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Tallwood senior urges expansion of American Sign Language electives across Virginia Beach schools
Summary
A Tallwood High School senior asked the board to expand elective American Sign Language (ASL) offerings beyond a single campus so all students in the division can learn sign language, citing career and inclusion benefits and personal experience as a child of a deaf adult.
Evangeline Offit, a Tallwood High School senior and child of a deaf adult, urged the school board on March 20 to expand American Sign Language (ASL) from being offered at a limited set of campuses to an elective available across Virginia Beach City Public Schools.
Offit said she pursued sign-language instruction as part of her senior project and runs an ASL club that teaches deaf culture and basic signs. She argued that learning sign language “can open many doors,” including career opportunities and stronger connections between hearing and deaf communities. She told trustees she polled fellow students and received supportive responses, and she had requested an interpreter to be present at the meeting for her mother.
Offit asked the board to “consider this an important topic to contemplate and for which to take action,” and framed ASL expansion as an equity and opportunity issue for students across the division.
