Building principals are confronted with a host of challenges, particularly when serving children who live outside of the stereotypical mainstream. This article, drawn from a larger ethnographic study, examines the leadership behavior of one building principal who was the administrator for a program serving deaf and nondeaf children. Although students and teachers saw the principal as a caring and highly skilled administrator who made verbal commitments to building an integrated and caring school community, the school culture was ultimately exclusive. The norms of the dominant nondeaf culture went largely unquestioned, and the deaf students were reminded daily of their diminished status. This article concludes with a discussion of deaf education, educational administration, oppressive niceness, and how leadership practices can be moved toward a social justice ethic for students with special needs in general and for deaf students in particular.
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