Blind Boarding School

Parents Forum
#1

<p>My name is Raeann, I am visually impaired. I attended the Indiana School for the Blind, a day and residential school, for blind and visually impaired children, ages three to nineteen years old, in Indianapolis, Indiana.</p>

<p>When I was four years old, I began attending the school. The local public school, lacked the facilities for me to attend there school, they did not have the adaptive technology that I needed to succeed in the classroom, an aide or a vision teacher, so my parents enrolled me in the blind school. The school considered me a residential student, during the week I stayed at school. A bus would take me to school on Sunday and not bring me home until Friday. My dormitory had eight other girls. Weekends, Christmas, spring, and summer vacations, were the only times I went home. The school was like my home away from home, the people in my dorm were like my family. On the weekends I had a nice visit with my family. Summer vacation was like a breathe of fresh air, three whole months with my family at home. The only time I remember going home during the week is when I was seven years old. My dad was taking classes, he would pick me up after school, take me home over night, bring me back early the next morning. Being able to go home during the week to see my family was like a rainbow. It only lasted a few weeks before it had to end, I was so tired at school that I started falling a sleep in class. </p>

<p>My school was a five day boarding school, where the whole school closed on the weekends and everyone went home. My family lived an hour and a half from the school. My best friends Jessica and Lisa, lived at the other end of the state, had to ride the bus for five hours twice a week, just to attend school.</p>

#2

<p>Before my S was born, I drove school bus in CA. My favorite route was the CA School for the deaf. On Friday evening, I would drive them into Los Angeles and towns along the way to spend the weekend with their families. On Sunday evenings, they were all back waiting with family, teary eyed to go back to school... Although you go to a blind school and they at a deaf school, they too were in your very shoes. I am sure they too loved going home to see their loved ones!</p>

#3

<p>blind_school, what are you doing now?
Are you enrolled in college or thinking about college?</p>

#4

<p>I am a 28 yr old college grad living in FL</p>

#5

<p>While at school, I stayed in a variety of different dorms. All of the girls in my dorm were around my age. Now I will try to give an accurate description of each dorm. </p>

<p>When I began school at age four, I was in Alder Hall dorm 3/4. As you entered the dorm, you were in a living room, with a television, couches, chairs, and tables. To the left was a short hallway full of toys. At the beginning of the hallway was a sleeping room with five little beds, closets, chairs, an identical room was at the end of the hallway. The bathroom was across the hall from the sleeping room, the bathroom had three sinks, three toilets, two shower stalls and a large bathtub next to the showers. This was dorm 3/4 in Alder Hall.</p>

<p>At the age of five, I moved to Lambert Hall dorm 3. As you entered the dorm, you were in a living room with a television, couches, chairs, and tables and a pantry full of snacks. As you left the living room you entered a long hallway with a storage room, house parent office, and an extra bed room on the left side of the hallway. A large bathroom was on the right side of the hallway, the bathroom had three sinks, three toilets, two shower stalls and a large bathtub next to the showersThe end of the hallway was a large sleeping area that partitioned beds into sections of three each, for a total of sixteen beds, closets, and chairs, clothes drawers were attached to the end of each bed. The residential students slept in the front of the room, day students slept in the back of the room. This was dorm 3 in Lambert Hall. </p>

<p>At the age of eight, I moved to Wilson Hall dorm 4. As you entered the dorm, you were in a hallway with a television room on the right, a storage room and laundry room on the left. Then you entered a living room with a television, couches, a house parents office, and doors leading out to a screened in patio. Behind the living room was a kitchen with tables and chairs for doing homework, a pantry for students to store their snacks, and a stove for cooking Sunday dinners in the dorm. Their were two sleeping rooms off the kitchen with eight beds, benches and a row of lockers. One sleeping room was for residential students the other was for day students. The bathroom had three sinks, three toilets, four shower stalls and a bathtub next to the showers. This was dorm 4 in Wilson Hall. </p>

<p>At the age of eleven, I moved to Girls Quad dorm J. The dormitory was a large three story brick building that looked like an apartment building from the outside. The first floor of the dorm was storage and laundry rooms. As you went up the stairs to the second floor, you saw a large room with doors leading off to smaller rooms. If you turned to the left, you saw a kitchen, bathroom, activity room that had in it a piano, Nintendo, ping pong table, television, tables, and chairs. If you turned to your right, you saw a bedroom, lounge with couches, and a television, and a house parents office. The third floor had a bathroom and eight bedrooms. In each room there were two beds, dressers, closets, and study tables. At the start of each school year the house parent assigned each girl a room and roommate. My roommate Christina was bossy, always telling me what to do, lucky for me I got to switch roommates part way through the year and roomed with my friend Jessica the rest of the year. The bathroom had three sinks, three toilets, four shower stalls and a bathtub next to the showers. This was Girls Quad dorm J.</p>

#6