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Fremont seventh-grader starts ASL club, describes life as a deaf student
Summary
Seventh-grader McKenna Stilwell told listeners at Fremont Junior High that she was born profoundly deaf, received speech therapy after getting hearing aids, and launched an American Sign Language club that now has 20 members.
McKenna Stilwell, a seventh-grader at Fremont Junior High, described growing up “profoundly deaf” and said she helped start an American Sign Language club at her school that now includes 20 students.
Stilwell said her mother learned of her deafness a few months after she was born. “I was born profoundly deaf,” Stilwell said. She described having “this, like, thing inside my head, like a magnet, and it connects to my hearing aid, and so it, like, my brain, like, process what it hears.” After she received hearing aids, she said, her mother placed her in speech therapy.
The student said she learned to sign about two years ago and “picked it up really fast.” She described working with Fremont staff and students to set up a school ASL club and said, “now I'm a president of [the] ASL club. And we have 20 kids.” Stilwell said club activities include reviewing prior lessons, playing games and that she teaches “a new lesson every day.”
Stilwell framed the club as both social and educational. “They say it's, like, more social,” she said, and added she is trying “to work on that to, like, get it not as social to, like, get it as learning with my friends.” She said the club has increased her ability to talk with peers and helped her become closer to classmates.
No formal actions, motions, or requests for district action were recorded in the transcript excerpt. Stilwell’s remarks were a personal account of her experience and of starting a student-run ASL club at Fremont Junior High.
