{"id":25393,"date":"2013-11-17T00:01:39","date_gmt":"2013-11-17T06:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=25393"},"modified":"2013-11-17T00:01:39","modified_gmt":"2013-11-17T06:01:39","slug":"hearing-impaired-haughton-student-overcomes-the-odds-as-a-flag-twirler-louisiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2013\/11\/17\/hearing-impaired-haughton-student-overcomes-the-odds-as-a-flag-twirler-louisiana\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearing impaired Haughton student overcomes the odds as a flag twirler – Louisiana"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\"Louisiana<\/a>Hearing impaired Haughton student overcomes the odds as a flag twirler<\/strong>
\n<\/h2>\n

\n\tNovember 13, 2013\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBy Victoria Shirley\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHAUGHTON, LA (KSLA) – Being hearing impaired and a part of the high school band isn't an easy combination, but one Ark-La-Tex student is working hard to beat the odds. Two years ago, 17-year-old Kelsy Baker, took a big chance, she tried out for Haughton High School's flag line.  <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t"I was actually really scared of trying out, but I did," said Baker. Mostly deaf in both ears, she knew it would be a challenge to join an activity that largely depends on hearing the beat of the music.  But she didn't let her disability stop her, and earned a spot on the team and with it a sense of belonging. "It doesn't make me feel like an outcast because I can't hear, it makes me feel like I'm part of the band family that we have here." <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tShe can't wear her hearing aids during practice or performance. Instead, she largely relies on reading lips, even then only catching 70% of what is said. But she has learned ways around her challenges. "I rely on counts, I rely on the drum majors, and on the people, they help me a long, so if I miss something, they tell me what I missed." \n<\/p>\n

\n\t"There are only two words that she can't really ever understand and that's: I can't," explained band director Kevin Williams, who adds that what Kelsy thinks is her greatest challenge, is actually her greatest asset. Williams said that by her not being able to hear, it forces her to pay attention and work harder.  "That makes me work harder, that makes our band work harder, it makes us better people and a better band. " \n<\/p>\n

\n\tBaker is going to be a senior next year, but she doesn't want her flag line experience to end when she graduates, "I want to do color guard for as long as I can," she said. She plans to try out for the flag line team when she goes to college.  
\n\t     
\n\tIn the meantime, she hopes others with disabilities will learn from her story, that they too can overcome the odds.  \n<\/p>\n

\n\tSOURCE:\n<\/p>\n

\n\thttp:\/\/www.ksla.com\/story\/23963035\/deaf-haughton-teen-overcomes-the-odds-as-a-flag-twirler<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hearing impaired Haughton student overcomes the odds as a flag twirler November 13, 2013 By Victoria Shirley HAUGHTON, LA (KSLA) – Being hearing impaired and a part of the high school band isn't an easy combination, but one Ark-La-Tex student is…<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[4621,15019,24,637,20275,20273,3249,20274,20272,613,2437],"class_list":["post-25393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-article","tag-band","tag-deaf","tag-disability","tag-flag-twirler","tag-haughton","tag-hearing-aids","tag-kelsy-baker","tag-kevin-williams","tag-louisiana","tag-practice"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-6Bz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27007,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2014\/04\/08\/common-ground-listening-to-others-helps-us-all-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":25393,"position":0},"title":"Common Ground: Listening to others helps us all out","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"April 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Common Ground: Listening to others helps us all out by Chante warren April 08, 2014 Graduating senior Tammy Garner, 18, wears a hearing aid, reads lips, can use sign language and she talks. 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By Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje, mstoeltje@express-news.net December 29, 2011 When Cindy Lauer was 2, her parents noticed she would stand inches away from the television screen while watching episodes of \u201cSesame Street.\u201d Diagnosed with severe hearing impairment from a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22722,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2013\/04\/19\/louisiana-aid-for-deaf-sparks-funding-dispute\/","url_meta":{"origin":25393,"position":3},"title":"Louisiana Aid for deaf sparks funding dispute","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"April 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Aid for deaf sparks funding dispute BY MICHELLE MILLHOLLON Capitol news bureau April 18, 2013 Gov. Bobby Jindal said Thursday that he opposes charging cellphone users an extra 2 cents a month to generate money for the deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired. 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Jindal approves $1 million allocation for deaf phone services Print By The Associated Press on June 19, 2013 at 2:21 PM, updated June 19, 2013 at 4:43 PM A bill that funnels $1 million a year to help provide services for people with hearing impairment has been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/DN_logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25393"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25396,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25393\/revisions\/25396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}