American Sign Language Three and Four were cut this year due to the number of students in ASL and the number of ASL teachers McNeil has available.

Without ASL three and four students can not continue their learning of the language. They also can only get two language credits for ASL instead of getting an advanced language credit. 

“With me being the only ASL teacher, I can only teach six classes,” ASL Teacher Karie Smart said. “So originally we were gonna have a section of one block of ASL three and four at the same time. It is called a stacked class. So the stacked class we only had five kids that could make it into that class just because it could not make it into their schedules. So we ended up closing that section and opening up a third ASL one class.”

Students originally placed in the stacked ASL three and four feel disappointed about the recent cut. Senior Emily Wong said she respects the decision but wishes the school could get another ASL teacher.

“It was a big change and one I wasn’t informed of really,” senior Emily Lam said. “I am a bit disappointed since I really did like the class. I think a lot more people should be taking it. I really think we should have more considering the number of deaf students we have here. [Ms. Smart] is also just a wonderful person in general and it just would be nice to have more people that are passionate about the language.”

Last year in ASL three and four, students were able to work with deaf-ed classes and engage with the deaf community.

“I felt like ASL two really prepares you to have conversations with deaf people,” Smart said. “But because the numbers are so high we don’t get a whole lot of interactions with the deaf community other than the deaf students that are in that class. Without ASL three I feel like kids are trapped under a glass ceiling, like they can’t go any further. It hurts the kids more than it hurts me, but I can say I really like having ASL three and I loved having those kids.”

Current ASL two students looked forward to continuing to progress in ASL. Junior Mallory Tan feels disappointed, especially for the students who look forward to learning more.

“In ASL one last year Ms. Smart told us all about the fun things that ASL three and four do,” junior Allison Foor said. “That they get to interact with the deaf-ed class a lot and learn a lot more about deaf culture because they got over the basics so I wish we still had it because I was excited to take it.”

Students this year who are taking ASL as their language credit can now only work towards two credits of ASL. Junior Kaitlyn Kenney said that ASL is her language to graduate and she is stuck at ASL two.

“It is not fair for the students,” sophomore Quinn Adamson said. “It’s not fair because students deserve to have that advanced language credit and they have been waiting to go deeper and learn more [administration is] like ‘Oh sorry you don’t get that opportunity.’ It’s not fair.”

In Texas, students are encouraged to do Spanish as their language credits due to the number of Spanish speakers here. 

“People say Spanish and other languages are valuable because we are in Texas,” sophomore Allison Hillenmeyer said. ”And we have a lot of Spanish speaking people but we also forget that we have many deaf people and a big amount of deaf communities so ASL is a very important language to have.”

ASL is a language used mostly by people who are deaf or hard of hearing to communicate and have conversations with people. Without ASL classes fewer students would be able to learn how to communicate with the deaf community.

“I think that ASL is a super valuable language to learn,” Kenney said. “I think that out of a lot of the language opportunities we have here it is one that you can use in a lot of different settings. And I think that it is just a super beneficial skill. So I think that the fact that there is not an ASL three here isn’t fair to people who really want to continue speaking ASL and who want to maybe help as an interpreter.”

Sophomore Julia Skelton Lattner said that the school is not supporting Smart and that her being the only teacher is an issue.

“Ms. Smart is so overworked and we love her so much,” Hillenmeyer said. “She just needs help, even just an assistant. Another teacher or an assistant or fewer students being put into her class. Which I know is unproductive but it’s just easier for Ms. Smart.”

Adamson said that Smart tries hard to be a good teacher who makes ASL fun but the district isn’t allowing her to make the program what it can be.

“I felt really bad for Mrs. Smart that she has to overwork herself with 30+ students per class,” Tan said. “It’s really upsetting how there isn’t another ASL teacher to help her out to tone down with class numbers, and we would have the ASL three and four for this year if we hired another ASL teacher. As her former student, I would really love to help her with her classes if I have an opportunity from my schedule. I would help her to teach the students how to do ASL while she can do her grading and have some rest. She doesn’t deserve this. It’s an overwhelming overload of work to do.”

Since Smart has been here she has been working to grow the program more every year. 

“I worked really hard when I came to McNeil,” Smart said. I think when we started we had 130 kids, last year we had over 180 and this year we have a little over 180. Our program has grown a lot. If we have a strong foundation of students in level one then we can have more students in ASL three and hopefully ASL four. I would love to see five level one classes and then we could have four ASL two classes. I just feel like we need more ASL students signing up to take it and we need somebody else to come teach it and it not just be me.”

This year there is going to be an ASL club to help the program grow another way and to allow students to continue learning.

“I am really excited about it, I am waiting for Flex to start,” Smart said. “So when flex starts hopefully we can. We already have our president and our vice president and they are both deaf students. So that’s gonna be awesome. I would really love to see the program grow.” 

When Flex starts the Vice President of the ASL club will be Tan and the President of the ASL club will be senior Maxine Olson.

“For myself being a vice president,” Tan said. “I’m more nervous since I really never co-lead the club even with my ‘bossy’ personality from what people say about me. I’m more excited about opening the ASL club to where hearing people can see more perspectives of deaf people’s [lives] and meeting new people that are really motivated to meet deaf people.“