{"id":28990,"date":"2014-10-15T00:38:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T05:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=28990"},"modified":"2014-10-15T00:38:39","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T05:38:39","slug":"pronews-7-investigates-teaching-the-deaf-in-aisd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2014\/10\/15\/pronews-7-investigates-teaching-the-deaf-in-aisd\/","title":{"rendered":"Pronews 7 Investigates: Teaching the Deaf in AISD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pronews<\/span> 7 Investigates: Teaching the Deaf in AISD<\/strong><\/p>\n

by<\/span> David Grasso-Ortega<\/p>\n

October 1, 2014<\/p>\n

AMARILLO, TX — Right now, the Deaf and American Sign Language (ASL) community is greatly concerned about the Amarillo Independent School District’s (AISD) policy on<\/span> not using ASL as the primary language of interaction for Deaf students in the classroom.<\/p>\n

AISD, instead of using ASL uses Morphemic Sign System (MSS) to instruct Deaf students. AISD says MSS is English and promotes reading and speech skills, but critics said it is isolating and limiting Deaf student’s ability<\/span> to thrive outside of the walls of their classroom.<\/p>\n

Pronews<\/span> 7 was there when Debby Thomas, an AISD teacher, was energetically in a classroom at Lamar elementary<\/span>. The class was primarily hearing students, but also included Deaf kids. What critics are concerned about is that Thomas isn’t using ASL.<\/p>\n

“The reason why we use coded English is our kids when they read and write and speak are replicating the exact English on our hands, so they’re hearing and it’s coming out of our mouth and they’re reading our lips,” said Sherry Wittlake of AISD. “We use total communication.”<\/p>\n

AISD says that this helps with English skills, as speaking often occurs while signing. However, for the Deaf community, the use of MSS is upsetting. They claim that ASL is what the Deaf children need to be communicating<\/span> in, as it is the way Deaf people communicate all over the world.<\/p>\n

“Almost everyone knows ASL,” said Ricky Harris speaking<\/span> to Pronews 7 in ASL. “It’s so easy to connect. It is so smooth and clean you can acquire fluency and make immediate friendships. ASL is wonderful; it’s amazing.”<\/p>\n

Several community interpreters told Pronews 7 that they believe that not using ASL is permanently harming local kids, because they graduate without fluency in the common language of the Deaf.<\/p>\n

“Kids are going out into the world without a language,” said Cory LeJeune, a local interpreter. “They’re not fluent in English because they physically can’t and in some cases they<\/span>‘ll tell kids their voices are understandable when they’re not. Because they’re not taught in ASL they’re not fluent in ASL either, so they are literally are<\/span> going into the world with no language.”<\/p>\n

The school district said<\/span> that using MSS is about making sure their students are literate, and that if parents want their kids to be instructed in ASL, they have that choice.<\/p>\n

“If a parent comes to us and wants ASL and that’s their choice, we will absolutely give them ASL,” said Wittlake.<\/p>\n

AISD said that choosing an instructional language all<\/span> boils down to individual choice and needs when formulating their individual education plan. Disabilities are often varied, and sometimes the kids have some hearing ability, and can be able to be part of the hearing world.<\/p>\n

“We have children that have deafness as their only disability, we certainly have children that have deafness with other disabilities,” said Kelly Morrison, AISD’s special education director. “We have to take the individual child and his or her needs into account.”<\/p>\n

The ASL and Deaf community said the evidence isn’t there for MSS, and that the school district is mistaken.<\/p>\n

“Their philosophy is that this will improve writing reading<\/span> and voicing skills, but I don’t understand why they are continuing with this when it is not even working,” said Harris, in ASL.<\/p>\n

“If my child was Deaf, I would never send them to AISD as long as MSS is used,” said LeJeune. ” It causes damage that can’t be fixed.”<\/p>\n

We spoke to one former AISD employee through Skype who has since left Amarillo who said MSS is severely limiting Deaf students.<\/p>\n

“A student who learns MSS and doesn’t really get exposed to ASL, a Deaf student, they’re kind of locked into Amarillo,” said Scott Snyder. “MSS is not really used outside of Amarillo, anywhere else. ”<\/p>\n

AISD said they’re one of many schools in Texas that uses MSS, while critics say that the other schools use MSS in conjunction with ASL for instruction. Tomorrow, we look<\/span> at what the National Association for the Deaf has to said<\/span> about non-ASL instruction, and why AISD says that MSS helps their students keep up with their hearing peers in a changing world.<\/p>\n

SOURCE:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.connectamarillo.com\/news\/story.aspx?id=1104277#.VD4F8PnF_Lk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pronews 7 Investigates: Teaching the Deaf in AISD by David Grasso-Ortega October 1, 2014 AMARILLO, TX — Right now, the Deaf and American Sign Language (ASL) community is greatly concerned about the Amarillo Independent School District’s (AISD) policy on not…<\/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":[13778,9405,1629,4621,23,35,22577,22579,22573,40,4167,22575,100,11715,22576,92,22578,22574,88],"class_list":["post-28990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-aisd","tag-amarillo","tag-american-sign-language","tag-article","tag-asl","tag-community","tag-cory-lejeune","tag-david-grasso-ortega","tag-debby-thomas","tag-interpreter","tag-language","tag-mss","tag-nad","tag-national-association-for-the-deaf","tag-ricky-harris","tag-school","tag-scott-snyder","tag-sherry-wittlake","tag-teacher"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-7xA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30800,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2015\/05\/19\/arlington-isd-asl-teaching-position\/","url_meta":{"origin":28990,"position":0},"title":"Arlington ISD ASL Teaching Position","author":"Chrissy Snider","date":"May 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"ASL Teacher Position open at Martin High School\/Arlington ISD WEBSITE: http:\/\/www.aisd.net\/AISD\/Default.aspx?alias=www.aisd.net\/aisd\/jobs Please submit resume to: Shari Price (Assistant Principal)\u00a0 sprice@aisd.net and \u00a0Sharon Balthrop (ASL Level Leader)\u00a0 sbalthro@aisd.net Also, please go to the following web link and fill out\u00a0the application: http:\/\/www.aisd.net\/AISD\/Default.aspx?alias=www.aisd.net\/aisd\/jobs","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":28772,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2014\/10\/01\/deaf-education-at-schools-amarillo-texas\/","url_meta":{"origin":28990,"position":1},"title":"Deaf Education at Schools – Amarillo, Texas","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"October 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Deaf Education at Amarillo Schools (this is very long) (Amarillo-for parents of deaf children) September 25, 2014 By: No name (see source below) This is directed toward anyone who has just found out their child is deaf or hard of hearing who knows nothing about deafness, American Sign Language, etc.\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":18719,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/high-school-asl-teacher-wanted-dfw\/","url_meta":{"origin":28990,"position":2},"title":"High School ASL Teacher Wanted – DFW","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"May 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"High School ASL Teacher Wanted - DFW Martin High School, Arlington, TX has an opening for an ASL teacher. 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