A 40-plus year reunion of students who attended the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program of the newly established Los Alamitos High School in the late 60’s took place Friday Oct. 16.
First, they toured the Los Alamitos High School campus, visiting their old classrooms and seeing the many changes that have occurred on campus.
Then they spent the rest of the evening recalling their school years, catching up with each other and having dinner at Preveza Restaurant.
Some of the alumni came from as far away as Maryland, Washington, Ohio, and Arizona, needless to say there was a great deal of excitement when they were greeted by those who still live locally.
What most people don’t realize, is that these former students were part of the history that changed the Education of the Deaf.
Anaheim Union High School District (in which Los Alamitos High School was included, before forming their own district) established the first mainstream program at the secondary level for the deaf and hard of hearing in a public day program in the United States.
They were also the first to hire teachers of the Deaf that were deaf and full time sign language interpreters.
The sign language interpreters were responsible for providing the deaf and hard of hearing student everything that happened in the mainstreamed classes.
One of those interpreters was Esther Zawolkow who resides in Rossmoor who also attended the reunion with her husband David Zawolkow.
This was the first program to implement Total Communication, which used sign language, speech, whatever was needed to facilitate learning language.
The program, because of its uniqueness, was visited and duplicated throughout the country.
Due to this, workshops and training became necessary, so a non-profit organization was organized to meet this demand. The organization, The S.E.E. (Signing Exact English) Center for the Advancement of Deaf Children has been located in Los Alamitos, CA since 1984.
More information can be obtained by calling 562-430-1467
