17 January 2024
SATANTA, Kan. (KSNW) — American Sign Language has become integrated into students’ days at Satanta Grade School in southwestern Kansas. It all started because of one student, Kamdyn Wenta.
When Kamdyn was born, she had her hearing but later lost it. Now a third grader, Kamdyn can hear with cochlear implants.
“Now we’re just catching up on the years that she had lost from not having the hearing,” Kamdyn’s mom, Ashton Wenta, said.
When Kamdyn started preschool, her family began looking into ASL.
“At home, we could understand what she was saying or what she was needing just by her showing us,” Wenta said. “But then people that didn’t know Kamdyn didn’t know what she was needing, and so whenever she started school, we started realizing that we needed a form of communication that other people could understand.”
Santana Grade School third grader Kamdyn Wenta signing ASL in front of her class on Jan. 5, 2024 (KSN Photo)
Kamdyn’s teachers and students were determined to communicate with her and learn the language as well.
“It makes me happy that I actually can talk to them,” third grader Ryleigh Talsma said. “The language is really cool. I never knew about it at all, and I’m kind of happy that I know it now.”
“Our teacher, Mrs. Unruh, started teaching us all these cool signs,” third grader Alison Dusin said. “And then when we met Kamdyn, we signed with her, and it was really fun. She does a lot of signs at school, and I can understand her when she does her sign.”
“She came to kindergarten, and I just incorporated everything in sign,” teacher Stacey King said. “And we had labels with everything. When we were learning our alphabet, we learned how to sign. We learned how to do our sight words in sign language, so we tried to really just make that part of our day.”
Then, the school found Robert Laredo, an interpreter, to help. The students ran with the new resource.
“I realized when I came back and started working with the community here how supportive they were, and they all seemed to really want to learn,” Laredo said. “And every kid was asking me every day at the end of the day, ‘How can I do this?’ And it was getting to the point where it was distracting and pulling kids out of class, and I had to tell them the way or wait until after school. It excites me. They come every day, Mr. Laredo. Mr. Laredo, I want to learn this. They ask me questions every day. They’re so excited, and it excites me because it just doesn’t tell me they’re just here. This is another thing. They’re here to learn sign. They are here to be able to talk to their classmate and friend.”
“They really started asking questions,” Wenta said. “Mr. Laredo was in the room all the time. ‘Can you show me the sign,’ or ‘How do I do that sign?’ And it I think it made Kamdyn feel good too because then she had somebody that was trying to learn the same way that she was, and she was able to correct them.”
Santana Grade School students learning ASL on Jan. 5, 2024 (KSN Photo)
The enthusiasm over ASL has spread beyond Kamdyn’s class to the entire school, and teachers started an ASL club.
“I was like, ‘Why not? Why not hit every person that we can? Plus, we have all these kids asking every day,'” Laredo said. “We decided to do this club. We did not expect to get as big as it did. We went from 30 to 40 kids, we thought we would probably dwindle down a little bit, but we kind of stay consistent on probably between 30 and 40 kids. They all came, and they all showed so much support, and they want to learn. And I got to say, the first semester, they blew me away, and I had students that I could tell they took it home. They watched my YouTube videos. They practiced.”
“The ones that are going to put out the effort, and they’re going to put in the time to do it, they want to be around Kamdyn, and they want to work with her,” Wenta said.
Santana Grade School students learning ASL on Jan. 5, 2024 (KSN Photo)
The teachers say inclusivity is a norm in their little town.
“I think our community being a small, tight knit community, it just shows the support that we’re going to love all of our kids in this community regardless of any special needs that they have,” Wenta said. “We’re just going to fully support them through everything. I’m really grateful that not only her class has really dug into this, but grades above her as well. The younger kids, they’re not quite in it as much yet because they don’t have as much interaction with Kamdyn. But the fourth, the fifth, even some of the sixth graders, they were really learning the signs last year and coming across pictures in the hallway and signing the signs that they saw there and just trying to stop Kamdyn and interact with her.”
“Seeing them want to be her friend and to want to make sure that she’s included, I mean, I feel like our kids in our community are really good at including others,” teacher Cayla Fraley said.
Laredo is a Child of a Deaf Adult, so he has grown up around the Deaf community.
“I think it’s been really helpful for Kamdyn,” Laredo said. “I think she was scared at first. But as we’ve went on, she’s been way more comfortable, and I think she’s really enjoyed that her classmates had now joined her, and she doesn’t feel alone in that world. No one wants to be in the world alone. You don’t want to be sitting here thinking you’re the only person with this language. I mean, that would be so bizarre, and I have seen that, and it tears me apart.”
The students say they will continue to learn more ASL, and for some, it’s their new career goal.
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