Miss-Delectable

Few options for deaf students | jacksonsun.com |

Football and girls. A short but typical list of reasons for a teenage boy to be excited about starting a new school this fall.

But what isn't typical is that 13-year-old Tristen Webster used his hands instead of his mouth to communicate his list.

And he will not go to a new school somewhere in Madison County. Instead, he will be 300 miles away in Knoxville at the Tennessee School for the Deaf, the only high school in Tennessee for deaf children.

Tristen signed he is excited about starting school the second week in August. He wants to play football and will make a lot of new friends, he said as his mother, Leslie Webster, translated for him.

He is really excited about flying in an airplane for the first time, he added, grinning at the thought of the new adventure.

His parents, Tracy and Leslie Webster, admit that this new stage in Tristen's life is much less exciting for them. They are torn between doing what they believe is best for their son and the anguish of having their young child so far away.

"I'm trying to focus on the positives and how good it will be for him," Leslie said. "But it is still hard that I am forced to send my son six hours away."

Heartbreaking decision
Tristen, who was born with a profound hearing loss, has attended West Tennessee School for the Deaf since he was first diagnosed at 2 1/2 years old.

The West Tennessee School for the Deaf in Madison County serves deaf or hearing-impaired children from ages 2 to 13, with 46 students enrolled last year. The Tennessee School for the Deaf in Knoxville serves children from nursery age through high school and had 146 students enrolled last year. Both schools are agencies of the Tennessee State Department of Education, Division of Special Schools.

Rachel Woods, director of communications with the Education Department, said there also were a number of hearing-impaired children in other school systems, but she did not know how many.

When Tristen graduated from the school this spring, the Websters were left with three difficult choices. They could home-school Tristen, send him to a public school with a translator or send him to the Tennessee School for the Deaf in Knoxville.

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Leslie said they knew that home schooling would be the wrong decision for their extremely sociable son. They feared he would not get enough individual attention and learn to his full capacity at a traditional public or private school, so they chose the third option.



Their talented son has scored high on IQ tests, his parents said.

"It's not that I doubt my son's ability to adjust to public school," Leslie said. "But heartbreaking as it is, I think this is the best opportunity for him, education-wise. It is a chance for him to have a normal high school experience."

But it was a difficult decision.

"I really don't want him to go," Tracy said as he quickly rubbed away a tear at the corner of his eye.

Lack of funding
The Websters have only the highest praise for the West Tennessee School for the Deaf and the Tennessee School for the Deaf. The staff is outstanding, and they are confident Tristen is getting an excellent education, they said.

But, like many parents with disabled children, they also express frustration at the amount of state funding.

Many states have schools for the deaf in every large city, they said, while Tennessee has two and only one high school. A third school, the Memphis Oral School for the Deaf, is run as a nonprofit. Woods said she did not know how Tennessee funding for the deaf and hearing-impaired compares to other states.

The West Tennessee School for the Deaf used to provide cottages and staff for students who lived too far away to make the trip to school every day. Last year, state funding was cut for those staff members.

Tristen was not directly affected, but the Websters know families that now have to drive long distances every day to take their children to school or send them to a public school.

Like every other state department, Woods said the Education Department has been forced to make cuts because of the economy. She said budget decisions are made based on the number of children who use the service.

This year, there was discussion about cutting funding for the airplane that flies teenagers to the school in Knoxville every week, Leslie said.

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Children from all around West Tennessee who attend the Tennessee School for the Deaf fly out of McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport every Sunday afternoon and fly back home on Friday afternoon. The students live on the school campus while in Knoxville.



Woods said the flight is not currently being considered in budget cuts but that paying for the plane is expensive. She did not know the exact dollar amount Friday afternoon.

"It is a very hefty price tag," she said.

A woman who answered the phone at the Tennessee School for the Deaf said there was no one in the office who could provide the cost information.

The Websters have been told that funding is still there for this year, but Leslie fears it might be slashed next year. If that happens, the children will take a six- to seven-hour bus ride twice a week.

"It will mean 14 hours less of an already heartbreaking, short amount of family time," Leslie said. "It seems that the powers that be pick groups that can't fend for themselves or that don't have a voice and are least able to fight. It is sad."

When the funding was threatened this spring, Leslie joined several families of deaf children who collected signatures protesting the cuts. She will keep those letters in case they are needed next year.

"In the whole scheme of the budget, that can't be that much money," Tracy said.

Madison County Sheriff David Woolfork was one of the people involved in protesting the proposed cuts. He has a 15-year-old deaf granddaughter, Erin, attending school in Knoxville.

Woolfork, who frequently heads out to the airport to see his granddaughter leave, said he noticed that many of the children also have physical difficulties that would make a bus trip more difficult.

So this spring, he wrote letters to the governor, the education commissioner and state legislators.

"They were very understanding," Woolfork said. "I believe they will continue to do the right thing. It would be very difficult for some of the children to ride a bus that far."

The Websters also question whether expanding the West Tennessee School for the Deaf wouldn't make more economic sense, rather than spending so much money to fly the children across the state.

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"You would think it could have already paid for a high school, all these years of flying children over there," Leslie said. "But it seems like they just go with the status quo. It is hard to rattle the cage."



Woods said the cost of operating a school, even without start-up costs, would require a much larger budget than the flights cost each year.

But she said the department does not make decisions based on cost alone. State officials also consider the number of students in an area who need the service.

Communication challenges
As Tristen sits with his parents in their Madison County home, it is easy to see that they share a close bond, laughing at private jokes as they sign.

Tracy and Leslie sign to Tristen as they talk, translating much of the conversation and occasionally continuing a different conversation with Tristen.

"That is one of the advantages of signing - you can hold two conversations at once," Tracy joked.

Having a deaf child has restricted their social life but also has made them a more tight-knit family, Leslie said.

"It is very socially isolating," she said. "That is nothing against our friends. They just don't understand and don't have the ability to feel what you feel."

It has become harder for all of them as Tristen gets older and tries to communicate with children who don't know sign language.

"When he was younger, the kids would just figure it out and play together," Tracy said. "But it is hard enough for teenagers to communicate the way it is."

Text messaging has been an incredible blessing, Leslie said.

Tristen signs that not being able to talk is the most difficult part of being deaf. He doesn't like being in Wal-Mart and not be able to respond when people ask him a question, he tells his dad.

Many times people will think he is being rude and respond in a less-than-pleasant manner.

His parents recount a recent incident when Tristen accidentally bumped into someone's cart at a store. He tried to apologize to the woman, but she became upset.

"It's probably a good thing I wasn't there," Leslie wryly said. "I don't take things like that well."

Despite the challenges facing the Websters and their son, they are quick to point out the positive aspects of their lives.

"I try to look at the glass as half full instead of saying, 'Why me, why us,'" Leslie said. "No one can be perfect, and this is his only hurdle. He is a wonderful son."

"We are really fortunate," Tracy added. "He is a big, strong, healthy boy. You see children with a whole lot of worse problems, and you feel blessed. Our main focus is to give him everything he needs to face life."

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