Louisiana School for the Deaf teacher gets new makeover, advocates for students on Netflix show ‘Queer Eye’

Trinity Velazquez
·5 min read

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Denton Mallas, the current Dean of Students at the Louisiana Special School District, appeared on an episode of Queer Eye and used his screen time to advocate for deaf and blind students and sports.

The episode shows how The Fab 5 helped Mallas, then the athletics director at the Louisiana School for the Deaf, with his self-confidence and gave the football area a makeover.

“It was nice to see how things work behind the scenes and the ‘Queer Eye’ staff were very, very accommodating and friendly. The Fab 5 were awesome to hang out with and they were genuine in getting to know me,” Mallas said. “The school makeover was amazing for the students and the staff as well.”

Mallas has been deaf since he was 18 months old. He said his parents explored every avenue and determined sign language was the best path for him. His dad took ASL classes and his mom used an ASL dictionary. He attended public school, and a special education teacher visited their home to teach everyone sign language.

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His parents even sent him to a camp for deaf and hard-of-hearing kids every summer to socialize with other kids.

“However, I have always felt that something was missing, and I wasn’t sure what it was until the summer of 2003, after I finished 7th grade, when I went to a basketball camp for deaf and hard of hearing students hosted at Wisconsin School for the Deaf,” he said. “At the basketball camp, that was when I finally realized what was missing. My identity as a Deaf person.”

He switched schools in the ninth grade and attended Wisconsin School for the Deaf.

“I had so many opportunities to participate in many different extracurricular activities that I knew I would not be able to do so if I went to the local public school instead. Nearly all staff and faculty at the school communicate in ASL, which means 24/7 accessible,” he said. “It was such a fantastic experience. In fact, it influenced my decision to become a teacher for the Deaf because I wanted future Deaf generations to experience and relish the same as I did.”

He attended Gallaudet University, a school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in D.C. to become a social studies teacher. He also played Division 3 college football for four years.

“After that, I elected to stay at Gallaudet University to pursue a Master’s degree in Deaf Education and Secondary Education, a dual licensure program, and at the same time, to be a Graduate Assistant coach for the Gallaudet football program. In the final semester of my graduate program, I have to do a full semester of student teaching at a Deaf school and I winded up at Louisiana School for the Deaf in the fall of 2015,” he said.

He would stay at LSD for seven years and worked his way up to athletics director.

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A makeover for Mallas and his school

Mallas appears in the fourth episode of season 8, “Protect the Nest.” He gets a new look during the episode, but so do parts of the school. The Louisiana school now has a new locker room, concession stand and mural.

“I felt like the makeover lifted the school spirit and started to instill school pride in the students and the staff,” he said.

During the episode, Mallas sat with Kamaro Brown and talked about how important it is that his students have the chance to play sports.

“For the blind and deaf schools, it’s an opportunity for them to develop the mindset that they are on equal footing with other people, no matter where they go,” he said. “It is a matter of accessibility to make it equal footing. Finally, sports are also an opportunity for our blind and deaf students to connect with other peers who are just like them.”

Schools like LSD and the Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired are important because they play against other state schools for the blind or deaf, Mallas said.

“I’ve always said this to people regarding Deaf schools. Deaf schools are the hub of the deaf community in every state. They’re the ones who preserve our Deaf culture, history, identity, advocacy, and most importantly, ASL. Without Deaf schools, a huge piece of our Deaf community will be gone,” he said. “How will Deaf kids learn about themselves and their history?”

How the Louisiana Special Schools District helps its students

“Louisiana Special School District is designed to provide complete accessibility and appropriate accommodations for the students because they are places where we have staff who are trained or certified in the specific area of education,” Mallas said.

There are 189 students in total with 89 students at LSD and 59 students at LSVI.

“Louisiana is a Parent Option state, meaning parents can apply to either LSD or LSVI without permission from their home district. We offer many services here on campus including Braille, AEM, speech, occupational and others. LSD doesn’t only teach ASL, as they do have resources to help the students with their spoken English skills.” he said.

“There is no place like this in the entire state of Louisiana, because where else will you find a place where the minority becomes the majority? It’s a space where we get together and prosper together to a point where we can contribute our unique perspective to society and they will benefit from it,” Mallas said.

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