Xpress: Courageous crossover

Courageous crossover

Pinellas Park freshman Kristi Ullom has been deaf since birth, but she is at home among the hearing.

By THERESA LINNERT, Times X-Team

PINELLAS PARK -- Freshman Kristi Ullom makes her way through the halls of Pinellas Park High, waving to friends, dashing to class.

Unlike most of her 2,400 schoolmates, Kristi can't hear the chatter, the running, the laughter in those hallways. Kristi, 15, has been deaf since birth. But that hasn't stopped her from making her way in a hearing world.

Kristi has been in speech and language therapy since she was 9 months old. She learned sign language when she was about 4, practicing the signs over and over. Because she began her therapy so young, she is at grade level with language skills.

Kristi sometimes senses that hearing people get frustrated when they try to use sign language but don't have much experience. "But that's okay, they're beginners. No one learns perfection overnight," she writes in one of a series of e-mails for this article. "It takes time, so relax, think clearly and don't be nervous. If you are, you'll mess up most of the time."

She also tries to help hearing people learn to sign by teaching them the basics. Kristi shows them the alphabet and everyday words: "hello," "boy" or "girl." When communicating with a person who does not sign, Kristi is usually able to read gestures and body language.

"One of my classmates asked me what time it was. I looked up with puzzlement at the face of the girl. She repeated herself. I shrugged and pointed to my left ear that bears my hearing aid," Kristi writes. "I know she understood because her face turned pale. She motioned to her wrist in a 'What time?' gesture. I could understand that. I told her (the time) with my best speech. 'Thanks,' she said to me. I mouthed, 'Welcome.' "

She can read lips but this is not always easy when the speaker is talking fast.

Kristi has deaf and hearing friends and says she feels comfortable in both worlds. "I can learn how to talk like the hearing with speech, which I'm trying to master the skills, and I can also learn the newest signs that I can pick up from my deaf world."

And Kristi encourages her hearing friends to learn sign language.

Do classmates understand the challenges of being deaf? Not always, Kristi says. "Hearing people who don't know any sign language don't always understand other ways to communicate with the deaf," she says. "Sometimes it is easier to ignore the deaf than to try, and sometimes it hurts me when they do (ignore me)."

She says some students don't really like to deal with the deaf because they think the deaf are very different. Kristi thinks the only difference is that deaf people have lost the ability to hear and communicate in the conventional way.

For example, Kristi loves going to movies. "Well, when I go to the movies, nonclosed captioning doesn't make me mad or want to leave immediately. It's normal that they don't have it for the deaf." Her mother, who can hear and knows sign language, translates the movie. When Kristi wants to watch a movie on her own, she buys or rents it because her TV is equipped with closed captioning.

Kristi, who describes herself as an above-average student making A's and B's, feels fortunate to go to Pinellas Park High, which has a program for the deaf and hard of hearing. There she can make friends with students who also face the challenges of being hearing impaired. Because her school is a good distance from her home in Palm Harbor, she wakes up at 4:45 a.m. to make it to school by 7:20. Kristi says the long ride is well worth it.

Although she attends a resource class for the deaf, most of her classes are with hearing students and a hearing teacher. "It's not that hard to follow the teacher and the materials in the classes, especially with the interpreters for the other deaf students and me," she says. "Sometimes, I help my deaf friends because they may not understand the materials. I love to help the deaf; sometimes it's really easy for me to explain it to them."

In Pinellas County, about 420 deaf and hard of hearing students attend public schools. They are in programs specifically for hearing impaired students and in regular classes. The students also participate in extracurricular activities. Kristi says one of her hearing-impaired friends plays the drums in the school band and three others play football.

Kristi also is active in her church, Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Palm Harbor. Pastor Joy Michaud Waters has known Kristi for nearly five years and describes her as "happy, curious, creative, intelligent, mischievous in a good sense, and a joy to work with."

Kristi completed a three-year confirmation class at church. She also has worked on various service projects in the community, is a member of and treasurer of the American Sign Language club at school and plays in a coed basketball league with the local YMCA.

Kristi said she feels fortunate that her school has programs for her and her deaf friends. When she finishes high school, she plans to attend a college that has resources for the deaf. She would like to become a teacher for the deaf or work in a medical or science field.

It may be hard for a hearing person to imagine what it would feel like to be deaf but Kristi knows a way to experience this. "My suggestion is that if you're trying to understand what it feels like to be deaf, put cotton balls in your ears," she says.

Make sure you are not able to hear anyone, including yourself, she says, and keep the cotton in for a day. You'll feel the difference. "While you keep the cotton in your ears, wonder if you can hear the music if it's turned up very loud. Deaf (people) like to feel the music, the rhythm and the beat," she says. Kristi isn't afraid of what she faces in a hearing world. "It's fun and it's really tough," she says, "but I like the challenge."

-- Theresa Linnert, 12, is in the seventh grade at Westlake Christian School in Palm Harbor.