ISD Students Tour Capitol, Sign Pledge of Allegiance

Students from the Iowa School for the Deaf spent the day at the Iowa State Capitol, Monday March 14. The students toured the Capitol building before opening the House of Representatives legislative session by signing the Pledge of Allegiance.

The students received a guided tour of the Capitol building that included stops in Governor Branstad’s office, the former State Supreme Court Chambers, and both chambers of the state legislature, among other stops. The tour ended on the floor of the House of Representatives where the group of 19 students recited the Pledge of Allegiance in American Sign Language to a full house session.

“In American Sign Language, we don’t always have a sign that corresponds to an English word,” said Cynthia Angeroth, Outreach Coordinator at the Iowa School for the Deaf. “Sometimes we need to create the concept with several signs to get our point across. As the students practiced the Pledge in the dorms at night, their residential counselors helped them really understand what ‘allegiance’ ‘one nation’ and ‘indivisible’ meant, so as they signed the Pledge, they knew exactly what they were agreeing to as Iowa citizens.”

The students met Representatives Mary Ann Hanusa and Charlie McConkey, both representing the Council Bluffs area, and left a bag of treats for each representative.

“As a school that is almost entirely funded by state dollars, we want ISD students to know it’s the senators and representatives who make funding decisions that affect them,” Angeroth said.