The classroom door opens, and middle school students shuffle in. One student sits closer to the front. She pulls back her navy blue chair and scoots into her desk, eyes wide open after recess.

A teacher’s footsteps pound the floor as eager sixth graders wait patiently for him to give directions. As he opens his mouth, all that she can hear are unintelligible sounds. As her classmates react to the teacher’s words, she begins to feel frustrated. How can they hear the directions unlike her?

This is the reality for those with severe hearing loss like sixth grader Ava Stauber. “It’s like you’re underwater,” Stauber said, “and someone’s screaming at you.”

Stauber, who has worn a hearing aid since she was 4 years old, says that her hearing loss occasionally impacts the way she communicates with her peers. Stauber said, “Sometimes, I do have to ask them, actually quite often I do, I’m like, ‘What did you say again? What did she say again?’”

Stauber is not silent about her hearing loss. She is a self-advocate in the midst of a push to get teachers to provide written notes to assist those like her. John Novick, Head of the Intermediate and Middle Schools, said, “The teachers have respect for Ava’s self advocacy.”

Because of Stauber’s initiative and with the help of  Music Teacher and Music Department Co-chair Kingsley Tang and former Auditorium Tech Head Tommy Nolan, the auditorium is better equipped to assist those with hearing loss. “I’m trying to get better in including Ava in everything we do so she could understand us,”  Novick said. “I think it makes us a better school.”

According to Phenice Williams, a Middle School administrator, able-bodiness and specifically hearing haven’t been addressed in its current diversity discussions because those topics are not considered germane to current events and what’s shown in the media. Discussions of race, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic class are considered necessary in a progressive school like Parker because they appertain to current events as displayed on social media, on television, and in print journalism.

The Black Lives Matter protests, for example, opened up a discussions of race at Parker. Because of economic disparity at Parker, Parker has discussed socioeconomic class as well. But, able-bodiness, and specifically hearing, have not been addressed as frequently.

Stauber wants to educate the school about hearing loss. “It definitely isn’t something that happens to every kid,” Stauber said. “If you see one with hearing aids like mine or cochlear implants —know that—it’s not easy to have hearing aids.”

Although Novick believes that Stauber has already made a significant impact on Parker education, most Parker students are not well-educated about hearing loss, according to Stauber. Stauber recalls a fellow student saying to her earlier this year, “Oh my god. Look at the weird thing on her ear.” Instances like these make her eager to educate the community.