Walking into room C118, you find yourself immersed in the laid back, boisterous atmosphere of the room.
As students banter among themselves, Coppell High School American Sign Language (ASL) teacher Delosha Payne enters and joins them with matching energy.
Known more commonly as Ms. Dee, she has cultivated a reputation for her energetic yet no nonsense attitude towards transgressions in her classroom and the halls of CHS, earned through her quick wit and dedication to students.
Payne is currently pursuing a Ph.D in family studies as a full-time student at Texas Woman’s University. She finds this education is improving not only her own compassion of teaching but also the kindness of her students, a goal she decided on when she noticed a pattern in the attitude of her students towards disabled people.
“I noticed that a lot of the kids looked at people who used ASL to communicate as handicapped,” Payne said. “That was a stigma that I did want to change and along that way that, while these people aren’t handicapped, they could always use some assistance.”
These efforts do not go unnoticed by her students.
“She’ll take care of you as long as you tell her your needs, if you’re disabled or you have disabilities, she’ll take care of you,” sophomore ASL student Alexander Garza said.
Her gift with students is apparent even at a distance as evident by Dez Garner, another ASL teacher at CHS, who recounts how Payne influenced her decision to work at CHS.
“Even before the interview I’d looked her up online, and I could tell she was a good teacher,” Garner said. “That was when I decided to become a teacher at CHS. She just had this God-given talent with people. She could just be around so many different people and God had just given her this gift, people were just drawn to her.”
Growing up with a deaf parent, Dee learned ASL by signing with her mother. Later, her bilingualism would allow her to be a school interpreter for deaf children but she decided to diverge from that path to become an ASL teacher after completing graduate school.
“There’s a lot of paperwork that’s involved with being a deaf education teacher,” Payne said. “When I graduated, I still did not understand how deaf children learned to read. Because I still didn’t feel like I had that good solid knowledge, I did not want to get into that profession and not be an effective teacher.”
This decision would prove fortunate for CHS as it gained a teacher dedicated to the ASL program and its growth and improvement.
Though, she does not plan on staying forever. Payne hopes that she can continue her career and shift towards family and adolescence advocacy once she completes her Ph.D during the spring of 2026, handing over the ASL program at CHS to Dez Garner. But until then, she will continue to be here to support and advocate for them.
“I am proud of the program that I have had a hand in developing over the last couple years,” Payne said. “The program seems to be growing, the kids love the program. Whatever positivity I’ve given to the school I hope that kids will take and give out to the world.”
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