“Students have been asking me for years to create a sign language club, and this year I was crazy enough to do it,” said Ms. Fernandes, a special ed teacher who began a sign language club at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year.

She learned sign language in her early 20s, for her deaf in-laws, and now she teaches it to Kempsville students through the ASL club, which meets during the second half on One Lunch on Fridays in the library.

The club began the school year with lessons: the alphabet, family, time, and days of the week, and they will begin the topic of food in January when they come back from break. Currently, they’ve paused lessons to work towards the winter choir concert on December 18th, where they plan on performing “Silent Night” and another song that they have yet to decide upon.

Fernandes thought that it would be a good opportunity for people to see sign language, and understand that “signing songs is beautiful.”

Ms. Davis, the club sponsor, agrees. “[Signing] doesn’t have anything to do with being silent; it’s a language in-and-of-itself.”

Olivia Douglas, a junior, has been with the club since the beginning.

“I did a club with [Ms. Fernandes] for two years, and she would do a little sign language.” Douglas encouraged her to “start a club next year” and after two years, she finally did.

The goal, Fernandes says, is for students to “have fun and learn basic signs” and be able to communicate with anyone who may be deaf or hearing impaired.