The Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech, which opened a branch on the Hawk Hill campus in August, was broken into and vandalized during the first week of the semester.
Two tablets were stolen in an Aug. 27 burglary, and a window was broken and several classrooms vandalized Aug. 31, said David Finnie, assistant vice president of the Office of Public Safety and Security (OPSS).
Efforts have since been taken to improve security for the Clarke school, Finnie said, including the installation of “card swipes for the front doors” and an intercom system with a camera “on the internal doors” of the school.
Other security measures included “improvements to the burglar alarm,” wrote Bill MacKenzie, director of institutional project management at St. Joe’s, in response to written questions from The Hawk.
Clarke Pennsylvania, which was relocated to St. Joe’s from La Salle University, helps students who are deaf or hard of hearing develop auditory speech and language skills. The school offers a range of auditory, speech and language services on location, at students’ homes and virtually, along with support groups and workshops.
Hawk Hill’s center is a preschool program for children ages three to five where they are supported by speech-language pathologists and teachers for the deaf.
Ashley Mahlstedt, M.Ed., the director of Clarke’s Pennsylvania branch, said the program’s mission is to teach children with hearing difficulties to listen and talk.
“Our focus is on providing listening and spoken language services to children who are deaf and hard of hearing,” Mahlstedt said. “All of our children utilize hearing technology and work with providers through the Clarke School Services to develop auditory speech and language skills.”
Clarke Pennsylvania also offers “education, support and resources” to families with children under three years old to assist them with a diagnosis and beginning their child’s “Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) journey,” Mahlstedt said.
Mahlstedt said the school’s operations were not impacted by the break-ins and the “response and support from St. Joe’s was tremendous.”
St. Joe’s students in the special education, deaf and hard of hearing education and early childhood/elementary education programs will have opportunities to work with the Clarke school as well.
Joshua Power ’05, ’16 Ed.D., dean of the School of Education and Human Development, said students will have opportunities to work with the Clarke school through field placement and classroom observation.
“We’re looking forward to getting students over to Clarke to do observations and field work in clinical rotations, in education and eventually in speech language pathology,” Power said. “There may be some research opportunities for faculty and staff to collaborate with folks at Clarke.”
The move to St. Joe’s, which included building renovations made specifically for Clarke’s needs, provided several opportunities for the school, and they are excited for the future of the partnership with St. Joe’s, Mahlstedt said.
“We are eager to work closely with the St. Joe’s staff, professors and students to provide observation hours, to provide research studies, to continue to spread our mission and to build the field of special education, specifically in deaf education,” Mahlstedt said.
Vincent Kornacki ’25 contributed to this article.
