Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1916-08-18
The State School for the Deaf
BY w. H. COCHRAN
Member State Board of Control

| =
! 1886, it's purpose being to educate
| the deaf, blind and feeblemindet
youth of the state of Washington
The location of the school was tiXet
at Vancouver in Clarke county. Tit
school was made free to all reSiden
youth in the state who were too deaf
blind or predetermined to be laugh
by ordinary methods in other public
! schools; provided, however, that the!
were free from vicious habits ant
! from loathsome or contagious dis
eases.
The school was placed under the
management of board of trustees
consisting of five persons, to be nomi
mated by the governor, and the ap
pointments to be such that the boart
should always contain at least one
practical educator, one physician and
one lawyer. The trustees were EN-.
powered to elect a director of the
school, who should be an expert edu-
Gator of defective youth, a hearing
man of sound learning and morals,
not under 80 nor over 20 years of
age, and practically acquainted with
the school management and class in
struction of the deaf, blind and
feeble-minded.
If the parent, guardian or next
friend of any defective youth re-
siding in the state, is, by reason of
poverty, unable to pay the cost of
transporting such youth to and from
the school, then on satisfactory proof
of such inability being presented to
the county commissioners in the
county where such youth resides,
they shall issue to the parent or
guardian a certificate ordering the
county to pay the expense of such
A law was passed in 1890 reQuir-
ing the clerks of all school districts
in the state to report to the school
Of their counties the
names Of all deaf youth residing
within their respective districts who
are between the ages Of and FL
years. The county school superin-
tendent shall then report to the
county commissioners the names Of
Ill such youth on the first day of July
If each year and shall transmit a
duplicate copy to the superintendent
If the state school.
The sum of $1,000 was appro-
priated by the legislature to sustain
The school. but no provision for the
purchase Of ground or the erection
II suitable buildings were made. To
meet this emergency several public
,pirited members of the Vancouver,
BOARD of trade collected funds sufi-
,ient to purchase 100 acres of land
Ind to build a small, plain building.
rhe property was afterward ex-
for II acres of land, and in
1887 the present main building was
erected. The school building for the
was erected about a
half mile distant, and what is now
he school for the blind was erected
n 1891.
Governors Advice Followed.
On April 1, 1901, the School for
Defective Youth came under the con-
.rol and jurisdiction of the state
board of control, the present COVER
nor, Ernest Lister, then being chair
man Of that board. In it's first report
Of this institution to the legislature
the board made a recommendation
that the feeble-minded children be
to another location and that
the deaf children be located in one
building and the blind children be
moved to the building vacated by the
feeble minded. All of this recon-
has since been carried
out. although not adopted at that
time, and the governor can look back
with satisfaction and feel that his
advice at that time has been consid-
cred sound. J
At that time the population of the
blind school was so small that it was
felt that the one superintendent over
both the deaf and the blind would be
sufficient. There were employed I've
teachers for the deaf, while one
teacher was all that was required for
he blind. The feeble-minded were
to Medical Lake in May.
1906, and at the same time the blind
were transferred to the
building vacated by them, and the
deaf remained in the location which
hey occupy at the present time.
On January 1. 1906, Thomas p.
Clarke was appointed superintendent
,f the School for the Deaf and the
Blind, and he still remains as super
ntondent of the School for the Detf
The board of control in 1909 rec