We have recently learned that West High School intends to cut funding to the entire ASL program, including ASL level one, ASL level two, ASL level three, and ASL level four classes. The program would end entirely at the end of this school year, the 2025-2026 school year. West High would not offer any form of American Sign Language going into the 2026-2027 school year and into future years. We have seen our West High administration try to cut funding to languages in the past, such as the Mandarin program this past year, the 2024-2025 school year. We rallied as a student body and as a community in Salt Lake City. To protect the Mandarin program then, and we can protect the ASL program now. We have the chance to band together once more to secure our West High’s future.

There are many reasons to keep ASL as a program offered by our beloved West High School.

1. Our ASL program offered at West High School has always been one of the strongest in the state, offering up to level 4 and above to suit the needs of each student. It enriches students with history about the culture of Deaf Americans and the creation of the language that they are learning. While simultaneously opening up pathways towards future careers and employment in education, interpreting, audiology, and much more.
2. Career advantages. Our ASL program prides itself in giving opportunities to its ASL students to use the language going forward in their careers. With guests speaking from colleges offering American Sign Language and help discovering which pathway is the most ideal for each student, our program makes it possible. For students learning ASL in high school to use that skill in college and to turn it into a career.
3. One of the things most taught in our ASL classes is the history of deaf people and the struggles they face. And how American Sign Language and other developments in language technology and society have created the opportunities Deaf people now have the ability to attain. We are taught about the importance of American Sign Language and how it’s used in practice and are even given the opportunity to meet Deaf speakers and hear about their struggles and successes.
4. Ending the American Sign Language program with no thought for the future and current students studying ASL would be detrimental to students who hope to use American Sign Language in their future. There are hundreds of students enrolled to take ASL classes this upcoming year. Ending the entire program, including all the classes offered, is unfair to the students who wish to continue taking ASL classes. Mrs. Poll has always made the ASL classroom a safe and educational environment for her students. Throughout her time teaching at West High School, Mrs. Poll has had a significant and overwhelmingly positive impact on her students and the culture at West High School. Within and beyond her ASL instruction.

Why is this important?

American Sign Language is not the first language program that West High School has tried to completely defund. Last year it happened to the Mandarin Chinese classes, and this year, they want to get rid of the American Sign Language classes. When they tried to defund the Chinese program, we rallied together as a school and as a community to oppose and successfully avoid the termination of the program. We've come together before, and we can come together again. West has tried to do this before, and they will not stop at ASL if they are successful. Taking away programs that students love and sign up for is not a purely financial or registration-based decision; it’s our administrators telling the students what they value at West High. One of the things that makes West so special is the amount of diversity and community behind it. American Sign Language will not be the last language. We can't let them take away our language, our art, or our community.