Am I Welcomed?

Am I welcomed? This is a question a lot of people with disabilities ask themselves every day. I wish they would get to know they would be accepted. This is so sad to me they ask this. I wish other schools were as accepting as mine is. I know there are some out there and I am thankful for that, but all the others who are not as accepting need to step it up.

A parent pulled me aside this year and goes, “I want you to tell me the truth is my son ***** actually accepted at this school, because I know how kids with disabilities were treated when I was in school and I would just like to know.” I was actually proud to tell him that he is accepted here. We have a wide acceptance for students with disabilities here. It warms my heart to see how much others accept each other at this school. This is such a great school for people who have disabilities to go to.

There are other schools who are not as accepting as our school. This is sad, but I hope they are getting better. There are great programs to help promote acceptance and inclusion in them and I hope they will get them. Both Best Buddies and Spread the Word to End the Word are great programs that can help promote the acceptance of the students who have special needs.

I think this needs to be taught to Elementary school students before they start to develop those prejudices that harm them and the others around them. I really wish there were programs for Elementary schools. I know I started one at my old Elementary school and it is still going to this day. I think that is why this school is so accepting because they got introduced to it so early and it just becomes more natural to them.

We have had a great run with people with disabilities getting accepted this far. Our Spread the Word to End the Word banner gets a lot of signatures and they also get a lot of appreciation at the school. Just this past Friday they got an award at the Pep Assembly and everyone in the school was on their feet cheering as loud as they could for them. This ended up bringing tears to a lot of people’s eyes. It was one of our schools most proud times in my eyes. Our level of acceptance was so great that day I don’t know any other high school that would match that.