Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 29, 1995 TAG: 9505310003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
WITH HELP FROM her parents, her teacher, her principal and her kindergarten classmates, a disabled girl's first year in school has been a success. And just as they have helped her, she has helped them.
OR Rachel Peterson, the school year began in anxiety and fear.
But it's ending in joy and celebration as she completes kindergarten and gets ready for the first grade.
Rachel smiles more now and seems to be happier. Her motor skills have improved. She had a birthday party recently and invited all her classmates. She played with the children; she went up and down the slide with them.
"I see a future for Rachel," says her mother, Mary. "I see an incredible change in her attitude."
The year could have ended so differently.
Rachel, 7, is mentally retarded, suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder and has a speech and language impairment.
If not for her parents' patience and resolve, she might have been transferred from Green Valley Elementary in Roanoke County to another school.
Her teacher and principal praise Rachel's courage and ability to adapt - and the children in her class, too.
"The kids have been fabulous. Rachel is their buddy. They won't let you forget her," says Pam Lucas, Rachel's teacher.
The children want Rachel to be included in whatever they are doing - reading, writing or drawing. They want her to be a regular class member.
"It has been a lot of trial and error. The kids have looked out for her and pushed me to do new things. I give the credit to them," Lucas said.
The children help Rachel climb on the playground equipment if she needs a hand. They make sure that she doesn't fall when she goes to the cafeteria.
Rachel's parents wanted her to be included in a regular kindergarten class, yet they were apprehensive about it. So were school administrators.
"It was scary. I was terrified to have Rachel in a regular class. It was a leap of faith," Rachel's mother says.
"We agonized over what to do. We weren't sure," her father, Mike, says.
The Petersons have one other child, Leslie, 9, a fourth-grader in a program for intellectually talented children at Cave Spring Elementary School.
Green Valley Principal Lucille Wolfrey had mixed feelings about Rachel's situation. She favors the inclusion of disabled students in regular classes. But initially, she felt the Petersons were trying to pressure the school and dictate the treatment of their daughter.
Lucas, who had no training or experience in teaching special education children, was worried.
"I was stressed out at first. I had headaches. I felt like all of my energy would go to Rachel, not the other children in my class," Lucas says.
Early on, the Petersons lost a bid to get Rachel reclassified from "severely and profoundly disabled" to "multiple disabled."
"We left the meeting feeling bad. We thought about moving. It was tough," Mary says. "I felt no one wanted Rachel, no one appreciated her, no one valued her."
"Our concern was that the label would follow her for the rest of her life,'' she says. "It is such a negative term and would cause people to have an impression of Rachel even before they met her."
Mary Peterson says the multiple disabled classification seemed accurate because her daughter has several disabilities - and the label has a less negative connotation. The classification is used for the school system's records, but does not affect the child's eligibility for educational programs.
The Petersons were worried that the county might want to put their daughter in a class for the severely disabled. For several weeks after losing on the classification issue, they remained unhappy, and seriously considered withdrawing Rachel from the school.
"Our biggest problem is that we did not communicate," Mary says. Finally, one night, she called Wolfrey and spent two hours on the phone with her.
Mary asked Green Valley administrators to visit a Montgomery County school where disabled students are included in regular classes. They agreed.
Meanwhile, she contacted experts on the inclusion of disabled children in regular classes, and Rachel was evaluated at the University of Virginia. The Petersons decided to leave their daughter at Green Valley after tests showed she could benefit from being in a regular class.
"We knew this was going to be bumpy. None of us knew what to expect," Mary Peterson says.
Anne Malatchi, a specialist with the Virginia Institute for Developmental Disabilities at Virginia Commonwealth University, became involved in the case at the Petersons' request.
"That was a turning point,'' Mary says. ``We realized there was a need for collaboration on both sides."
About this time, Mike Peterson says, he and his wife began to realize that Wolfrey, Lucas and other school administrators had the same goals for Rachel as they did.
"That was when we started communicating," he says.
When the school year began, Lucas helped prepare the children to accept Rachel and her occasional outbursts. Rachel was very active and verbal.
"I told them not to be afraid of Rachel, to accept her," Lucas says. "It took time for them to accept her, but they want to include her in whatever they are doing. They won't let you put her to the side."
Rachel also has a paraprofessional aide, Susan Schacter, is that right?
yes who works with her during the school day.
Just as Lucas and the other children in the class have helped Rachel, Wolfrey says, she has helped them.
As the children grow up, they will not look at a disabled person as a freak, Wolfrey says. "From their experience with Rachel, they will better understand a disabled person and what they are like."
Rachel has also helped one boy become a better reader. Pupils in the elementary grades read to the kindergarten pupils. One boy who was a poor reader has improved as a result of reading to Rachel, Lucas says.
The boy was not intimidated by Rachel as he might have been by another student, she said. "He got confidence as he read more to her," she said.
Some other children have learned how to be quiet, she says. And they have learned how to be more accepting of others.
Lucas says the year has made her a better teacher. "I have had to struggle on some things, but I am the better for it," she says.
Malatchi, the VCU specialist, says Rachel responds more appropriately and better understands what is happening around her now. However, what has worked at Green Valley might not work at another school, she says.
"It is different from school to school. Each school needs to develop its own process," Malatchi says.
by CNB