Students learn compassion
By Kyle Jorrey kjorrey@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers FINDING FAULT WITH VISION-Redwood Middle School sixth-grader Cody Catalano, 11, gets a guiding hand from parent Angela Gober before walking the depthperception challenge in the school's disability learning program. In this exercise, students wear a mask with an attached prism that alters vision.

For five years now, Redwood Middle School in Thousand Oaks has been teaching its students sensitivity to other's plights.

Abilities Awareness, a weeklong program currently in progress, is aimed at fostering tolerance and compassion by exposing students to the everyday challenges faced by people with disabilities. It's organized by the Redwood Parent Teacher Student Association and the physical education department.

Jan Kelly, head of girls' P.E. at Redwood, is an enthusiastic supporter of the award-winning program.

"I think the reason this program is so successful is that the students are looking for a way to become more aware of what's going on-they're looking for a way to be more accepting," Kelly said. "I don't think they've had an opportunity until this program to understand what's going on, let alone go out and actually feel sort of what it's like to be a challenged person."

Redwood PTSA member Shari Ferezy is co-chair of Abilities Awareness. She said the program taps into the good-hearted nature of middle-schoolers simply by educating them on a subject rarely brought up at the dinner table.

"These kids are very compassionate if we allow them to be. They are capable of being tremendously respectful of our community members with disabilities of all kinds," Ferezy said.

"Most of it is realistically based. It's an education piece that presents them with the daily challenges these people face," she said. "We want to dispel the myth about people with disabilities that they are any different than us."

Not only are students exposed to true-life stories of community members who've triumphed over their physical limitations, but they get to experience firsthand what it's like to live without some of the abilities they take for granted.

On the first day of the program sixth-graders attempted signing a check, navigating a crosswalk or making change without the use of their vision. And the seventh-grade Paralympics is quickly becoming a rite of passage at Redwood, with students competing in events like wheelchair basketball, amputee table tennis, seated bowling and visually impaired running.

Event co-chair Care Butler, a parent of two Thousand Oaks High School students, said her connection to the message of Abilities Awareness is personal. She lost her brother to ALS in 2004 after watching him struggle during his final years with the near complete loss of his fine motor skills.

"When I read what the goal was for this program-to instill some compassion-I'm like, 'Okay, I'm there," Butler said.

She still recalls how it made her feel the first year to watch the students as they listened to the struggles her 50-year-old brother was facing. As she shared his fight with ALS with them, Butler said, the students were sympathetic and respectful.

"I could tell it really made them 'feel' something about what they were doing," she said.

Butler said Abilities Awareness, which was recognized this year at the State Physical Education Conference, has the power to enlighten even the biggest skeptics at Redwood.

"The kids that are standoffish, who are afraid of trying it or don't think it's cool . . . they tend to be the ones who actually get the most out of the experience," Butler said.

According to Kelly, the impact of the program extends beyond the property line at Redwood: It helps reduce the disability stigma in the community's adult population as well. After all, more than 70 parent volunteers participate in Abilities Awareness week.

"It's a great thing for our community to get involved in, and the word is getting around. It's kind of spreading like wildfire," Kelly said.

The event concludes tomorrow with a speech by Thousand Oaks resident Jerry Newman, who lost the ability to walk in a skydiving accident. Newman, who also spoke at last year's event, now competes in triathlons and trains actors for Hollywood movies.

Butler said all middle schools should emulate the goals of the Abilities Awareness program.

"More than anything else, we're trying to establish a campus of respect, and we build on that every single year," Butler said. "We're trying to look at the big picture, trying to raise wellrounded students who are both critical thinkers and have compassion for others."