
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 17, 1991                   TAG: 9103170190
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A/5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL'S ORIGINS

The Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind was created by the General Assembly on March 31, 1838, though it actually opened a year later. It was originally called the Virginia Asylum of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind. It's one of Virginia's oldest schools and only the second of its kind in the world.

Since the first class graduated in 1844, more than 6,000 students have graduated from the school, and about half have gone on to college. Since 1985, 220 students have graduated, though only a third went on to two- or four-year colleges.

The school employs 40 teachers and 130 other employees. Many are deaf and nearly all know how to use sign language. A small but established community of deaf people exists in Staunton because of the large number of deaf people in and around the school.

The campus has 21 Colonial-style, red-brick buildings, including five dormitories and a new $400,000 pool. The building that now serves as a non-denominational chapel was used as a hospital by Confederate troops during the Civil War.

Students learn special skills in the school's vocational education building, equipped with a woodworking shop, print shop, photo lab and television production lab.

Athletics and extracurricular activities also play a big part of students' lives here, as at any school.

In fact, in the early 1970s the blind wrestling team defeated Northside High School. The school now has its own varsity men's and women's basketball and track teams. But a declining enrollment has placed football and wrestling teams in limbo for the past few years.

by CNB