School for deaf students in Boston has moved a lot, but this teacher's been an inspiration for 20 years
CHARLESTOWN - The Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Boston is the oldest public day school of its kind in the country.
Gemanique Viall
It's moved around quite a bit over the years, from Roxbury to Allston, and to its newest location in Charlestown. But despite all the changes, Gemanique Viall has been inspiring students there for 20 years. She teaches English to deaf middle school students as their second language.
"She's really good with helping us learn vocabulary and read books and do our homework, and she really helps a lot with our learning ASL too, and she's just a great teacher," Eylyn Carranza Constancia, a student using American Sign Language, told WBZ-TV through an interpreter.
"When I started middle school, she really made me feel happy because she's a really fun teacher and this class I really like because we get to learn so much more, like English vocabulary too, but using ASL," said student Inaky Calmo Mendoza.
CODA inspiration
"I think when I was younger, I knew I was going to be a teacher, so I was going go to school for education. I had a friend whose mother was deaf, so she was a CODA," Viall told WBZ.
CODA stands for "child of a deaf adult." The acronym has gained more awareness after "CODA," a movie set in Gloucester, Massachusetts, won the Academy Award for best picture in 2022.
"She started teaching me some sign language and I always thought that it was really interesting," Viall explained.
That childhood experience inspired Viall to become a teacher. Her students are not only deaf, but English is their second language.
"Many of our students are from other countries and they move here later. So we do deal with a lot of language deprivation, which is unfortunate, and we work really hard to make sure that we're trying to provide as much language for them as possible because that's important to be able to communicate and understand and have a full life," Viall said.
"The children are the best. There's no other school that has these kinds of kids who are so funny and appreciative," Viall said.