Oklahoma School for the Deaf names first deaf woman to lead
BY CARRIE COPPERNOLL
[email protected]
August 14, 2011
The Oklahoma School for the Deaf has hired the first deaf female
superintendent to lead the school in its 114-year history. KaAnn Varner is
only the second deaf superintendent the school has had.
SULPHUR — The Oklahoma School for the Deaf will start this academic year
with its first deaf female superintendent.
KaAnn Varner will lead the school, which was founded in 1897. She’s only the
second deaf superintendent.
Varner said she has big plans for the school, and she hopes her work will be
an inspiration to deaf and hard of hearing students.
“I think they will be excited to see that,” Varner said. “I think they will
know that a deaf person can be in a leadership position, that a deaf person
can be anything they want.”
Diagnosed at 6
Doctors suspect Varner went deaf sometime between ages 2 and 4 but wasn’t
officially diagnosed until age 6. Her grandmother was the one who figured
out something was wrong.
Varner spent the day with her grandmother as a child while her parents
worked. Her grandmother let Varner watch a little television. She told
Varner to tell her when the volume was loud enough on the old black and
white set, but it was never loud enough.
Varner’s condition is hereditary. Her daughter, Shannon, started losing her
hearing at age 6, and the 10-year-old will eventually attend the Oklahoma
School for the Deaf.
Varner’s 13-year-old son, Caleb, can hear.
Varner attended her hometown school in Ardmore, Ala. The nearest school for
the deaf was six hours away. Because she could hear for a few years, she was
able to talk. Doctors said if she used sign language, she’d forget how to
speak, so teachers didn’t allow her to learn how to sign.
Now experts know that sign language adds to a person’s communication
arsenal, Varner said. It doesn’t erase the ability to speak.
“I did get a good education,” she said. “I had A’s in almost everything.
They had no idea what to do with me. They had no idea.”
After high school, Varner spent two years living at home and attending a
community college. She went on to the University of Montevallo, south of
Birmingham, Ala. She earned her bachelor’s in teaching children who are deaf
or hard of hearing.
She taught in Alabama and Arkansas, where she eventually met her husband,
Tommy. They married and moved to his home state of Oklahoma. Tommy is the
football coach and athletic director at Oklahoma School for the Deaf.
Plans for school
Varner has worked at the school for 13 years as a teacher, assistant
principal and principal.
As superintendent, her main focus will be beefing up vocational training and
expanding the school’s reading program for all grades, including high
school.
“Reading is the key to everything,” Varner said.
Varner said she plans to keep the four-day school week implemented last
year. She likes that students can work longer days and then have three-day
weekends at home with their families.
Enrollment is up, Varner said. More local school officials statewide are
learning about the program.
Funding issues
One fear for many is that the local district would have to pay for their
students to attend Oklahoma School for the Deaf. But that’s not true, Varner
said. The school is funded through the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation
Services, not the state Education Department, though it must meet all the
same requirements.
“It’s a school,” Varner said. “It’s a school like any other.”
The only difference, she said, is the means of communication. She said more
of her students have cochlear implants, which allow students to hear. But
school officials still have students use sign language, in addition to
listening and speaking skills.
“We want to work with everyone,” she said.
Varner is known for her ability to work with students and families, as well
as her compassion and intelligence, said Lynn Null, president of the
Oklahoma Association for the Deaf.
“KaAnn has an inner drive of passion and belief that anyone with hearing
loss can lead an independent life just like anyone else to succeed in
whatever they are doing and move on,” Null said.
Null has known Varner for about 15 years. Varner is vice president of the
Oklahoma Association for the Deaf, and Null said she works tirelessly to
improve the quality of life for the deaf and hard of hearing in Oklahoma.
Null said Varner will be a role model to the students in her school.
“About 93 percent of the deaf children are born to the hearing families who
may not know much about the deafness,” Null said.
“Those children oftentimes thought they are alone with this kind of hearing
loss, so they [light] up whenever they see any deaf adults, including KaAnn,
in various capacities in life that they can emulate as they grow up.”
Source:
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-school-for-the-deaf-names-first-deaf-woman-to-lead/article/3594435