ASTORIA — Jace Hili’s school day starts a little differently from that of his classmates at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy. He gets to hear from his teacher before any of the rest of his second grade class, even when she is nowhere in sight. 

Melissa D’Angelo can be standing in the school hallway and speak into an inconspicuous microphone hanging around her neck, which will send audio messages directly into Jace’s hearing aid. 

It is just one of the ways Jace and his older brother Jaxson have been supported by St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy since they were diagnosed with genetic progressive hearing loss at the end of the last school year.

“We were wondering where the disconnect was or why they’re having such a hard time paying attention in class,” said D’Angelo. “When it sounds like your teacher is just whispering, it’s easy to lose focus. With this, it keeps you right on track.”

For years, the boys’ mother, Maura Hili, could not figure out why her sons were struggling in school. Despite all of the effort her oldest son Jaxson put into his studies, he was struggling to read near his grade level, and her middle son Jace was missing some speech patterns.

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It wasn’t until a doctor’s visit last year that it finally dawned on the Hili family: Their children suffer from genetic progressive hearing loss, a condition that Maura, to an extent, and her father also suffer from. 

With hearing aids, all nearby noise is amplified, so if there is any other noise in the classroom besides the teacher speaking, it will get picked up as well. 

“It [hearing aids] makes everything a lot easier, but the hard part is when you are sitting down in class and the teacher leaves the class, my class just starts screaming. … When I’m talking to someone when she leaves, it makes it harder,” Jaxson said. 

With the microphones, white and appearing almost like a necklace, Jace and Jaxson have a direct connection to just the teacher’s voice, giving them an equal chance to hear the teacher and learn the same way other students do.

D’Angelo has been using the microphone with Jace this entire school year. Taking extra steps to ensure he understands an assignment, she will repeat sentences so he can see how she pronounces each word, and she does small group readings as well, all to improve his phonics and comprehension. 

“Sure, I could have had an easier job without using it, but it’s made me become a better teacher and a better person,” D’Angelo said. 

It’s already made a difference, as Jaxson, who is now in fourth grade, has seen his reading level grow exponentially. Also, it’s been easier for Jace to focus in class because he “can hear just a little bit better.” It makes him feel normal, he says, to be able to hear in class just like everyone else. 

Neither boy has ever been bullied for wearing hearing aids, feeling the support of the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy community as it supports them in more than just academics. 

“They don’t question us about the hearing aids. But they know what it’s for,” Jace said. 

When her boys were formally diagnosed with hearing loss, Maura was struggling with the idea that she may have to transfer them to public school to have their needs met. 

Her youngest son, Jameson, is in pre-K at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy as well, and there is a strong chance he may also develop hearing loss, so it was a heavy decision.

With Maura being a “lunch mother” and president of the Home Academy Association — similar to a PTA — the Hili family is an integral part of the community at St. Francis of Assisi, and Maura wrestled with the concept that she might have had to leave that community if she transferred her children out of the school for their well-being. 

That concern was quickly soothed by the faculty’s sympathetic response to her sons’ situation. 

“This is such a loving, supportive community where the teachers go above and beyond,” Maura said. “I think that’s something that no test metric or anything can ever measure, but it’s invaluable.”

Elizabeth Reilly, the principal at St. Francis of Assisi, has changed personnel and classroom formats to accommodate the Hili boys’ condition. She said getting the opportunity to support them from the start of their diagnosis was a plus. 

“I imagine it felt like climbing Mount Everest [for the family] to not know and just be constantly fighting, but I feel like we’ve now triaged that problem,” Reilly said. “To know the Hili family is to love them, and it would be impossible not to fight for them.”

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