News Release, Charles County Public Schools
Once a week, students at Dr. Gustavus Brown Elementary School close their mouths and talk.
They chat about animals, colors and say the Pledge of Allegiance without making a peep. The sign language club at Dr. Brown has been meeting for three years under the direction of Darcy Piazza, an educational sign language interpreter with Charles County Public Schools (CCPS).
Many students joined the club to better communicate with their friends who are deaf or hard of hearing. “I knew there were deaf people in my school, and I knew I wanted to talk to them,” said Olivia Bellamy, a fifth-grader who has been in the club for three years. She also wanted to be able to help others communicate by acting as an interpreter.
Students who are deaf and hard of hearing are paired with educational sign language interpreters during the school day including at lunch and recess. Lilyana Evangelista, a third-grader who is deaf, is a member of the sign language club and helped give each member their sign name — a sign that uniquely identifies a person rather than fingerspelling out their name. Bellamy’s is “science” because she loves the subject; Sophia Orellana Chavez’s sign name is “cat” after her favorite animal; Evangelista’s is “silly.”
In the U.S., American Sign Language (ASL) is the primary language of deaf and hard of hearing people and is expressed through hand and facial movements.
Learning to better communicate with their friends is the pull, but students are also engaging in new skills. Piazza said young children are particularly receptive to learning a new language. “They’re little sponges when it comes to language, and they think it’s cool,” she said.
Darcy Piazza, left, an educational sign language interpreter with Charles County Public Schools, talks with students in the sign language club at Dr. Gustavus Brown Elementary School’s sign language club. Third grader Lilyana Evangelista, second from left, and fifth graders, Olivia Bellamy and Emma Sinkeldam, go over signs for fruits and vegetables in preparation for playing bingo. 
Dr. Gustavus Brown Elementary School third graders Iliana Alvarez, left, Vicari Young and Isabelle Aguilar prepare to play bingo in the school’s sign language club. 
Isabelle Aguliar, a Dr. Gustavus Brown Elementary School third grader, signs during an exercise in the school’s sign language club. 
The sign language club at Dr. Gustavus Brown Elementary School meet once a week. Lilyana Evangelista, a Dr. Brown third grader, goes over some signs with Darcy Piazza, an educational sign language interpreter with Charles County Public Schools. 
Fifth grader Jaiden Jackson, left, and Danielle Hutchins, a third grader, make the sign for artichoke during a meeting of the sign language club at Dr. Gustavus Brown Elementary School. 
The sign language club of Dr. Gustavus Brown Elementary School meets once a week before the start of the school day. Third graders Sophia Orellana Chavez, left, Isabel Lugo and Mykaela Mims, go over the sign for “corn” before playing a game of bingo featuring fruit and vegetables.
Piazza was introduced to sign language in high school when she learned her computer teacher was deaf. The teacher taught Piazza how to sign, leading her to study in an immersion program at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf to become an interpreter. “The best way to learn a language is to be submerged in it,” Piazza said.
After completing her practicum at corporations, Piazza said she felt a calling to work in public schools and fell in love with it. “I knew I wanted to work in public schools and give kids a voice,” she said.
She and her family moved to Charles County from upstate New York with Piazza working in Prince George’s County Public Schools for five years and for three years in CCPS before taking time off when she had her daughter, Hannah, now a senior at La Plata High School. Piazza returned to CCPS about 12 years ago. Before Dr. Brown, she worked at the F.B. Gwynn Educational Center, Thomas Stone High School, and Mattawoman Middle School.
The students in Brown’s sign language club have performed a song at the school’s winter concert and will say the Pledge of Allegiance at an upcoming award assembly. “I think more people should try to learn sign language,” Isaac Watson, a third-grader, said.
“It’s not very hard to learn,” Orellana Chavez, a third-grader, said. “You just have to memorize the signs, and nobody is left out.”
