THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702230167
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 137 lines
Chad Allen does windows.
He's considering making it a career, maybe opening his own window-cleaning service.
``What do you think about that, Miss Garlow? Is that a good idea?'' Chad asked his job coach at Oscar F. Smith High School.
``I think it's a wonderful idea,'' Vickie Garlow replied, inviting him to speak with her later to work out the details.
In the space of a few minutes, what started as an epiphany for Allen as he listened to his peers talk about their plans for life after high school began to take the form of a concrete plan. He'll keep his job at Food Lion, save his money and start his business.
``I'm proud about this,'' said Allen.
Edward Walker, a 1995 Chesapeake public schools graduate, would say Allen is doing the right thing in taking advantage of the transition services the district offers for students with disabilities. Life doesn't get easier with graduation, he said.
``I'm doing it on my own now,'' said Walker, who worksweekends at T.J. Maxx, a clothing store in Chesapeake, and goes to school weeknights at a special program at Old Dominion University in the hope of becoming a librarian one day. ``You're in the big world now.''
The district's special education transition specialists, Emily Riddick, Alice Pretlow and Kerry Baggaley help their students make the leap to the big world. The three divide their time throughout the district's high schools and middle schools, working with about 160 students.
While their services are limited to students with a wide range of disabilities, there's nothing unusual about the students' needs as they face the major milestone of high school graduation.
``All kids need that guidance,'' said Pretlow.
What children with disabilities need in particular, they say, is an awareness of just how their disability will affect them throughout life.
``The fact is, that need is not going to go away just because they're leaving school,'' said Riddick, who has been with the program since it began six years ago. ``They're going to have a disability for life. . . . There is something that's not keeping them on an even keel. They need to know what it is and why it doesn't keep them on an even keel.''
What that means in part is that disabled students need guidance in how to clearly communicate to employers when something on the job crops up that conflicts with their disability and what can be done to remedy the situation.
For Al LeBreux, a department manager at Wal-Mart on Sam's Circle in Chesapeake, it means observing just what the students assigned to him need to get the job done.
LeBreux, who has supervised students in the transition services program for three years now, mentioned one student who got confused if he received more than two directions to follow at once.
``But if you gave it to him one at a time, he would go ahead and do it,'' said LeBreux.
Wal-Mart is one of many Chesapeake businesses that take part in the program. Others include Food Lion, McDonald's, T.J. Maxx, Big Lots, Olive Garden restaurant, Goodwill Industries, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Lawrence Pharmacy.
Those businesses don't just have the services of students at their disposal.
``We have to pitch in. I have been out in KFC making chicken pot pies,'' said Pretlow.
``It's a great help to me,'' said LeBreux. ``There are times when an extra set of hands is great.''
LeBreux, who recommends the program to other employers, said that as with most people, there's a wide range of abilities and levels of motivation in the students he supervises. Some are very good. Some he doubts will ever be able to work independently. Others just need more time, but do the job right.
Then there are those who need to learn that they're not fooling anybody by just pretending to work.
``I say to them, `Who you kidding? You gotta be constructive,' '' said LeBreux.
Baggaley said that while they try to support and prepare students as much as possible, sometimes kids just have to learn the hard way.
``It's the real world. If they screw up and they get fired, that may be how they learn,'' she said.
Often, though, what happens is that the students don't get fired. They get hired.
``I know for sure I'm getting a job,'' said Jason Sherrick, an 18-year-old senior who is training in the candy section of Wal-Mart, but whose true love is landscaping.
Part of Sherrick's certainty is that he'll be leaving high school with a great deal of landscaping experience. When he was assigned landscaping duties at B.M. Williams Elementary School as part of his program last year, it was a natural fit. Since then he has volunteered his services to his church and friends.
Sherrick is hoping that all his good work now will pay off when he looks for a job in June. He plans to live at home while he gets his start in the working world. He'll pay rent, but will still save enough to eventually invest in his own landscaping business.
One obstacle to his plan that Sherrick has to deal with is his tendency to have seizures, which - though they now are controlled by medicine - prevent him from getting his driver's license. To qualify for his license, he needs to be seizure-free for a year.
But if it's not in the cards for him to get a driver's license when he's ready to start his own business, Sherrick has a solution.
``I'll just have someone else drive for me,'' said Sherrick, adding that he would pay an employee to do that.
For people like Sherrick, transportation issues loom larger than for people for whom a driver's license is just a given. They are then forced to rely on public transportation, or on family and friends, to get them around.
``I have to learn how to catch the bus because I don't know how right now, but I'm willing to learn,'' said junior Felicia Deloatch, 18, who works for LeBreux at Wal-Mart.
But Walker, with a year and a half out in the real world, would advise Deloatch that once she learns to catch the bus, her problems aren't over.
``The TRT isn't too good for the Chesapeake area,'' said Walker, who was born with spina bifida and needs crutches to get around.
Walker's chief complaint was that the buses don't run in Chesapeake after 7:30 p.m.
``It's real difficult if I'm going to go to school at night,'' said Walker.
Deloatch said that while she likes the work she's doing now at Wal-Mart, she'd like to be a chef. The transition team is working with her toward that goal. Next year her assignment will most likely be at the Olive Garden restaurant.
When Walker was a junior, he, too, was unsure what he wanted to do - until an experience working with children at B.M. Williams Elementary School revealed to him his true calling.
``I really enjoy reading to kids and being around kids,'' said Walker.
It was his training at T.J. Maxx as a high school student that led to his getting a job there, a job that helps finance his college education.
Walker's message to high school students - all high school students, not just those with disabilities - is ``start planning where they want to go right now.''
``I was ready. I thought it was going to be very difficult, and it is.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by MORT FRYMAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Jason Sherrick, 18, is training in the candy section of Wal-Mart,
but his true love is landscaping. ``I know for sure I'm getting a
job,'' he said. Students with disabilities in the Chesapeake public
school system have a trio of specialists to help them plot a
post-graduation career course.
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE SCHOOLS JOB TRAINING DISABILITIES
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