FHNtoday.com|Francis Howell North

Saturday afternoon. Noon. The gym is quiet for all but one girl, lingering alone, but not for long.

This girl looks around at the usual bars, beam, floor, vault and the entire gymnasium.

The room is quiet with anticipation of what is to come, and this girl feels a sort of accomplishment at coming here this day. To sophomore Sara von Harz, this room is full of equipment that means something more than just supplies for an individual competitive sport. Unlike other kids, who see all this as simply a hobby or sport, Sara sees these four pieces of equipment in this room as something more. She sees the future.

Q
What does your job entail exactly?

A
I’m a special education teacher, so I write their [the students] IEP’s for them and I communicate with their teachers pretty regularly, and I teach a communication arts ciriculam. They’re working
on things that can help them transition after high school.

It’s 9:30 a.m. in the FHN main lobby. Every month the special needs students have a day out of school to experience simple work ethics and everyday normal activities to better prepare for their futures.

Dina Brown, one of the eight Paras/Special need teachers
has looked forward to this day. One of the students gently reaches for her arm and asks how she is today. Brown warmly replies, “I’m wonderful,
and how about you?” The student just simply smiles back, not uttering a word, but her expression says it all.

At 9:40 a.m. the students excitedly jump from their seats as the bus arrives. The Paras calmly explain what their task is for the day. The students are divided into three groups. One group will go to a Stumpy Barbecue restaurant to cook, the second group goes to Henderson Middle School to assist the head principal with cleaning windows and mopping the floors, and the last of the group splits up between Comfort Suites to clean and Gordman’s to stock clothes on the racks.

Paras stand by to guide and allow the students to choose their own seats. Brown quickly explains that doing so gives them a sense of freedom.

“We let them choose their own seats, because we think that it lets them have a sense of independence,” Brown said. “I think little things like that can make a difference in their attitudes.”

From the outside, the bus looks like any other bus. However, on the inside there is quite a difference. On the right side of the bus is a place for someone requiring a wheelchair and every seat has seat belts the students are required to wear.

Finally, they reach their first destination: Henderson Elementary School. The thick, dark clouds now bring the rain and the dropped off students scurry into the school for refuge. Everyone from the school welcomes the students with warm greetings and hugs. Some of the teachers greeting the students fondly remember their former students.

One of the teachers asks a student named Jordan if he remembers her. He replies by simply nodding his head up and down without looking directly at her, but clearly shows comprehension of the question asked.

As the students make ready for their tasks, Jordan, assisted by Brown, acknowledges what he is supposed to do and picks up a Windex glass cleaner in one hand and in the other a white towel to wipe the glass window off. Brown encourages Jordan as he cleans the glass window of the main lobby by reminding him what to do from time to time.

“It’s not that they don’t understand what they’re doing, but they need some type of encouragement that they could do it, or by just giving them a simple ‘great job,’” Brown said. “It makes a whole lot of difference.”

At 10:20 a.m. the bus arrives just in time to leave the school premises for lunch. As the bus starts to move, Brown briefly explains that even though it’s just a day out of school, there’s a great deal of benefits that the students get to take with them from this field trip for their forthcoming future.

Helping them to learn simple work ethics and familiarizing them with the real world will facilitate their development in their lives.

“I think that this program will give them a sense of stability in their futures.” Brown said, “Also, it’ll help them get the jobs that they would want to do and look forward to.”

Arriving 30 minutes later in the double restaurant A&W and Long John Silvers, the students quickly pack the empty place. The Paras let the students go first while still assisting them with purchasing their food . The Paras allow them to do as much as possible themselves.

“They can pretty much do things that normal people do, it just takes them a little longer,” Brown explains while standing in line.

As the students find their way to the tables, Brown explains that Jordan, the student she is assisting, knows everything about the presidents. He knows how many presidents there are, how and when they died, and what year they were elected. Just ask Jordan and he’ll know.

Another student named Kristen says that someday she will be a rock star. “I know it’ll be hard, but I can do it,” she says, smiling, while holding an ice cream in one hand and a napkin in the other.

It is 12:09 p.m. when the bus nears FHN high school. All the students sit quietly in their chairs gazing out in the rain. Their faces blank, but the look in their eyes is anything but blankness.

With the day almost coming to an end, Brown wholeheartedly believes that if people are willing to look deeper beneath the surface of these students, they will find someone who is incredibly loving and caring. It might be surprising what they can bring into your life. Though it is unknown what the future holds for these students, it is for certain that having such disabilities does not cripple life.

In the summer of 2007, the band Kalamiti! was formed by juniors Dylan Barrow and Derick Humphrey, and has been on the rise ever since. Both boys share a love of music and wanted to start a band that has a different style from everyone else. And that is exactly what has happened. In the summer of 2007, Barrow and Humphrey discovered what they want to do for the rest of their lives.