Virginia high school students studying American Sign Language can now take comfort in knowing their work will be counted as a foreign language by in-state public colleges and universities – and Elon University freshman Hollis Erickson played a critical role in making that happen.
The final passage of House Bill 1435 by the commonwealth’s General Assembly this month capped a yearlong effort by Erickson and her former classmates in Loudon Valley High School who aggressively lobbied lawmakers for the change.
Until now, it was at the discretion of colleges to decide whether sign language would meet admission requirements for studying a second language. Starting July 1, students in American Sign Language courses will have that counted toward any foreign language entrance requirements by a public institution of higher education in Virginia. Public school systems also must count sign language classes toward foreign language graduation requirements.
“(The Deaf community) has such a unique culture yet so many people fail to recognize sign language as a foreign language,” said Erickson, who lives with moderate hearing loss. “A lot of kids turned away from it because they didn’t think they’d get the credit they need.”
How the law came to be is a story of perseverance.
At Loudon Valley High School outside of Leesburg, Va., Erickson and her sign language class of about a dozen students learned more than just hand gestures. Teacher Dawn Hitchens also shared with them examples of discrimination Deaf people encounter. In early 2010, the class conversation turned to discrepancies in the law where subjects like Spanish and French were consistently viewed as foreign languages, though school systems and colleges could decide for themselves whether American Sign Language was one, too.
The students were outraged, and Hitchens credits Erickson with pushing classmates to take action. Using a letter drafted by Erickson and the class, nearly two dozen House delegates and senators were contacted with proposals for a change in law. Erickson herself reached out to four additional lawmakers whom she knew personally.
Erickson was a natural fit to lead the campaign. Her father works as a lobbyist and her mother is vice president of a Virginia nonprofit organization. In the eighth grade, she worked for three months as a page in the state capital building, and in high school she took part in the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia.
Moreover, American Sign Language is dear to Erickson. A Deaf neighbor had taught her basic gestures, and though Erickson’s own hearing condition doesn’t require her to sign, the early lessons demonstrated the language’s value.
Delegate Richard “Dickie” Bell of Staunton, Va., was the only lawmaker to take up the ASL cause. Bell said he took the letter he received from the class to the legislative services department for crafting it into a bill and that some of the bill’s language was drawn directly from what Erickson and the ASL class drafted.
“It’s as much their bill as anyone’s,” he said. “It was obvious they were committed to making something happen with American Sign Language. That was striking. That’s what really made me think that we needed to do something.
“Unfortunately, I don’t hear from a lot of students, for whatever reason. That’s what really caught my attention with this bill. I thought it was a great opportunity for these kids to have a voice in government and maybe be able to make law, while my interest in it stems from the fact that I live and was raised in a town where the Virginia School for the Deaf is located.”
By the time Bell introduced the bill in November, Erickson was hard at work in her Elon studies. That didn’t stop Hitchens and her current combined class of other Loudon Valley High School and Woodgrove High School students from traveling to Richmond as various hearings were held on the legislation. Slowly but surely, to the surprise of both Bell and the class, most lawmakers quickly signed on to the effort.
After a series of procedural moves, on April 6, 2011, House Bill 1435 became law. “I like how I can make a difference. I can write something that becomes a law,” Erickson said of the legislative success. “A lot of kids don’t realize they can have that kind of impact.”
Nor will the push to recognize Sign Language as a foreign language stop in Virginia. Hitchens said her current students are already looking at laws in other states, and that relatives have contacted her about the initiative Erickson started more than a year ago.
“Our hope is that we’ll be able to branch out and get more states involved, so that it’s not just Virginia,” Hitchens said. “I’m not sure how easy it would be to pass federal legislation, but I’d love to see more states going in this direction.”
While political science was Erickson’s initial academic interest, a fall semester anatomy class sparked a passion for nursing. Combined with a previous internship in a neonatal unit at a Virginia hospital, she realized she could have an immediate impact helping people through medicine, whereas the grind of politics can take months or even years to change conditions or injustices.
“It’s nice to have two options,” she said, “knowing I can move forward in both.”