Everyone needs a shot

Today was our district convocation. We all met in the high school auditorium and listened to various people speak. The final presentation was presented by the superintendent. He showed the video of Jason "J Mac" McElwain, a student with autism, and his final basketball game of high school. Click here to see the video, if you are not familiar with it. It will really warm your heart! It was a great, inspirational story to play at the conclusion of the convocation. I thought, "Wow, this will be great! Everyone just saw that kids with autism can contribute so much!"

This will be the first year that my school will have kids with autism attend. They told me that I would have a lot to overcome, with "unaccepting" teachers and other various hurdles to jump. I figured I'd have to educate people about autism, provide supports in the classroom, and other typical duties of an autism teacher.

Boy, was I wrong. I had no idea what I'm up against. I am determined to prove to my fellow teachers that EVERY child deserves to be in school. EVERY child deserves to take elective classes, and EVERY child deserves to have friends without disabilities. We had a meeting today. Some of the supervisors of the ASD team created a powerpoint to share with the electives teachers. The purpose of the powerpoint and of the meeting was to give a brief overview of autism and some of the behaviors and challenges they might face. We hadn't even turned the lights down to start the powerpoint and someone stood up and said, "THOSE kids aren't going to be in OUR classes, are they?" The SPED supervisors calmly assured them that we would answer questions at the end. The lights turned down. "They'll come with paras, right? They better not send THOSE kids into my classroom without a para." More snickering and rolling of the eyes. I kid you not. These people are completely adamant that "THOSE" kids don't belong in their classes. Well, these are MY kids. And nobody will talk about them that way.

Someone raised their hand and politely suggested, "Wouldn't it be nice if we could just have electives classes devoted to these special students? That way, we could make it real easy so that they would get something out of it." A good idea in theory, but not when you're complying with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. "What would they get out of being in my class anyway?" "I've got 25 other kids, I'm not doing something special for ONE student." "If they can't follow along, they don't need to be in my class." My jaw dropped. I am so excited about this job, this class, this program, this opportunity. But, I have never in my life heard such JUDGMENTAL statements. The supervisors tried to ease their fears, reassure them that they'd be provided with support, but everyone left the "town hall meeting" (that's what it seemed like) in such a huff.

I've got work to do. It is my goal to show them what a joy these kids are. It's my job to show them. I'll give up my prep periods to accompany them to electives classes to be sure that they're being treated fairly and they're enjoying themselves. It takes work, but it's worth it. I bet these teachers wouldn't say the same things if these were their kids.