Peabody Veterans Memorial High School Principal Brooke Randall and Director of Guidance Robert Quist presented new course offerings, including Introduction to American Sign Language (ASL), to the School Committee last Tuesday.
Randall explained how this course will teach a minimal amount of actual ASL while focusing on the culture and history surrounding the ASL and deaf community.
“It really will be more about the culture and the empathy around people with disabilities, especially the deaf community, providing the students with a foundation of deaf studies while promoting that awareness and sensitivity towards the community,” she said.
A teacher at PVMHS is already in place to teach the class and has helped get the course off the ground for the 2025-26 school year, where it will be a half-year elective and would have a couple of sections.
The offering is the start of what Randall hopes will be a broader ASL program at the school, where students can take it as their world language requirement in the event that Peabody Public Schools integrates this for graduation.
“It’s a soft addition. The hope is that a year from now I’m sitting here talking about a full implementation of an ASL 1 that’s a full year,” Randall told the committee.
Following the approval of ballot question 2 in November of last year, removing MCAS as a graduation requirement, how the state might change the required coursework for schools is still undetermined.
MassCore, which requires two years of world language, is one possible route the state could take. Thus, Superintendent Dr. Josh Vadala characterized the move to implement ASL as pro-active and inclusive.
“I am going to be on the front-line to ask that the state include American Sign Language as a language if they are going to make it a requirement,” Dr. Vadala said. “We want to have this set in our curriculum and ready to go so that if we are required to offer two years of a language, that locally, we can offer two years of American Sign Language, and it’s more accessible to all of our students.”
Quist noted that 95% of American colleges accept ASL as meeting a world language prerequisite, supporting Peabody’s initiative to include ASL as fulfilling the requirement for state high schools.
Other MassCore guidelines Peabody requirements don’t meet are an additional year of mathematics, an additional year of science, and a year of arts. However, Dr. Vadala emphasized that Randall’s coursework approach is opening the door for students to meet these requirements if needed.
“Less than 50% of the districts in the state currently follow MassCore. But, that could be where they’re going,” Quist said. “It’s really good that we’re starting to really look at that and continue to challenge our students in a productive way.”
School Committee members were grateful of Randall and Quists’ initiative, lauding them for providing students with the opportunity to expand their ability to communicate with the deaf and disabled community.
Committee member John Olimpio noted how a lot of students on the autism spectrum utilize ASL for communication and expressing themselves, while committee member Brandi Carpenter touched on its use for students interested in early childhood, as teachers in this field use ASL to engage with infants.
“Like everyone else, I’m thrilled about the addition of the ASL introduction,” School Committee Chair Beverley Griffin Dunne said. “It has always impressed me how often our students with the student advisory board would ask for ASL, or students on student government day would ask for that, so I’m really glad to see that come up.”
