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Illinois School for the Deaf

The vision of the Illinois School for the Deaf is to educate students to become responsible, self-supporting citizens. Our schools will be safe learning communities that encourage students to attain their highest potential in reading, writing, and mathematics. We will empower our students to explore the technological trends and the employment opportunities of the future.

ISD students celebrate their language

Illinois School for the Deaf students gathered Friday to celebrate their language and culture.

ISD’s annual American Sign Language (ASL) Celebration brought together students from kindergarten through 12th grade and featured skits, videos and musical presentations.

“It is really about the importance of sign language,” ISD’s ASL coordinator, Craig Kuhn, said. “We have been doing this program for more than 10 years. For the students and staff, we gather to recognize the importance of language and celebrate our language, which is American Sign Language. It gives the students an opportunity to perform on stage or on video as well as in front of their peers and staff. Those appearing on video will be on the ISD website soon so parents and others can view it.”

The event, held in ISD’s Marshall Gym, included the showing of several videos of ISD students using ASL to tell the story of books they had read and videos of students signing parts of books to encourage their fellow students to read the books.

Also, a video was shown that was written and produced by ISD’s high school video production class. In that video, it showed what ISD would be like if a student was principal in the real principal’s absence.

Another video, narrated in ASL by current ISD students, showed the ISD campus and classrooms in 1939, the 100th anniversary of the school’s founding.

During a skit, three students volunteered to help fellow student Kamren Johnson of Jacksonville perform in an impromptu program that emphasized the importance of facial expressions and body language when using ASL.

Music also was a part of the event. Students Estrella Gomez of Aurora and Shavon Tate of Jacksonville used ASL to perform “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus and Trashauna Tate and and Kyla Claybourn, both of Jacksonville, signed the song “I Miss You” by Kim McCoy.

ISD senior Michael Lapa of Palos Heights served as the event’s master of ceremonies.

“I was excited to be the MC and to introduce the different ASL performances to the audience,” Lapa said. “I was willing to volunteer because I wanted to represent ASL history as well as represent my language — American Sign Language. I believe it is my duty to represent American Sign Language.”

ASL classes at ISD’s high school are taught by Carol Christensen, while ASL in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade are taught by Leslie Sutton.

During the celebration, the winners of the ASL art contest were announced. The pre-kindergarten through sixth grade winners were: Allicia Hallom of Red Bud and Catavia Griffin of Calumet City, first; Hayden Brown of Jacksonville, second; and Jadyn Roebuck of Savoy, third.

The ASL art contest winners in seventh grade through 12th grade were: Jazmine Carlson-Baylander of Rockford, first; Valerie Eyer of Jacksonville, second; and Jade Bryson of Carrollton, an Illinois School for the Visually Impaired student who takes an ASL class at ISD, third. Kathryn Surbeck, who supervises ISD’s ASL department, said the ASL Celebration is important in many ways.

“Not only is this event a way of celebrating ASL, but it’s a way of helping students learn about their deaf culture and deaf heritage,” Surbeck said. “It was clear from the student response that they enjoyed participating and watching their peers perform.”

Greg Olson can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1224, or on Twitter @JCNews_Greg.