Jason Distelrath, an ASL Teacher at San Dimas High School, had to learn to adapt and use sign language at a young age. Both of Distelrath’s parents were deaf, so he has been singing ever since he can remember.

Distelrath was born into a family with both deaf parents. On his mom’s side, being deaf is hereditary. His dad was born 2 months premature. According to his mom, Distelrath started signing at 6 months old but says almost every story his mom tells him about when he was a child, begins at 6. Distelrath says he has been singing ever since he could remember.

Growing up Distelrath was interpreting for his parents in court. “My parents treated me as to be an interpreter,” Distelrath says. “When I was 8 years old I was interpreting in courts, now you have to be court-certified. My parents never had interpreters for doctor appointments, I used to have to interpret for them. When my parents went through a divorce I was interpreting for them, I was 6 years old. It was crazy to me, they were talking about personal personal stuff.” He continues.

Distelrath begins to go into the struggle of not being able to speak well at a young age. “I used to be put in special ed classes because I couldn’t speak very well. I was also in speech classes. They would pull me out every day from first to third grade. After third grade, I would go to normal class in the morning, then they’d pull me and I’d be in special ed all day.”

Distelrath began teaching professionally 14 years ago. He says he taught 2 different programs as a long-term sub, for 2 and a half years at Mount. San Antonio, and have been teaching at San Dimas for 6 years. 3 of his previous students from San Dimas are now interpreting at various Junior Colleges while 5 at Mount San Antonio have become certified interpreters. One of his old students even became a teacher in the Bonita Unified School District.

Overall, even though Distelrath had multiple struggles growing up, he eventually became successful. He charges 85 dollars an hour for interpreting and teaches ASL 1 through ASL 4 at San Dimas High School.