Acceptance
As some of you know, all three of my children are special needs. I'd like to share a story with you about one of my twins boys, Drew.
Drew recently turned 14 but is very small for his age. He has a skeletal growth delay of 24+ months. He also underwent testing several years ago, which revealed that his body is unable to make sufficient growth hormones in order for him to grow. So, he is roughly the size of a 4th/5th grader. He only wears a size 10. In addition to his "vertical" challenges, he has OCD, ODD, Asperger's, Tourettes, Essential Tremor and Trichotillomania.
Needless to say, middle school was a challenge for him and toward the end of the year, an incident happened that was really bad for him. He is constantly bullied, picked on, made fun of....etc, etc. You all know the story...you work with parents that tell you these same stories.
Well...I was very concerned this year, his freshman year of high school, because we were part of a redistricting into a new high school. It currently has only 9th grade as the actual building itself is not completely constructed.
You can see my concern here right.....transitio n from elementary into middle school...ROUGH. ....transition into high school....rough. ..then transition again into the new building.... ???!!! see where I'm going with this?
Okay, here is the really great part of this story.....a few weeks ago my son came to me and said he wanted to go out for the football team......okay, BIG concern!!! While I want to encourage him to follow his dreams, the mom in me was scared he would become the target of all those kids who picked on him and because of his size, would be come a target to hit on the field!!!
Well, guess what....he is on the football team!!! The head coach is an amazing man who is a special education teacher!!! His philosophy is....if you want to play for me...come on down!!!
Because of his guidance, acceptance and attitude, I have actually seen a change in the attitudes of Drew's peer's at school.
His first football game is this Friday night and you can bet this proud mom will be sitting in the stands cheering!!! Whether or not he ever gets any actual playing time on the field in a game doesn't really matter!!! Just the fact that he is being accepted and a member of the team is just fine with me!!!!!! This coach has set the tone by teaching his team acceptance of all.
Had we gone to the school we were previously districted to....I really feel this would not be happening.
Jo Ellen Hancock is the parent mentor for Cherokee County.