St. John's School for the Deaf
| St. John's School for the Deaf | |
|---|---|
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| Address | |
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3680 South Kinnickinnic Ave. St. Francis, Wisconsin 53235 United States |
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| Information | |
| Type | Coeducational, boarding |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Roman Catholic, Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi |
| Patron saint(s) | St. John |
| Established | 10 May 1876 |
| Status | Defunct |
| Closed | May 1983 |
| Sister school | St. Rita School for the Deaf |
| Oversight | Archdiocese of Milwaukee |
| Director | Fr. Donald Zerkel (1983) |
| Principal | Sr. Roberta Le Pine, OSF (1983) |
| Faculty | 22 (1976) |
| Grades | PreK-12 |
| Enrolment | 100 (1983) |
| Medium of language | American Sign Language |
| Color(s) | Blue and green |
| Athletics conference | Central States Schools for the Deaf |
| Sports | Cheerleading, baseball, basketball, swimming |
| Team name | Eagles |
| Yearbook | Green Spirit |
| School fees | $8,000 (1982-1983) |
St. John's School for the Deaf was a Roman Catholic school for deaf children located in St. Francis, Wisconsin. Founded in 1876, the school served children from preschool through twelfth grade before closing in 1983. St. John was most famous being the site of possibly upwards of 200 molestations at the hands of priest and serial child molester Fr. Lawrence C. Murphy who was on staff from 1950 until 1974.
On 10 May 1876, Fr. Theodore Bruener, Rector of the Catholic Normal School and Pio Nono College, a music-oriented teaching institution in St. Francis, established the Catholic Deaf and Dumb Asylum. It served 17 pupils in its first school year, with classes being held in the second floor of the Pio Nono gymnasium. Seeing remarkable growth, Fr. Bruener set out fundraising in order to construct a separate building for the school. Construction of the new structure was completed in the summer of 1879 and dedicated in December of that year. The finished building was a three-story, cream brick Italianate structure, surrounded by acres of forest, farmland and ornamental gardens. It could accommodate 60 students.
On 29 December 1879, Fr. Bruener was assigned elsewhere, and Fr. John Fiedl succeeded him for roughly a year. He was replaced by Fr. Charles Fessler, who led the school for nine years during a difficult period of financial stress and seemingly inevitable closure. On 15 August 1889, Fr. Matthias M. Gerend became St. John's fourth Director, and immediately set out to stabilize the school's finances. He changed the name to St. John's Institute for Deaf Mutes, and requested from Archbishop Michael Heiss permission and funding to construct workshops adjacent to the school in which students could produce altars, confessionals, baptismal fonts, statues, pulpits, cabinets and carvings. The archbishop approved this, and the workshops were finished in February 1890. The production of church furnishings soon proved hugely profitable, earning over $20,000 in the first year ($509,630 in 2015 dollars). The Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, who staffed St. John's throughout its operation, still hold pews from the workshops in the chapel of their motherhouse in St. Francis. During that time, St. John's had three departments: School, Industrial and Domestic. The School Department taught students in the classics. The boys were taught by a lay teacher, Professor L.W. Mihm, and the girls taught by the Franciscan Sisters. The Industrial Department included all sorts of trades, most famous for its church furnishings. The department included only boys and was taught by Mr. E. Brielmaier, an architect and altar-builder who was famous in the region at the time. The Domestic Department was for girls only. The Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi taught them cooking, sewing and other housekeeping skills.
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