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Turning his life around
Deaf man shares how he succeeded
By Sean Barron
BOARDMAN
What do you do if you’re falsely accused of being an armed bank robber and in possession of cocaine — then find yourself in jail and a drug-rehabilitation program before all charges are dropped?
And throw being deaf into the mix.
Well, if you’re anything like Darian Scott, you use those and many other difficulties you have experienced to turn your life around, then help others.
“I have faith in God and myself,” Scott, 30, said recently from the Youngstown Hearing & Speech Center, 6614 Southern Blvd., where he receives services from its audiology and speech pathology departments.
“It’s never too late to find yourself.”
Scott, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment on Youngstown’s West Side, should know.
As a toddler, Scott contracted spinal meningitis, which caused severe nerve damage that left him unable to hear in his right ear.
In addition, he had to relearn to walk and talk.
His parents, unable to deal with his difficulties, divorced, and Scott was raised by a great-grandmother who died when he was 11, in effect leaving him to fend for himself.
Then at age 20, the Woodrow Wilson High School graduate inexplicably lost hearing in the other ear, which, combined with a major speech impediment and diminished self-confidence, caused him to keep to himself.
The experience also set into motion a downward spiral that saw him living on the streets, sleeping in the WRTA bus station in downtown Youngstown and panhandling for money.
It was around this time that he was mistaken for an armed robber, which landed him in jail for five nights.
While there, he was wrongly accused of cocaine possession, which resulted in Scott’s spending several weeks at Glenbeigh, a nonprofit drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation specialty hospital in Ashtabula.
At Glenbeigh, Scott decided to turn his life around, in part by allowing what he had learned in the drug-rehabilitation program to serve as inspiration for working with those with addictions.
A caseworker helped Scott apply for low-income grants and financial aid to attend Youngstown State University, where he graduated in May with a 3.2 grade-point average and a bachelor’s degree in social work.
His relationship with YSU doesn’t end there, however.
Scott is taking five classes in pursuit of a master’s degree in sociology, with a goal of being a licensed independent social worker.
As if all of that isn’t enough, Scott works several part-time jobs, including at his church, Third Baptist Church in Youngstown, and in a mentoring program for at-risk students.
One of the services Scott uses at the university is a C-Print program, which makes it easer for him to simultaneously take notes in class and follow his instructor, noted Josiah Murphy Deeter, a captioning coordinator with the hearing and speech center.
“It involves real-time conversation in the classroom,” Murphy Deeter said of the program, developed in the 1980s.
“It’s useful because he can focus on what the professor says and facilitate in conversation.”
In addition, Scott receives weekly speech therapy as well as other services as needed, noted Crissi Jenkins, the center’s director of development. He uses C-Print in three of his five classes, she added.
One of Scott’s main messages to those going through difficulties in life is to not give up hope.
He also uses what he calls the HOW method: hope, open-mindedness and a willingness to get out of the situation.
“Quit listening to people who tell you what you can’t do,” he advises. “Live life to what makes you happy.”
Despite his perseverance, Scott is quick to give credit to those he feels helped him along the way. That includes the hearing and speech center, which also fitted him with hearing aids, but gave him a lot more, he says.
“Over the last 15 years here, I’ve gotten the utmost respect from the staff. They’ve treated me as a real human being, not a number.”
Scott said he’s also grateful to Donna Hendricks, a speech-language pathologist with the center, and Gina McGranahan, director of disabilities services at YSU.