St. Rita School for the Deaf is an independent

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

school located in the village of Evendale, near

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

History

Challenged by Archbishop Henry Moeller, Father Henry J. Waldhaus, with the help of the Knights of De l'Epee and the Saints Mary and Joseph Society, was able to raise the funds necessary to purchase the land for St. Rita School. The school opened in 1915 and became the first accredited high school for the

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...

in Ohio. In 2016, Sr. Marianne Van Vurst SC was named as interim Executive Director of the school.

Approach and languages used

Currently, their philosophy is "comprehensive communication" — essentially

Total Communication Total communication (TC) is an approach to communicating that aims to make use of a number of modes of communication such as signed, oral, auditory, written and visual aids, depending on the particular needs and abilities of the person. History ...

with a different name. The school's deaf and hearing teachers use

ASL American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

as a method of instruction, but the majority use is

Simultaneous Communication Simultaneous communication, SimCom, or sign supported speech (SSS) is a technique sometimes used by deaf, hard-of-hearing or hearing sign language users in which both a spoken language and a manual variant of that language (such as English and manu ...

Academics and programs

While based in the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Archdiocese of Cincinnati The Archdiocese of Cincinnati ( la, Archidiœcesis Cincinnatensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese that covers the southwest region of the U.S. state of Ohio, including the greater Cincinnati and Dayton metropolitan ...

, St. Rita School works to meet the needs of Deaf and hard of hearing and students with special communication needs. Students come from all over Cincinnati in addition to students from northern Kentucky and other parts of Ohio. St. Rita's is one of the first schools in the country to develop a program for dyspraxic children, sometimes referred to as "global"

apraxia Apraxia is a motor disorder caused by damage to the brain (specifically the posterior parietal cortex or corpus callosum), which causes difficulty with motor planning to perform tasks or movements. The nature of the damage determines the disorder' ...

. The program teaches to the students communication disabilities (oral-buccofacial apraxia) and encompasses each student's global dyspraxic apraxia disabilities that affect the student's fine and gross motor skills with their

motor planning In psychology and neuroscience, motor planning is a set of processes related to the preparation of a movement that occurs during the reaction time (the time between the presentation of a stimulus to a person and that person's initiation of a motor r ...

; sequencing and motor- processing abilities (which include but is not limited to ideomotor, ideation, limb-kinetic and ocular motor apraxias). The school's

Montessori The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...

pre-school program is designed to meet the development needs of hearing and deaf children, starting at 3 years of age. The school also features an

elementary Elementary may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Elementary'' (Cindy Morgan album), 2001 * ''Elementary'' (The End album), 2007 * ''Elementary'', a Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin album, 1977 Other uses in arts, entertainment, an ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, and Career Plus programs.

Athletics

St. Rita's competes with area schools in basketball and volleyball. In 1962, the high school division petitioned the

Greater Catholic League This is a list of high school athletic conferences in the Southwest Region of Ohio, as defined by the OHSAA. Because the names of localities and their corresponding high schools do not always match and because there is often a possibility of ambigu ...

to compete in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

at the reserve level. Later, the high school became a member of the Girls Greater Cincinnati League. Due to small class sizes, in 2017/2018 the school switched to intramural sports and did not compete competitively.

Fundraising

Like many

Greater Cincinnati The Cincinnati metropolitan area and also known as the Cincinnati Tri-State area, or Greater Cincinnati) is a metropolitan area centered on Cincinnati and including surrounding counties in the U.S. states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. The area i ...

Catholic parishes, major funding comes from annual

festivals A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival co ...

. The St. Rita Fest began in 1916 but stopped in 2016 It was one of the area's largest. The school still holds a Grand Raffle and a scholarship benefit dinner.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Rita School for the Deaf Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati Schools for the deaf in the United States Private schools in Cincinnati Catholic secondary schools in Ohio Educational institutions established in 1915 High schools in Hamilton County, Ohio Private middle schools in Ohio Private K–12 schools in the United States Private elementary schools in Ohio 1915 establishments in Ohio