Posted Date: July 2, 2008

Supporters Seek to Block Sale of Historic School’s Land

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal & Guide

   Last October, staff, alumni and friends of the Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-disabled celebrated the Hampton facility’s 100th anniversary, knowing the clock was ticking on the historic African American school’s future.
   On Monday, June 30, as the school prepared to close its doors the following day, supporters gathered in a vigil at the facility to highlight their continuing effort to maintain the school’s mission. With the July 1 closure, residential students are being transferred to a similar facility in Staunton, located in the western part of the state.
   Next year, the Commonwealth is expected to put the 75 acres of land that the school sits on up for sale.
    But the Coalition for the Preservation of the School for the Deaf and Blind and Disabled says that a third of that land cannot be sold because of a deed reverting it back to ancestors of the original owners.
      Former House Delegate Dr. Mary Christian, who is one of the leaders of the Coalition, said the group has hired a lawyer to look into the possibility of  keeping the state from selling a 25-acre chunk of the land using the reversion clause.
      “Further, if we can win this legal battle, we hope to force the state to use that land to continue educating disabled children in this area who are in need of is services,” said Christian.   “We want to honor the history and the mission of this school. We lost the war to stop the closing of  the facility. We want to win this battle to preserve a portion of our history.”
      Christian said the vigil was held to bring attention to the continued effort to keep  facility open and the  ongoing legal battle with the state.
     She said she is awaiting communication from the Attorney General’s Office, which is currently researching the reverter clause.
Although a reverter clause existed in the initial deed to the property, it does not in the current edition of document, according to state officials.

Billy  Cannady,  the Virginia Public Instruction Superintendent, said that he is working with the  Hampton City Attorney to determine the viability of the reversion clause.  
      Christian said if the reversion clause can be verified, she hopes the state will allot enough money to use the building for local disabled and deaf students.
       Efforts to save the school started 11 years ago when the  legislature began to debate consolidating the two schools, according to Christian.
      “People who supported the Staunton school felt that the Hampton program should be closed to save money,” she said.
“But that was four hours away and the programs there were not as strong as the one  in Hampton, according to a state study. Many of the programs in Staunton did not meet the criteria. But once that was realized, they dropped the criteria. We have been fighting a tug of war with a group that has the political backing of the top political leadership in the General Assembly. We hope the reversion clause will save some of what we have been fighting for all these years.”
    The Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind, and Multi-disabled at Hampton was established in 1907 but officially opened under the direction of William C. Ritter in 1909 as the Virginia School for Colored Deaf and Blind. During this time of segregation, there were very few opportunities for black students with disabilities to be readily taught those necessary lessons that will allow them to advance at the same speed as their peers.
    The state of Virginia pushed for three decades to eliminate one of its state-supported schools for children who are deaf, blind, and multi-disabled. Both the Hampton and Staunton schools service students with special needs; however, Hampton's facility assisted students with physical handicaps, a point supporters urged the state to consider.
    The mountainous location of Staunton, they argued, makes it difficult for wheelchair bound students to gain access to the school. In addition, they noted, the move of Peninsula students to Staunton would separate special needs children from their families.
Christian said, “Everything was okay when the schools were separate but equal, but after desegregation the state decided to close all the black schools and bus African-Americans out to white schools. Now only three black schools are left. It's simply not fair.”
    Christian, a former Virginia state delegate and chairperson of the coalition, is among many who believe that the decision to move the students from Hampton was racially motivated.
    Esther Dickerson, a VSDBM-H graduate said, “I understand about needing to integrate but there is still a need for a residential program at Hampton. To have to tear down a mountain to have wheel chair access does not make sense. There is no question that this decision is racially motivated.”
Ralph Shelman, Co-Chairman of the preservation of VSDBM-H and a graduate of the school, believes that when it comes to education of the blind, race tends to be a factor.
    He feels that there were periods where the school did not receive support and funding when it should have. “When the school was cited for violations the federal government should have stepped in and corrected the problem instead of trying to close it. By reacting the way they did, they failed black children.”
    The hard work of people like Dr. Mary Christian and Ralph Shelman allowed the school to stay open as long as it did.
    At its height, the Hampton school served approximately 500 children. Its current enrollment is approximately 60 students. The coalition for the preservation of the Hampton school believes that without their continued efforts the school would not have lasted as long as it did.

   This story contains excerpts from an October 11, 2007 New Journal and Guide article written by Tanya Christian.

 

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