Delaware

ACLU-DE reviews complaint amid backlash from deaf, hard-of-hearing community

Published

2 years ago

January 4, 2024

ACLU-DE reviews complaint amid backlash from deaf, hard-of-hearing community

The ACLU of Delaware levied a formal complaint against Delaware’s Department of Education just before the Christmas holiday — calling for an investigation into “systemic discrimination against deaf and hard-of-hearing youth.”

Filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, the complaint claims Delaware is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, while it centered largely on access to “Listening and Spoken Language” therapy. The organization called it the “gold standard” when teaching communication skills to children hard of hearing.

That has received backlash from some of the very people it hoped to empower.

Such backlash from the deaf and hard-of-hearing community is underscored by one petition started Dec. 26 — having gained more than 20,000 signatures over a holiday break. The Delaware Association of the Deaf also said it was “profoundly disturbed and disappointed” by the complaint in a response letter to ACLU-DE. And Language First, a Connecticut-based advocacy organization, wrote an open letter saying the complaint discredits other teaching methods for children, while promoting misconceptions about their language acquisition.

“Reviewing current research findings and practices in Delaware and nationwide, there is no agreed upon ‘gold standard,’ a baseless and ideologically driven claim made in your complaint,” writes the board of Delaware Association of the Deaf. “In fact, countless studies on brain development and language in infants, including Deaf infants, recommend immediate and intensive immersion in a fully accessible natural language, including ASL a natural visual language, as being critical.”

The association said LSL therapy is just one strategy, which should not discount “the documented benefits and role” of visual language or bilingual strategies. The board requested a withdrawal of the complaint entirely.

ACLU-DE hasn’t gone quite that far.

The organization removed its posts about the complaint, however, and cited time needed to review community feedback.

“We’re invested in learning more from this community as we review both our actions and our impact regarding the OCR complaint,” wrote ACLU-DE in a tweet Tuesday. “We’ll be reaching out to community members to discuss the concerns that were shared and ensure that our work does not in any way impede ASL education.”

Original complaint: Students with hearing loss in Delaware face ‘systemic discrimination,’ ACLU-DE claims

‘The question is, gold for whom?’

Concerned advocates echoed these calls to pull the complaint.

Many noted a lack of research supporting LSL therapy over other methods, while also opining that Delaware’s School for the Deaf should not be described as restrictive. ACLU-DE’s complaint claimed the state over-refers to the school.

“Schools for the deaf may very well be the least restrictive environment (LRE) for many DHH children,” writes Language First in its open letter, nodding to similar language from federal law. “Indeed, being educated in an environment where one can have direct and fully accessible communication between their teachers and peers does seem to fit the definition of ‘least restrictive.’”

Reaction is still mixed. Nick Fina, project lead for CHOICES Delaware, a grassroots organization for children with hearing loss, supported the initial complaint, saying such access issues stretch over decades. He also pointed to an upcoming informational event about LSL, set for 7 p.m. Jan. 17.

Sara Nović started her petition late last month.

The author and instructor also wrote a letter to ACLU-DE, she shared on her social media, compiling feedback from over 50 Delaware families. She said the complaint was lodged with “out-of-date and incorrect information about deaf education and signed language,” while it posits LSL as a “gold standard” in deaf education.

“The question is, gold for whom?” she writes in the petition.

“LSL advocacy is still built on this philosophy — that deaf children must assimilate and participate in a veneer of inclusion rather than actually learning — to disastrous effect for deaf kids,” the petition also states.

Nović is the author of the “True Biz” — a New York Times best-seller following a teacher and students at a boarding school for the deaf — as well as an instructor of deaf studies and creative writing, according to her website. The Philadelphia resident continues an open call for more input from Delaware families.

And ACLU-DE is ready to hear from more residents, too.

It shared next steps that are to include “conversations with the deaf and hard of hearing community.” Specific dates or events have not yet been made known.

Do you have a story? Share your perspective with us: kepowers@gannett.com.

Kelly Powers covers race, culture and equity for Delaware Online and USA TODAY Network Northeast, with a focus on education. Contact her at kepowers@gannett.com or (231) 622-2191, and follow her on Twitter @kpowers01.

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Delaware

Wilmington’s first homicide of 2026 claims life of 19-year-old

Published

3 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Wilmington’s first homicide of 2026 claims life of 19-year-old

A 19-year-old man was shot dead in Wilmington’s Southbridge neighborhood in the early hours of Jan. 9, police said.

Wilmington officers arriving to the 200 block of S. Claymont St. about 3:30 a.m. found the teen there.

The teen, whom police have not named, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Anyone with information about this shooting should contact Wilmington Police Detective Derek Haines at (302) 576-3656. People can also provide information to Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP-3333 or delawarecrimestoppers.com.

Violence by the numbers

This is the first homicide reported this year in Delaware, which last year saw a slight drop in all violent killings.

Delaware police reported 52 people being killed in violent crimes in 2025, a drop of nearly 12% when compared with 59 people killed in 2024, according to a Delaware Online/The News Journal database.

While the number of people killed in homicides statewide is down, the number of people killed by gunfire in Delaware was up in 2025 for the third year in a row.

According to the Delaware Online database, 47 were shot dead in Delaware last year. That was one more victim (46) than in 2024, three more (44) than in 2023 and nine more (38) than in 2022.

Despite the increase in gun-related deaths, there were fewer people shot last year in Delaware for the second year in a row.

Police reported 164 people being shot last year in Delaware. The previous year saw 195 people shot and police reported 210 people being shot in 2023.

This was the fewest people shot in Delaware since 2018, when police reported 146 people being shot statewide.

Send tips or story ideas to Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.

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Delaware

MERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach

Published

15 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

MERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach

A dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach on Jan. 8, according to the nonprofit Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute.

The juvenile male was first seen Jan. 6, floating at sea about 2 miles off the Indian River Inlet, a MERR Facebook post said. The bloated 30-foot whale ultimately beached near a private community in the early afternoon of Jan. 8, the post said.

MERR is attempting to coordinate with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to get equipment to move the whale out of the water and onto the beach to perform a necropsy, the post said. Right now, there isn’t enough information to determine a cause of death.

Delaware saw at least three dead whales last year, in the Indian River Bay, at Delaware Seashore State Park and at Pigeon Point. The first two were humpbacks, while the Pigeon Point whale was a fin whale.

A necropsy on the Delaware Seashore whale found blunt force trauma across its back, indicating it may have been struck by a ship, MERR Director Suzanne Thurman said.

Recently, on Jan. 4, a dead fin whale was found on the bow of a ship at the Gloucester Marine Terminal in New Jersey, which is located in the Port of Philadelphia on the Delaware River.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Facebook.

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Delaware

Pa. man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from Delco cemetery

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Pa. man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from Delco cemetery

A Pennsylvania man is accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from a cemetery in Delaware County.

Jonathan Gerlach, 34, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, is charged with abuse of corpse, criminal mischief, burglary and other related offenses, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse revealed on Thursday, Jan. 8.

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Between November 2025 and Jan. 6, 2026, 26 mausoleums and underground burial sites had been burglarized or desecrated at Mount Moriah Cemetery, which stretches from Yeadon Borough, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia, investigators said.

As police investigated the thefts, they caught Gerlach desecrating a monument at the cemetery on Tuesday, Jan. 6, according to officials. Gerlach was taken into custody and investigators executed a search warrant at his home in Ephrata.

During the search, investigators recovered 100 human skeletons from Gerlach’s home as well as eight more human remains inside a storage locker, according to Rouse.

“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night guys,” Rouse said. “This is an unbelievable scene that no one involved – from myself to the detectives to the medical examiners that are now trying to piece together what they are looking at, quite literally – none of them have ever seen anything like this before.”

Rouse said some of the stolen skeletons are hundreds of years old.

“We are trying to figure out exactly what we are looking at,” Rouse said. “We quite simply at this juncture are not able to date and identify all of them.”

Rouse also said some of the skeletons are of infants and children.

“It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific,” Rouse said. “I grieve for those who are upset by this who are going through it who are trying to figure out if it is in fact their loved one or their child because we found remains that we believe to be months old infants among those that he had collected. Our hearts go out to every family that is impacted by this.”

Sources also told NBC10 the thefts are related to a similar case in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Investigators said they are looking at Gerlach’s online community — including his social media groups and Facebook page — to determine if people were buying, selling, or trading the remains.

Gerlach is currently in custody at the Delaware County Prison after failing to post $1 million bail. Online court records don’t list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

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