experiment that there were/are ways to do so responsibly. It's probably because of teachings like that that my first girlfriend had such a negative view of sex. Her folks didn't help either.
The blind school was where I had most of my sexual fun, but it sure came with a price. I got caught sucking a guy off and got suspended. Even after I got back from suspension, I couldn't have cokes or candy bars for a week. I couldn't use the phone, not even to call my parents, but that's when Mom stepped in and laid down the law. She said I could call her whenever I felt like it, and that if they had a problem with it, she would find another school for me to go to. They also signed me up for extensive counselling, saying that my behavior was not normal. On the contrary, at a bording school?... I rest my case. LOL
Lol Anthony.
Looks like that counseling really impacted your life!
At the school for the blind there was this high school guy who was found sucking about six other guys. He was expelled immediately, his, uh, co-conspirators, on the other hand, got a slap on the wrist. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that most of them were jocks.
Bob
I wonder if all this craziness about sexuality is because blind people aren't supposed to fuck. At least according to the backward thinking of not a few sighted people.
that's exactly how it happened for me. I was the one doing the sucking, so I was the one in the wrong and the one who needed to be punished. The other guy was just lying back and enjoying it, and I probably made him do it.
Undoubtedly. You vixen you.
Are you gonna suspend me again, Daddy?
Shivering over here at the thought of your quote counseling unquote that you were made to endure, Anthony.
What these anti-gay reparative people do is not hidden from the likes of Homeland Security now. I'm pretty aware these days of the tactics they deploy.
Not normal?
I'll tell you what's not normal: Shocking gay people after showing them images of gay sex to make them conditioned to not want it. Insisting to gay people and their fathers that the fault of being gay rests squarely with the father. I could go on, but won't so as not to bring back nightmares to some people on thiss site, probably.
Said counselors are not here to bring peace, but a sword. To turn a father against his son, a son against his father, and brother against brother. And as a Christian I never quoted passages. Had to become an ex for that.
ooh, Anthony, you better watch yourself. JohnD might like being called "daddy." lol.
I've gotten the blind people aren't supposed to fuck spiel occasionally. And my question is why not?We have desires just like everyone else. Of course Ineer did get a straight aswer whenI raised that qestion to those particular folks. LOL.
Well, I won't suspend you but how about a spanking?
Oooo yes, spank me please!.. Oh wait. I'm not supposed to like that, am I?
Would you guys take that crap to the bathroom?
Can I go too?
Bob
can I watch?
Definitely, to both of you. Maybe Y'all can come in and surprise us by catching us in one of the stalls.
too bad neither of you are bi. that could be fun.
And after the spankings, the oral sex! Bonus points to whoever gets that reference.
Even my daughter likes that Monty Python movie, the holy grail of modern satire.
I've never ever heard that blind people weren't supposed to have sex but just the opposite. Do they only tell y'all that at the blind schools? Since I was mainstreamed I have no idea.
I imagine blind people get told that in all strata of society, not just blind schools.
blind people get told we can't have sex in society as a whole, not just blind schools.
Especially if it's two blind people having sex.
Wouldn't want to polute the fantastic gene pool we have going, would we?
Bob
If it's not that it's the question of how we would know where to put it.
well? Where do you put it?
If you don't know, just, don't drop the soap in the shower, or you will come out much much wiser.
Bob
Oh, oops. I wasn't supposed to do that? Heheh, too late.
Hmm I wonder if it's abuse if you enjoy the abuse?
Bob
How about alcohol abuse at blind schools? It's only alcohol abuse if you spill it, though.
Wow, either my school was either liberal or not that wild. No alcohol, none of the guys were the rowdy types. Oh, I should explain I went to the Washington State School for the Blind from 1980 to 1983, living on campus only for the first year. Now, I was never told I was disallowed as a blind person from having sex, nor was I kept from socializing with the girls on my free time and there was one girl I liked so a few hours each evening and parts of the weekend were spent with her. If anything was going on between the guys I didn't hear about it and I didn't ask, although I suspect nothing happened.
At my school, we got 3 hours on Saturday and sunday, and 2 hours once a week to spend visiting our girlfriend or having her visit us. as far as hearing about the guys or even the girls playing around with each other, it's not like we all posted bulletins that said it was happening. If you were one of the ones playing, you knew about it. It wasn't supposed to be happening, so it was kept relatively quiet.
although the school for the blind I went to was in a liberal city, we weren't allowed to do the kinda things that couples typically do. some people found ways around it, but I wasn't one of the brave ones.
Seems like I was one of the brave ones, but I was one of the most unlucky ones.
A bunch of us got together, bought a six pack of beer. I drank half of a beer, hated the taste, and one of the guys got drunk and tried to commit suicide. We were forced to either confess and be punished, or, if we were discovered, get expelled.
I had to tell on myself for a beer I hated.
Bob (shesh)
A bunch of you were sharing one single six pack and at least one of you managed to get seriously drunk? What kind of beer was this?
Why, super beer!
Actually, unbeknownst to some of us, some of the older guys had a secret stash of vodka.
Bob