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Rome News - Tribune
Many of the children who attend the Georgia School for the Deaf feel left out of the mainstream world, and their school experience is the first true sense of community that they find.
“They get here and learn how to exist in the mainstream world,” said GSD math teacher David A. Conti through an interpreter. “We teach them that deafness is not a handicap. It’s something that they live with and learn to live with.”
About 200 people attended the reunion at the Georgia School for the Deaf on Saturday.
Graduates came from all over Georgia, as well as South Carolina and Florida, to re-experience that first sense of community at the state-run school.
“Everyone here signs and understands deaf culture,” said Mark McCall of Cave Spring through an interpreter. “I graduated here and love it here. This feels like family.”
McCall and his wife Milinda met at the school, graduated in 1982 and later married.
“When I came here I didn’t want to go home,” said Milinda McCall through an interpreter.
“It was the first time that I could really communicate.”
“Just like any other culture, such as African and or Japanese, we have our own way to communicate,” said Kathy L. Brown, who uses a hearing aid. “The body language is different.”
“When my sister Milinda came here she didn’t want to go home because for the first time she could really communicate,” Brown said.
The Georgia School for the Deaf had its first reunion a few years ago, and it was such a hit that they decided to have it every two years.
“People come from all over the states,” said Conti.
The No Child Left Behind Act, while forcing school systems to provide more services to mainstream deaf students, has also cut into the enrollment at GSD. He says that often the deaf student will miss out on the school experience by going to regular schools.
Suzanne Smith, who can hear but learned to sign at a very early age, says that the community provided by the school is very important for development.
“Most deaf children are the only deaf child in their family,” said Smith. “They are the only child that they can interact with.”
Many of the children who attend the Georgia School for the Deaf feel left out of the mainstream world, and their school experience is the first true sense of community that they find.
“They get here and learn how to exist in the mainstream world,” said GSD math teacher David A. Conti through an interpreter. “We teach them that deafness is not a handicap. It’s something that they live with and learn to live with.”
About 200 people attended the reunion at the Georgia School for the Deaf on Saturday.
Graduates came from all over Georgia, as well as South Carolina and Florida, to re-experience that first sense of community at the state-run school.
“Everyone here signs and understands deaf culture,” said Mark McCall of Cave Spring through an interpreter. “I graduated here and love it here. This feels like family.”
McCall and his wife Milinda met at the school, graduated in 1982 and later married.
“When I came here I didn’t want to go home,” said Milinda McCall through an interpreter.
“It was the first time that I could really communicate.”
“Just like any other culture, such as African and or Japanese, we have our own way to communicate,” said Kathy L. Brown, who uses a hearing aid. “The body language is different.”
“When my sister Milinda came here she didn’t want to go home because for the first time she could really communicate,” Brown said.
The Georgia School for the Deaf had its first reunion a few years ago, and it was such a hit that they decided to have it every two years.
“People come from all over the states,” said Conti.
The No Child Left Behind Act, while forcing school systems to provide more services to mainstream deaf students, has also cut into the enrollment at GSD. He says that often the deaf student will miss out on the school experience by going to regular schools.
Suzanne Smith, who can hear but learned to sign at a very early age, says that the community provided by the school is very important for development.
“Most deaf children are the only deaf child in their family,” said Smith. “They are the only child that they can interact with.”