Deaf students to shift to city high school

From: Boston.com, MA - 09 Jan 2003

By Associated Press, 1/9/2003 13:22

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) High school students from the Gov. Baxter School for the Deaf will attend Portland High School this fall because the state says the Baxter program does not meet state standards.

Ten to 12 students will attend Portland High School but will retain their Baxter ties by continuing to live in the dorm and to participate in Baxter activities. Their diplomas will come from Baxter, not Portland.

Baxter, which is located on Falmouth's Mackworth Island, will continue to provide an education for 30 students from kindergarten through eighth grade and for 35 preschool students, Superintendent Larry Taub said.

The primary reason the high school program didn't pass muster is that there are too few students to offer the kind of education demanded by Maine's new learning standards, called Learning Results, Taub said.

Still, the discontinuation of the secondary school program on the island is a setback to the school.

Baxter is fiercely loved by many deaf Mainers, who see it as the answer to the isolation that many deaf children experience when they are ''mainstreamed'' into regular schools with hearing students.

At Baxter, students communicate with their peers and teachers in American Sign Language, which many deaf people consider their native language. They also learn to read and write in English.

Taub said Baxter students attending Portland High will attend classes in groups of three or four, so they won't be so isolated.

A.J. Less, 17, of Farmingdale, a Baxter sophomore, said that before he started attending Baxter at age 8, he felt ''all alone'' in his public school.

''I was the only deaf person and everybody else was hearing,'' he said Wednesday, speaking through an interpreter.

Less said he's ''a little bit scared'' about attending Portland High, which has more than 1,000 students, but is also excited because he thinks the educational opportunities will be more challenging.

Taub said Baxter students attending Portland High will attend classes in groups of three or four, so they won't be so isolated.

In addition, Baxter also plans to provide Portland with someone to teach ASL to hearing students, providing them not only with an opportunity to learn a new language but also to communicate with their deaf classmates.

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