How I Stood Up for My Rights to be Educated!

 
How did I face my disabilities and overcame the difficulties of life?  One of the most challenging goal was to get receive regular education and then proceed to college. As I entered seventh grade, I was transferred to a new middle school called Southwest middle school.  There was this remarkable teacher, Ms. Hackett, who realized that I was as smart as anybody else without a disability.  Therefore she gave me a chance and integrated me in two classes to see if I could handle those classes with an aide to assist me in the classroom. 
        Then after a month or more, I met some friends who were very willing to assist in taking notes, getting books out of my books bag and so on.  If I needed to read a book in class, a friend took off my communication device from my metal stand attached to put my tray and put the book the in its place.  My head-stick that I use to type with was left on me head.  Therefore, I could turn the pages of the book.  Worksheets were put into the plastic swivel paper holder attached to the right side of my communication device, called the Liberator.  Therefore, all of my friends took the place of an aide. 
     Now I had the confidence to succeed in the classroom with the help of my peers and the teachers.  Also, I had more determination and more confidence to pursue my dreams as well as my goals in my life.  So, Ms. Hackett realized that I did not need an aide and pushed her out.  However, one of the regular education teachers did not agree with her and so, she send one of her students to get the aide.  It caused an uproar between Ms. Hackett and that teacher who felt uncomfortable with me in her classroom without an aide because she said “What if she gets sick or choke during class, then I don’t know what I am supposed to do!” She never had a student with a disability before, and so, she was frightened that something would happen to me during class.  That same day after school, Ms. Hackett and I had meeting with her to reassure her that everything will be alright with me and that I can handle everything that all of the other students handle without physical challenges, but at much slower rate than other students.  Therefore, all of my other teachers allowed me to have extension on my assignments, especially my writing assignments and tests. Also, the teachers reduced my work load from forty problems to twenty problems, or all of the even problems or odd problems on a particular page that the assignment was on. Lastly, they always allowed me to have two books.  That way, I had one book at home to study from and the other the book in the classroom to read along or work in, if needed. Ms. Hackett-Waters and I slowly convinced her that I could make it all year in her class without an aide. This same teacher had one more question to ask. She asked, “Well, how will Faye let me know if she has a question?” I answered with a simple solution to the problem. Whenever I had a question, I got somebody else to raise my arm for me, or better yet, raise their hand or go and get the teacher.
From that day on, Ms. Hackett and I didn’t have any more problems with that teacher, but we did learn a great lesson in this. The lesson is that everyone is afraid of what is different and even the teachers. However, we can change all of their fears toward people with disabilities or others who are dissimilar by educating them concerning different kinds of disabilities and how we can help people with disabilities gain respect.
            During the same year I was included in regular classes, I developed scoliosis and had to have an operation. At that time, I realized I needed more help than my mother could give me in daily care as well as some assistance in doing my homework. Therefore, I decided to hire this particular aide, Barbara Hunter, who assisted Ms. Hackett in mainstreaming me in my first regular education class. She still is my personal Home Health Aide and became my close friend to this very day.
            Before I had the operation, I was still behind in some of my academics because the city my family moved from, the teachers didn’t really teach me at my appropriate grade level as an elementary student. Therefore, I had a lot of holes in my education. When I came back to school after my operation, I had to work extra hard to catch up in all academic classes. Ms. Hackett was willing to help me to catch up everyday after school for three hours until I caught up in every class completely. I proved to her that I was so serious about being mainstreamed completely, even determined to go to my neighborhood high school along with my peers, that I wouldn’t give u p until all of my work was completed and on her desk at sundown. Most importantly, I wouldn’t give up until my wish or my prayers were answered to go to my neighborhood high school.
            When I began eighth grade at Southwest Middle School, I prepared to go to my neighborhood high school, Dr. Phillips, which had no Physically Impaired Unit or an aide to assist me in “powdering my nose”. Ms. Hackett had the nurse work with me on being able to hold my urine everyday until I got home throughout that year. The nurse limited the liquid intake to my body. Therefore, I could handle holding my urine through the whole school day without having a big problem. Everyday for lunch, I had a milkshake that my mother made for me and put into a thermos. Later, in high school, I replaced this by just taking a can of “Ensure”. My friends poured my drink into my cup and I drank it from a long flex straw cut the right length so that cup sat in front of me on the tray. I had this drink instead of solid food because I didn’t have enough time to eat in forty minutes. It takes me longer than that to eat a proper meal. Also, since I need full assistance in eating considering my lack of hand use, I had no aide and couldn’t always be sure the same friends would be at school. By coming home one class period before everyone else, I was able to eat lunch and use the bathroom facilities at home. I took five classes per semester to everyone else’s six classes a day. This is why it took me four and a half years and two separate five week summer school sessions to graduate from high school.
            I usually worked on my homework assignments at lunch or anytime I didn’t find myself doing anything else or before school started in the very early morning to wake myself up. This way, I avoided staying up all night long doing my homework most of the time. Sometimes I needed to ask my teachers for extra time to complete an assignment. Also, if didn’t finish a test or quiz, sometimes they were understanding and let me bring it home to finish. However, if it was an exam, then I had to take it in the library or in their back room or office. Therefore, I could take as long as I want and it wouldn’t be as noisy when the students left to go to their next exam. Most of my teachers were very understanding of me and my condition. I didn’t have any problems with them. However, when a teacher had a big problem with me having more time, I did all of their assignments before I started doing the rest of the other assignments that I had to do.
            I went to summer school at Dr. Phillips before I became a freshman there and took a Personal Fitness class with a group of students with physical challenges who were attending Dr. Phillips in their ninth grade year as well as me. The principal hired a special education teacher to teach the summer school course along with an aide to assist her to set up games to learn about our bodies as well as sports to make us realize what our bodies can or cannot do; what rate we can function at without having problems with our energy level going down and so on. We had to do the same things as all of the other students did in their regular physical education classes, but the teachers were very creative and allowed us to have extra time while we did our requirements for that class.
            During my ninth grade year, most of my classes that I took required group activities and projects especially science classes. I was the person who gave ideas and told my group what to do as well as how to do it. If it was a written part of the project assignment, I was always left to do the written part of the project since nobody ever wanted to do the written part of it. Friends held the microscope down low so I could see the samples on the slides. Also, my biology teacher made sure I had a microscope at home so she could send slides home with me for observation.
            After I had gotten a feel for what high school was all about, I began to adventure out and get involved with my school activities by signing up for all different kinds of clubs such as: the Beta Club, Honor’s Society, Christian Activities, and Student Council. All of these clubs consisted of a lot of activity outside of school as well as in school and hard work in which I had to keep my grades up and still achieve a certain number of points for each month to remain in these clubs. Every other week, I went to different nursing homes and group homes throughout Orlando with a group of my friends to cheer up the elderly people by telling my sick jokes to them on my communication device, playing around with them, or even talking with them about anything that they wanted and getting anything that they needed. We also went to Head Start Programs to give kids presents; serve them pizza or cookies, little snacks and be their buddy for a day. I had no problems with sharing my ideas with everybody or planning upcoming school events like the blood drive, Homecoming and, Prom. I always took action and did what needed to be done on campus without having anybody ask me to do it.
            I usually caught a ride with my mother whenever we went on a school field trip or to do service work after school. She dropped me off and would pick me up after the activity. That is because I believe if I would have made a stink and complained about not having a bus with a lift every time I wanted to go on a field trip with my class, either they would give in and get a bus with a lift or they would have just not provided the transportation. Dr. Phillips has over four thousand students and only one out of two in a powered chair. Experience from others had shown that transportation for a student in a powered chair was not always reliable. Therefore, my mother was willing to make sure I always was reliable when I said I’d be somewhere at a certain time.            Whenever I look back at all of the wonderful things I did throughout my high school years and all of the strategies that the teachers and I worked on together as a team to make it as easy and pleasant as possible for me to handle my work load and go to high school at Dr. Phillips, I commend all of the teachers who were willing to do their very best at teaching me and thought of me as one of their students without a disability who was willing to learn. Also, I have admiration for all of them for being more than willing to help me with my assignments before and after school.
            I must say I had no teachers to offer me any kind of help at any other schools I have attended in the past except for a few of my teachers at Southwest Middle School as well as many teachers at Dr. Phillips High School. Therefore, I felt I belonged at my neighborhood high school. That is because I know the teachers care about teaching our students by trying to give our students the best education that there is.

For further information, please contact me.