Davis School students reunite

In a world of silence, they learned to make sounds they couldn’t hear.

Before closed-captioning and interpreters were widely available, deaf and hearing-impaired children in Spokane often didn’t learn sign language.

Instead, they learned to speak.

Through the use of mirrors, candles and other tools, kids as young as 3 were taught to read lips and utter sounds at the Edna E. Davis School for the Acoustically Handicapped, a special program of Spokane School District 81. The Davis School, as it was often called then, closed its doors in the mid-1970s, but its memory lives on in the minds of hundreds of students who learned how to communicate with the hearing world.

On Saturday, more than 100 Davis School alumni reminisced about their time together during a reunion in Nine Mile Falls’ Sontag Park. Some came from as far as Oregon and California to be part of the gathering, which also drew former teachers and principals, as well as parents, spouses and other family members.

“The Davis School taught me how to be independent and communicate with other people,” said Sharon Anderson Corbit, who attended the school in the 1950s.

Corbit was born hearing-impaired, but no one was aware of her disability until she was 6 years old. Raised on a farm seven miles outside of Cheney, Corbit somehow got by without having to say much, she said. It wasn’t until she was in kindergarten when a teacher discovered she could hardly hear.

Her parents enrolled her in the Davis School, located at W. 1723 Seventh Ave. on Spokane’s lower South Hill. It was the only school in the region that taught deaf and hearing-impaired children using a method called “oralism,” which discourages sign language and instead pushes kids to read lips and speak.

Kids at Davis School didn’t learn any sign language at all, unlike those who attended the Washington School for the Deaf in Vancouver, Wash. Yet, families from all over the country moved to Spokane so they could enroll their kids at Davis School, according to old newspaper articles in the Spokane Chronicle and The Spokesman-Review.

The Spokane school district’s program for the deaf was established in 1916 with 11 students in two classrooms taught by two teachers. In 1922, Edna Eleanor Davis, a North Dakota native and an experienced teacher of deaf and hearing-impaired children, moved to Spokane with the intent of staying for a year.

According to old newspaper stories, Davis was shocked to learn that deaf students in Spokane schools were segregated and permitted to hang out only with developmentally disabled kids. With help from parents, Davis succeeded in transferring the deaf children to Irving School so they could learn with mainstream students. She decided to stay in Spokane and became the head teacher for the deaf.

In 1952, Davis was promoted to principal. In 1954, the district spent $75,000 to build a six-classroom addition to Irving School, which was dedicated in 1958 and named in honor of the woman who had devoted her life to promoting and educating deaf and hearing-impaired youths. Davis retired in 1958 and died 20 years later.

At Saturday’s reunion, her black-and-white portrait was displayed prominently on a table at the park. John Klaus, who organized the gathering, spent nine months compiling nearly 400 old photos to put together a book that detailed the history of the school and its students, as well as pay tribute to Davis.

“She felt every child should talk and be part of everyday society,” said Corbit, who shared fond memories of her late teacher.

Every year from Davis’ debut in Spokane until the closing of the school, about 50 to 60 students ages 3 to 14 attended classes at Davis School. While the younger kids also were taught to read and write, some of the older students spent time at the nearby Irving School, where they learned with students who could hear. Most left Davis School in the sixth or seventh grade after learning the intricacies of speech so they could be part of mainstream classrooms in other schools.

During Saturday’s reunion, alumni of Davis School laughed as they recalled learning how to make the “wh” sound while holding a lighted candle or a feather in front of their faces. Although they couldn’t hear the sounds they made, students knew they articulated the words correctly when they saw the flicker of the flame or the brush of the feather.

Because their sense of hearing was extremely limited, they had to visualize sound, said Eugene Schumacher, who came to Davis as a 9-year-old. Some students spent countless hours in front of a mirror paying close attention to the movements of their mouths and tongues as they pronounced words, he recalled. Students at Davis School also learned how to sing, Corbit said, but most sang out of tune.

In the 1950s, interpreters weren’t around much, and sign language wasn’t generally accepted by the public, said Mary Ann Lenhart, who enrolled her daughter at the Davis School. Deaf and hearing-impaired children also had little support, so their parents became their advocates. For years, parents with kids at Davis used to sell light bulbs to raise money to provide scholarships to train teachers of the deaf.

“We chose to have our child speak so she could be part of the world,” said Lenhart, who used to administer the hearing tests for the students of the Spokane school district until she retired.

Her daughter, Marka Mills, attended Davis School from the time she was 3 until fifth grade. Mills transferred to Hutton Elementary and eventually graduated from Lewis and Clark High School. Although interpreters weren’t available, Mills had a notetaker in class. Her teachers made sure they never turned their backs to her so she could read their lips.

Mills, who graduated from Spokane Falls Community College, has done clerical work for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for 25 years now. She and her husband, Fred Mills, who is completely deaf, have two children, who both hear.

“It was a good experience for me to learn how to talk,” said Marka Mills.

Klaus, who came to Davis School when he was a 3-year-old and stayed until he was 14, still speaks but communicates primarily with his hands.

Looking back, he wishes Davis School had taught sign language as well. Klaus, who spent a few years at the School for the Deaf in Vancouver, Wash., said sign language would have provided people another means of expression.

While some of the alumni who attended Saturday’s reunion still speak, most talked to each other via sign language. A few, including Marka Mills, did both simultaneously.

Corbit – whose mother and sister ended up teaching at Davis School – never saw the need to learn either Signed Exact English, a literal translation of spoken English, or American Sign Language, a visual language that has its own vocabulary, grammar, idioms and syntax.

When she left Davis School to attend Betz Elementary, Corbit sat in the front row so she could read her teachers’ lips. She struggled through math but graduated in 1966 from Cheney High School without an interpreter.

Although she is 75 percent deaf, Corbit wears hearing aids and has no trouble conducting conversations, even on the telephone. In fact, she communicates better with those who hear than with deaf people who sign.

Now 57 and retired from her lead custodian job at Eastern Washington University, Corbit might learn some sign language now that she has the time, she said.

But even if she doesn’t, she’ll be fine, she said, and credits her ability to assimilate into mainstream society to her education at Davis.

“I would’ve stumbled through life without that school,” she said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today.”