Delaware
Deaf and hard-of-hearing community raise concerns over ACLU-DE complaint against Dept. of Ed.
The ACLU of Delaware wants an investigation into systemic discrimination against deaf and hard-of-hearing youth, but several in the hearing impaired community oppose it.
The ACLU’s complaint calls for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to investigate the Delaware Department of Education’s (DDOE) lack of access to Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) services and over-referrals to Delaware School for the Deaf.
Backlash from the deaf and hard-of-hearing community (DHH) centers on the ACLU’s referral to LSL therapy as the “gold standard” when teaching communication skills to hearing impaired children.
LSL therapy teaches a child to use the hearing provided by a hearing aid or a cochlear implant for understanding speech and learning to talk, but director of Connecticut-based advocacy organization Language First Kim Ofori-Sanzo explains this approach is not effective for all children.
“More recent evidence is showing that actually, if you give a deaf or hard-of-hearing child a signed language, in addition to [LSL], that can help fill in those gaps of what they’re not hearing, what they’re missing through their ears and help them acquire a complete language,” she says.
Ofori-Sanzo says while Language First does not oppose LSL therapy entirely, the ACLU’s language surrounding it discredits other teaching methods for DHH children.
In their open letter to the ACLU, Language First says: “Mainstream and LSL settings are not the only educational placements where DHH children can receive meaningful, individualized education. It is vital that DHH children receive education that is individualized to them; not an automatic placement in a mainstream or LSL environment with the assumption that this must be least restrictive.”
Members of the DHH community are also concerned with the ACLU’s statement that the DDOE is over-referring hearing-impaired students to the Delaware School for the Deaf (DSD).
The complaint states: “The number of children enrolled at DSD is estimated at 40% of the total population of Delaware children birth-to-21 who have deafness or hearing impairment. Comparatively, the nationwide placement of these children in similarly restrictive and segregated schools is only approximately 9%.”
Ofori-Sanzo says this data can be misleading without context.
“Each state is different in how they allow deaf students to transfer to their school for the deaf… To compare the national average to Delaware’s average is not an apples to apples comparison because you’re comparing potentially some states where it’s super easy to [enroll a student in the school for the deaf] and other states where it’s incredibly difficult to do that,” she explains.
The ACLU complaint also states: “That so many Delaware children with hearing loss are placed at DSD, the most restrictive setting, as compared to children with hearing loss nationwide, is compelling evidence demonstrating a systemic error in placing these students appropriately and indicates that many students are being wrongfully deprived of the provision of services in their least restrictive environments.”
In response, Ofori-Sanzo says, “Schools for the deaf could very well be the least restrictive environment for deaf and hard-of-hearing kids because they offer direct communication access to peers, direct communication access to teachers, they have peers and adults who are like them — deaf kids get to see other people who are like them.”
A digital petition with over 19,000 signatures is currently circulating requesting that the ACLU retract its complaint.
When asked for comment on the complaint, Delaware DOE said: “The mission of the Delaware Department of Education is to empower every learner with the highest quality education through shared leadership, innovative practices and exemplary service. That includes support for students to receive services in the least restrictive environment. DDOE is aware of the complaint and the community opposition to it. DDOE will respond to the complaint through the U.S. Department of Education’s process.”
The ACLU of Delaware released a statement Tuesday clarifying it is not opposed to teaching American Sign Language and will begin discussing the concerns raised with members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
Humpback whale beaches and dies at Delaware Seashore State Park
The Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute will perform a necropsy.
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.
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.
Léelo en español aquí
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.
VENTNOR, N.J. (WPVI) — A Delaware woman is behind bars in connection with a hit-and-run crash in November at the Jersey shore.
(The video in the player above is from previous coverage.)
The incident happened around 6:16 p.m. on Nov. 20 in Ventnor, New Jersey.
READ MORE | Video shows Jersey shore hit-and-run crash that left 92-year-old injured
Police said the 92-year-old victim was struck at Ventnor and Newport avenues. He sustained serious injuries and was transported to an area hospital.
Investigators said the driver, Leslie Myers, 51, of Weldin Park, Delaware, fled the scene after the crash.
She was arrested Wednesday on charges of assault by auto, leaving the scene of an accident and other related offenses.
Myers is being held in the Allegheny County Jail in Pennsylvania, awaiting extradition to New Jersey.
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