By Rachel Mathys, Reporter
My little brother, Evan, turned nine in September and he invited his whole class to his party. While he was making his list of who he wanted to invite, he turned to my mom and said, “I want to invite Phillip and Sammy. I don’t want them to be sad if they are left out.”
These two boys both have special needs. I’m used to being around kids a lot. I have three younger siblings and babysit all the time, but I don’t often get the chance to be around people with disabilities. I used to always be a little apprehensive. Questions always ran through my mind. Like what should I say? Should I act like myself or pay extra attention to them? I just didn’t know. While I had my own apprehensions about having these two boys come tot the party, it warmed my heart to see such a young kid be so mature about a difficult situation. He did what may of us don’t do; what is right. I knew I should follow his example and welcome these boys into my home and just get to know them.
When the boys first arrived I let my mom interact with them while I watched from the sidelines. I just wanted to get a better understanding on how I should act from what she was doing after about an hour I finally realized I had nothing to worry about.
I watched as Evan ran around playing a game Sammy called “Mario Tag”. They pretended they were characters from Mario, Sammy’s recent interest. It brought a huge smile to my face to see my brother play along with Sammy’s game to make him happy. If he can treat this boy like any other person, so can I. I feel that I have grown so much after this experience. I now realize that people may be different, but they may also be an amazing person. There’s nothing to be nervous about.
Many students don’t know how to go about befriending someone with a disability. Sandra Faletto, special education teacher, said that calling a disabled student just to hang out at home and watch a movie would make their day.
Freshman Amber Spaetzel is just like any student at KHS. She’s kind, fun loving and just a happy person. The only difference? She has a disability.
“Amber is overall developmentally delayed. She was diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum at four and a half, but with a lot of hard work and perseverance, she was officially taken off the spectrum at age eleven,” Amber’s mother and Spanish teacher Heather Spaetzel said.
“She’ll love you forever and kids don’t get to see that,” Spaetzel said,
Some student shy away from disabled students for many reasons. They may not know what is the right thing to do or say, or maybe it just makes them nervous. From my experience with Phillip and Sammy I know that its ok to be nervous, but there isn’t anything to be nervous about.
“I don’t really think its kids being mean,” Spaetzel said. “More than just they don’t get to know her well or are too involved with themselves to get to know her.”
Whether someone has a debilitating disease or a learning disability, they are still teenagers like us. They want to have friends and enjoy life. Maybe they are just a little different, but we all are different in our own ways. Just because people are different doesn’t mean the way we treat and interact with them should be.
“The best thing to do is approach someone who has different learning abilities and talk to them or even invite them to sit at your lunch table if they are sitting alone,” Faletto said.
KHS has created programs like P.E. Leadership that give an opportunity for disabled students to make new friends. Students apply and are then accepted into the program.
“The kids are so happy and it’s such a positive environment,” senior Jennifer Howland, P.E. leader said. “We call each other friends and talk to them like we would anyone else.”
These students walk through the school with their P.E. leaders and look so proud to be at their side. They smile and give each leader a hug before they go off to their next class. All of this happens in front of a large group of people on a daily basis. Why don’t we all begin to act on the example?
“Kids sometimes give them strange looks and make rude comments. The looks are the worst though,” Howland said.
These students might have different learning skills or social skills, but all we have to do is start with saying hi and go from there. Each small thing might just mean the world to that person.
Each person is a package. We all might be wrapped differently or hold a different present, but we are alike. Maybe someone is a little different from us or our group of friends. If we just give them a chance they could be one of the best friend’s we’ve ever had and we given them one of the best gifts in life, a friend.