By Cooper Parson ’20

THE ROUNDUP

Seeing as how Brophy offered Sign Language as an off-campus class for a select amount of students in the past, they should make the program available to everyone because of its continued importance in society today.

Surprisingly Sign Language is still very widely used.

Most of the sign language that you would see on a normal basis is called American Sign Language (ASL).

ASL is largely used by the deaf and mute communities.

Sign language is still an important and widely used language in society today.

Assistant Principal for Academics Mr. Seamus Walsh was able to talk about the viability of offering ASL as a course at Brophy.

“There had been a very small percentage of students who had been approved by a prior administration to take sign language at a community college,” Mr. Walsh said.

However, Mr. Walsh went on to say that these students needed to show that they had cognitive issues that prevented them from taking another language. He also said that only around three students were ever involved in this program. This was around a decade ago.

“Offering anything here, particularly a language comes with [questions],” Mr. Walsh said. “You have to ask yourself ‘Is there a market for it?’ In other words, how many students in any given year would want to take it?”

Mr. Walsh also said that even if you do end up getting a class together, you need to consider how long the class could keep a solid number of students. Maybe the first year you get enough students but what about after that.

However, this isn’t to say that a class or even an elective for ASL wouldn’t work. If enough people sign up and take it each year, then the class would exist. If enough people want the class to happen then it will.