State Sen. Beth Bye, as part of Special Education Advocacy Day, was joined by a highly-accomplished student from the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford.

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During Special Education Advocacy Day at the State Capitol, State Sen. Beth Bye (D-West Hartford) urged students and parents to keep fighting for equal education and job opportunities.

Bye then introduced American School for the Deaf student Kara-Lee Lyle, who came to the ASD two years ago. In that time, Lyle, 16, has served as a member of the Junior CT Association for the Deaf, maintained excellent grades, plays every sport, and has mastered sign-language in English and is also becoming proficient in French sign language, which she will use when she travels to France for two weeks as an ASD exchange student.

Lyle is an accomplished painter, with one of her paintings selling for $1,000 at a recent fundraiser.