{"id":15618,"date":"2011-08-28T05:52:07","date_gmt":"2011-08-28T10:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=15618"},"modified":"2011-08-28T06:32:45","modified_gmt":"2011-08-28T11:32:45","slug":"oklahoma-school-for-the-deaf-names-first-deaf-woman-to-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2011\/08\/28\/oklahoma-school-for-the-deaf-names-first-deaf-woman-to-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma School for the Deaf names first deaf woman to lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma School for the Deaf names first deaf woman to lead<\/strong><\/p>\n

BY CARRIE COPPERNOLL
\nccoppernoll@opubco.com<\/p>\n

August 14, 2011<\/p>\n

The Oklahoma School for the Deaf has hired the first deaf female
\nsuperintendent to lead the school in its 114-year history. KaAnn Varner is
\nonly the second deaf superintendent the school has had.<\/p>\n

SULPHUR \u2014 The Oklahoma School for the Deaf will start this academic year
\nwith its first deaf female superintendent.<\/p>\n

KaAnn Varner will lead the school, which was founded in 1897. She’s only the
\nsecond deaf superintendent.<\/p>\n

Varner said she has big plans for the school, and she hopes her work will be
\nan inspiration to deaf and hard of hearing students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they will be excited to see that,\u201d Varner said. \u201cI think they will
\nknow that a deaf person can be in a leadership position, that a deaf person
\ncan be anything they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diagnosed at 6<\/p>\n

Doctors suspect Varner went deaf sometime between ages 2 and 4 but wasn’t
\nofficially diagnosed until age 6. Her grandmother was the one who figured
\nout something was wrong.<\/p>\n

Varner spent the day with her grandmother as a child while her parents
\nworked. Her grandmother let Varner watch a little television. She told
\nVarner to tell her when the volume was loud enough on the old black and
\nwhite set, but it was never loud enough.<\/p>\n

Varner’s condition is hereditary. Her daughter, Shannon, started losing her
\nhearing at age 6, and the 10-year-old will eventually attend the Oklahoma
\nSchool for the Deaf.<\/p>\n

Varner’s 13-year-old son, Caleb, can hear.<\/p>\n

Varner attended her hometown school in Ardmore, Ala. The nearest school for
\nthe deaf was six hours away. Because she could hear for a few years, she was
\nable to talk. Doctors said if she used sign language, she’d forget how to
\nspeak, so teachers didn’t allow her to learn how to sign.<\/p>\n

Now experts know that sign language adds to a person’s communication
\narsenal, Varner said. It doesn’t erase the ability to speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did get a good education,\u201d she said. \u201cI had A’s in almost everything.
\nThey had no idea what to do with me. They had no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

After high school, Varner spent two years living at home and attending a
\ncommunity college. She went on to the University of Montevallo, south of
\nBirmingham, Ala. She earned her bachelor’s in teaching children who are deaf
\nor hard of hearing.<\/p>\n

She taught in Alabama and Arkansas, where she eventually met her husband,
\nTommy. They married and moved to his home state of Oklahoma. Tommy is the
\nfootball coach and athletic director at Oklahoma School for the Deaf.<\/p>\n

Plans for school<\/p>\n

Varner has worked at the school for 13 years as a teacher, assistant
\nprincipal and principal.<\/p>\n

As superintendent, her main focus will be beefing up vocational training and
\nexpanding the school’s reading program for all grades, including high
\nschool.<\/p>\n

\u201cReading is the key to everything,\u201d Varner said.<\/p>\n

Varner said she plans to keep the four-day school week implemented last
\nyear. She likes that students can work longer days and then have three-day
\nweekends at home with their families.<\/p>\n

Enrollment is up, Varner said. More local school officials statewide are
\nlearning about the program.<\/p>\n

Funding issues<\/p>\n

One fear for many is that the local district would have to pay for their
\nstudents to attend Oklahoma School for the Deaf. But that’s not true, Varner
\nsaid. The school is funded through the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation
\nServices, not the state Education Department, though it must meet all the
\nsame requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a school,\u201d Varner said. \u201cIt’s a school like any other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only difference, she said, is the means of communication. She said more
\nof her students have cochlear implants, which allow students to hear. But
\nschool officials still have students use sign language, in addition to
\nlistening and speaking skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to work with everyone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Varner is known for her ability to work with students and families, as well
\nas her compassion and intelligence, said Lynn Null, president of the
\nOklahoma Association for the Deaf.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaAnn has an inner drive of passion and belief that anyone with hearing
\nloss can lead an independent life just like anyone else to succeed in
\nwhatever they are doing and move on,\u201d Null said.<\/p>\n

Null has known Varner for about 15 years. Varner is vice president of the
\nOklahoma Association for the Deaf, and Null said she works tirelessly to
\nimprove the quality of life for the deaf and hard of hearing in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

Null said Varner will be a role model to the students in her school.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 93 percent of the deaf children are born to the hearing families who
\nmay not know much about the deafness,\u201d Null said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose children oftentimes thought they are alone with this kind of hearing
\nloss, so they [light] up whenever they see any deaf adults, including KaAnn,
\nin various capacities in life that they can emulate as they grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source:
\nhttp:\/\/newsok.com\/oklahoma-school-for-the-deaf-names-first-deaf-woman-to-lead\/article\/3594435<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma School for the Deaf names first deaf woman to lead BY CARRIE COPPERNOLL ccoppernoll@opubco.com 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…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[6382,663,4621,87,24,220,105,10620,1412,10618,10619,1832,440,10622,10621,8246,5013,10395,92,1166,88],"class_list":["post-15618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-alabama","tag-arkansas","tag-article","tag-children","tag-deaf","tag-deaf-school","tag-education","tag-education-department","tag-hard-of-hearing","tag-kaann-varner","tag-local-district","tag-lynn-null","tag-oklahoma","tag-oklahoma-association-for-the-deaf","tag-oklahoma-department-of-rehabilitation-services","tag-oklahoma-school-for-the-deaf","tag-principal","tag-reading","tag-school","tag-superintendent","tag-teacher"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-43U","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28751,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2014\/09\/30\/deaf-awareness-week-kicks-off-2014-oklahoma\/","url_meta":{"origin":15618,"position":0},"title":"Deaf Awareness Week kicks off 2014 – Oklahoma","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"September 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Deaf Awareness Week kicks off September 21, 2014 September 14, 2014 Transcript Staff OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Deaf Awareness Week in Oklahoma kicks off September 21st. 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