Silence is golden; for the Deaf community, silence is life.
When Dwyer High School's American Sign Language program traveled to St. Augustine for the annual three-day trip, visiting the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind was one of the many stops on the itinerary. In past years, the ASL students have toured the campus and watched Blind students play Goal Ball. This year, the group mingled with Deaf students.
Flashing lights in the classrooms and hallways signaled the end of the day, and students poured from classes. Though the courtyard filled with teenagers, the only sound came from Dwyer's ASL teacher Michelle Barows, who encouraged her students to initiate conversations in sign language.
Upon entering the courtyard, groups of Dwyer students shyly introduced themselves to groups of Florida School for the Deaf and Blind students. Dwyer juniors Tiffany Mauriello, Tiffany Trapasso, Kimberly Muirhead, and Jessica Gillespie met seniors Stefani and Jillian, who were born in West Palm Beach. "I came here when I was five," Stefani signed.
While watching their classmates and teacher sign with the Deaf students, other ASL students became curious. Several Dwyer students wanted Mrs. Barows to ask if the girls liked to dance and if they danced without music at parties. "I love to dance. We play music and feel the vibrations," Stefani explained.
Since it is a public school, Deaf and Blind children in Florida can attend the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind for free. Students can enroll for elementary, middle, and high school, and they live on campus. Each Friday, every student rides a charter bus home, and each Sunday the students return to the school.
After leaving the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, the group continued to tour St. Augustine. "We learned about the city and Flagler College," senior Jessika Mielentz said. The remainder of the trip included tours of the city-by boat and by trolley. The schedule included a stop at Ripley's Believe It or Not and a ghost tour throughout the many cemeteries on the first day. A Ghost Tour guide told ghost stories about people buried in each of the cemeteries visited. Students took pictures through the fences into the trees in hopes to capture ghosts. Of the forty students, sophomore Derick Pierson's pictures were most popular, with many spirits in different shapes and colors.
The second day in St. Augustine incorporated a visit to Flagler College and a tour of the Old Fort, Castillo de San Marcos, where men in aged army garb stuffed gun powder in a canon and shot into the St. Augustine Inlet to demonstrate the historic process. Before returning to the motel, the ASL students stopped at the Old Florida Museum, where the students learned about the original Florida Indians and Spanish Florida.
The final day was spent at Busch Gardens. "We always stop at a theme park on the way home for the last day of our trip," Mielentz said.
Between the tours and Busch Gardens, the part of the trip which stood out the most was the trip to the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. "I loved visiting the school because I communicated with some of the Deaf kids," junior Sparkle Lewis said.
Forty students and six chaperones traveled to St. Augustine for the educational vacation. "This was the best behaved group of students I've ever taken," Mrs. Barows stated. The trip, as always, left the ASL students and club members with a greater experience with their foreign language.