Deaf Children Being Bullied

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(upbeat music)

Did you know that
one-in-three and one-in-five

deaf and hard-of-hearing kids are bullied?

A study in the UK showed
that this bullying

might be occurring because deaf children

are seen as weaker due
to their hearing loss.

Yeah, tell that one to Matt Hamill.

In case you don't get the
joke, he's an MMA fighter.

Before we continue, I want
to say that all the links

with the information that I'm giving you

will be listed in the info box below.

I'm not gonna talk about
everything in this video,

so if you want to read more about it,

then everything is right at
your fingertips, right below.

Also, yes, bullying is a problem

for all kinds of kids in all schools.

However, it's Deaf Awareness Month,

so work with me here.

So in the UK, in 2010, deaf students

had the highest rate of victimisation.

12 deaf and hard-of-hearing students,

six hearing students,
four mainstream teachers,

two mainstream managers and three

other staff members were interviewed.

The researchers found that the deaf

and hard-of-hearing
students were stigmatised

and were at higher risk for
being seen as lower class,

being socially excluded,
bullied, and marginalised.

20 deaf and hard-of-hearing students

between the ages of 16
and 25 were interviewed.

After the interview it was found

that there was a pattern of
these students being bullied.

In fact, in Dundee in the
UK, one boy was actually

pulled out of his school by his parents

because he was constantly being bullied.

Even the teachers gave
him no support whatsoever.

Teachers, are you sure you
picked the right profession?

He's not the only one.

There was a girl who was
called stupid and dumb,

she was beat up in the
bathroom for saying,

"What, I can't hear you?"

Because the students that beat her up

thought that she was
just being a smart aleck,

that she was being sarcastic.

She got suspended and
written up for things

that she never did,
but she got blamed for.

Standing up for herself
got her in trouble.

Even her principal abused
her, and also held her back

a year for no reason whatsoever.

On her last day of school she ended up

having a concussion, and
she was stabbed in the back

four times by those little thumbtack pins.

Five-year-old Santiago
Lozada from London, England,

was bullied for his hearing aids.

However, his mother did take the time

to take this awful incident and turn it

into a more positive opportunity

by taking his ordinary hearing aids

and then turning them into
Ninja Turtles and Iron Man,

and basically anything that
was his favourite cartoon.

I mean, yeah, ordinary hearing
aids aren't that pretty,

but these are pretty awesome.

And they actually started
becoming really popular

in his school, and his mother started

selling handmade designs.

18 year-old Tavis Green from Tennessee

was bullied on his school bus.

At one point he was even
punched in the face,

which then caused his mother
to confront the bullies,

which then ended with her assaulting them

and then being put into jail
and then charged for assault.

There are more of these kinds of stories

posted all over the internet.

One of the websites that's linked below

actually has multiple
stories from different

bullying victims, so if you
want to read some more stories,

then just go down there.

On Tumblr, on blogs, on Facebook,

I've seen other deaf and
hard-of-hearing people,

whether they're teenagers,
or even adults now,

they've posted their own stories

about being bullied in school.

I've read posts about their teachers

picking on them, about parents, their own

and other people's
parents picking on them.

A few months ago I actually
posted my own video

which was a story time
video and it was about

my US history teacher making fun of me

because I had an incomplete assignment

that did not have all the facts down

from the film that we were watching

because I was deaf then, and deaf now,

and there was no closed
captioning on the film.

So he made fun of me to the entire class.

I've occasionally been
picked on by other students.

Occasionally I've gotten
the giggles at a point.

It's also happened in
grocery stores and stuff.

I actually faced more isolation,

which is a form, sort of, of bullying,

but instead of being confronted by people

and being physically picked
on and what have you,

it was just more like I
wasn't really involved

with a lot of things, it was
very difficult to get involved

because I couldn't follow
everything that was happening.

I mean really, if you're
on a group project,

who wants the kid that
can't even keep up with you?

In the movie No Ordinary
Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie,

Jacob was a deaf child
in a mainstream school,

the only deaf kid in his
class, who was often picked on.

Sammy is known for taking
Jacob's hearing aids

off his ears and for making fun of him

whenever he doesn't hear
or understand something.

Yes, that is a fictional movie,

but it still happens in real life.

There's also deaf on deaf bullying,

when mainstream deaf children
walk into deaf culture

for the first time, there
are times when these kids

will be called hearing head
because they're not deaf enough.

This is the sign for hearing,

and they do hearing head,

because they've been raised
mainstream, you get it?

And they don't know sign
language well enough,

or if they didn't grow up in
a deaf family, hearing head.

But then you also have those deaf children

or deaf adults, deaf teenagers,

that have been mainstreamed,
and they will sometimes

pick on those who are culturally deaf

because they will see those
who are culturally deaf

as less-than because they don't speak

or they don't act like hearing people,

which is seen as the norm, or whatever.

Notice the quotation marks in the air.

So bullying does, indeed,
come from all sides

or the points of the triangle.

Bullying is not a nice thing to do.

It's not a nice thing
to have to go through.

There have been so many
kids have hurt themselves,

sometimes to death, literally,
because of the amount

of bullying that they had to go through.

Learning the best kind of
behaviour starts young,

so it's really important
that we teach these kids

the right way to treat somebody,

the right way to speak to somebody.

If you happen to just not get along

with somebody, that's fine.

We can't be friends with everyone.

But you can still treat
that person with respect.

You don't have to be
best friends with them,

but if they trip and fall,
you can still walk over

and help them up if they need a hand.

So to any kids that may be going through

something, please tell an adult.

Tell your teacher, a parent, somebody.

It isn't a bad thing to
stand up for yourself,

but if you feel like
it might be putting you

more at risk for more trouble,

please just tell an adult about it.

That's what they're
supposed to be there for.

Recently I've been
emailing a lot of middle

and high schools here so I can help

bring some deaf awareness
for their current

and their future deaf and
hard-of-hearing students.

So if you're a teacher
who is watching this,

feel free to show this in your classroom.

If you're a student,
a guidance counsellor,

a principal, whoever, just
feel free to share it.

Bullying is serious business,
and we need to work together

to keep it from happening
before the next kid gets hurt.

If you want to follow me
on all of my social media,

links to that will be down below.

If you want to support
me on Patreon monthly

or get merch, the links to
that will also be down below.

I upload every Monday and
Tuesday unless otherwise stated,

and I will see you later, bye.

(upbeat music)