
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 30, 1993                   TAG: 9303300310
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

OSCAR GOES TO FILM ABOUT BLACKSBURG BOY

"Educating Peter," the short film about Peter Gwazdauskas, an 11-year-old Blacksburg elementary school pupil with Down syndrome, won an Academy Award on Monday night for best documentary short subject.

In accepting the award, Gerardine Wurzburg, the film's co-producer, thanked Peter's class at Gilbert Linkous Elementary School and got in a plug for her cause: "I'd like to say for the advocates of full inclusion for people with disabilities in our society, let us please move forward."

"Educating Peter" will air on Home Box Office in May. The film shows Martha Ann Stalling's 1992 third-grade class during Peter's first year in "inclusive education."

Until last year, Peter had been in special-education classes with other pupils with disabilities. Peter and other pupils with disabilities now spend nearly all of their time in regular classes.

Peter's 18-year-old brother, Jim, died Sunday in Florida, three weeks after being struck by a car.

by CNB