ASL students compete in statewide competition

On Saturday April 30, ASL teacher Terry Sasser sent five ASL students to compete in the Washington State CTE ASL competition, in which they represented CTE leadership and MTHS.

Of the students were Mustafa Balikci, Ayanna Traylor, Ty Hardan, Janis Trent and Rosa Park.

The competition focused on the culture and history of the deaf community and had students both demonstrate their receptive and expressive skills. One of the competitions involved a person telling a story to the students through sign language and the students would then translate it to English. In addition, a student would be given a story written in English and the students would have to tell it back using sign language.

This was the first year of this competition and Sasser said it was a bit awkward, but educators and interpreters will be giving feedback with hopes to improve in years to come.

There were 12 other high schools at the conference with MTHS, all required to have teams of five. To construct the teams, Sasser announced the competition and he picked who would go, but next year he wants to have people sign up and have the class vote.

“MTHS did great and it was a very enriching experience,” Sasser said.

He also said it was challenging for the students and he’s proud of how well they did.