With over 30 Richland 2 Schools, it takes an army of staff members to keep the facilities clean for students.  Service Solution employees work throughout the day to keep RNE clean, but one staff member stands out among the rest.  Terry Leysath, also known as Mr. Terry, is a deaf custodian who has worked for Richland Northeast for two years. His deafness occurred at birth which is called congenital hearing loss. Because of this, Mr. Terry had to adjust to life differently and started to learn sign language at the age of two but, his disability did not slow him down.

Mr. Terry stated, “He played football, basketball, and track at A.C. Flora. His goal was to also travel the world and coach basketball,”

As a custodian at Richland Northeast, his interactions with the students and staff has been very pleasurable.

“He loves it here he loves how happy the people are and how happy they are willing to learn sign language,” Mr. Terry states.

But, Mr. Terry’s main challenge is communicating with his peers about the tasks he is suppose to perform so he has to communicate with his peers through texting, writing, or by reading lips. Despite his daily challenge, people only sees Mr. Terry as an admirable and a driven person.

Bryan Greene, Manager of Service and Solutions, could only describes Mr. Greene as awesome. “He is deaf and it is like it doesn’t slow him down with anything in life. You know, he goes…he even listens to music, you know and that’s hard to believe with him being deaf, so I believe that’s awesome,”  

The Richland Northeast staff and student body believes that Mr. Terry’s “awesome” traits makes him a great asset to Richland Northeast.