Deaf History month is a time to celebrate the contributions the ‘Deaf’ and hard-of-hearing community has made towards our society.

Deaf History Month is celebrated from March 13th up until April 15th. During the month people like Marlee Matlin, a famous deaf actor, author, and activist, are honored. Matlin is the only Deaf actor ever to win an Academy Award. She is mainly known for her role in Children of a Lesser God.

Matlin is an active participant in both the deaf and hearing community and is always looking for ways to break down the barriers between Deaf and hearing people and show the world that Deaf people are just like hearing people.

“Silence is the last thing the world will ever hear from me,” said Matlin.

Recently, in honor of deaf history month, the ASL classes have watched several videos in order to further understand deaf culture. Two of the videos they watched was about the Deaf President Now campaign that took place in 1988. The video shows students how life was for deaf people in the eighties as well as how upset the deaf community was about the hearing president at the time.

“I liked the videos that we watched during class,” ninth grader Payton Wallace said , “I felt like I got to see deeper into the deaf experience.”

American sign language teacher Jennifer Glory  takes pride in teaching her students about deaf culture. She wants to bring awareness to deaf culture and hopes that in the future people will view the deaf as people who can contribute, lead, and work with the hearing as equals.  

“Ninety percent of deaf people are born to hearing parents,” said Glory, “so when we talk about the deaf we’re talking about our children. How can we make them thrive?”