Excluded and Included: The School Yearbook
June 19, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
On reading about how photos of a class of special ed students was left out of the yearbook of a school in Placer County, California, I felt that pang of exclusion. From KCRA.com:
“It was not intentional,” said Mark Geyer, the superintendent of the Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District.
Darla Granger said her sons Holden and Hunter, who are autistic, were left out of the Quail Glen Elementary yearbook along with the rest of the school’s special needs children on purpose.
“It is my understanding that a school parent volunteer coordinated the yearbook, and omitted the class photo page,” Placer County Superintendent Gayle Garbolino-Mojica said.
The Placer County Office of Education is addressing the issue by developing a plan to include photos in yearbooks of all special needs students in the county’s 18 districts, Garbolino-Mojica said.
“I do have a hard time understanding how they could have not noticed that every autistic child from their campus was missing,” Darla Granger said.
Whether unintentional or not, not being included—being forgotten (inadvertently) and left out— hurts.
So here’s a happier ending for this post.
On Wednesday morning I got an email from a mom who’s an officer in the PTO at Charlie’s now-former elementary school (Charlie’s first day of ESY at the middle school Wednesday). At the fifth grade graduation ceremony, each student who is “moving up” to middle school was given a gym bag with the name of the middle school on it. Charlie and his classmates did not attend that ceremony (part of which involved a dance party with a DJ) and had their own ceremony, complete with black mortarboards (courtesy, I think, of a Hallmark store). Consequently Charlie and his classmates were not given a gym bag and it’s not a big deal—-but when I wrote back to the PTO mom, she quickly sent me a phone number of another parent, and it looks like we’ll be picking up a gym bag for Charlie.
Again, not a big deal. We certainly don’t need a gym bag but it’s not only nice to be included, it’s important to be remembered. And in the school yearbook, Charlie’s fifth-grade photo—he’s wearing an apple green Life Is Good t-shirt and a very serious expression—is right in alphabetical order, one among the other kids’ pictures.
The gym bag IS very important and it is a big deal. That detail should not have been overlooked by the school administration and I suspect next year it will not be.
That and omission from the yearbook are both unacceptable in the name of inclusion and being factually correct!
It’ll be nice for next year when he goes to middle school.
We had a parent volunteer at our school that tried to do that a few years ago, and another parent volunteer who has a special needs child spoke up. We also have a great administration who sees all the kids in the school. Sometimes that happens where administration forgets about the special needs kids in their own school. I can’t believe it happens, but it does.
Shash
Can you fire a volunteer? How mean.
I’m glad Charlie got his bag. And people wonder why there’s a neurodiversity movement.
Our school’s yearbook is by class, and when I first started at the school, all the special day classes were lumped together at the beginning. I asked that we (4th – 6th) be put at least with the upper grade kids.
It’s sad the kids were excluded; it reminds me again how far the school I teach at now has come in five years (when I started, my students were not even expected to eat lunch with the other kids).
A couple of years ago when Buddy Boy was in First Grade the school had an assembly where they made a BIG deal about how everyone in the whole school had painted a rock that was to be included in the school’s outdoor area. How this symbolized the ideals of the school, how each person contributed, etc., etc., etc. My wife happened to attend the ceremony and noticed that not exactly EVERYONE had made a rock. A few special ed kids who weren’t included in the mainstream art class (Buddy Boy among them) were sitting there without a rock. No one had thought to include them in this “Big Project”.
My wife was crying, as well as furious.
After a number of phone calls these kids did get to make their rocks. Some of the school people thought it was no big deal that they got missed. I mean, it was only a rock, after all. Except that they made it such a big deal for everyone else.
That one still hurts.
Joe
My son Matthew culminated from fifth grade this morning. There was no yearbook at the school that I know of. Nick’s school last year did not have one either. His aide sat behind him and this guy had to watch the other kids on either side of him. Matt had a few fidgets and the other kid used one of his and they seemed to alternate from what I could see as they were in the second to last row. Matt went up to get an award for his class for most improved.
They did a video type presentation of each child and it started with the autism class. It had a photo of the student and a statement of what theywanted to be. They had Matt as a chef since he likes to eat. Not sure who put that on there as it is not true at all. I got a call last nite before 7 pm with the offer of another middle school since I went to informal dispute and this one starts in Sep and 7 minutes away so I accepted the offer. It is not an autism class but an MRS – mental retardation severe. So there will be mixed kids and this might be better for Matt.
Sometimes being included is not much better. Whoever did our yearbook placed the special ed classes in their own “special section” for no apparent reason- so that instead of being with teh rest of the kindergarteners, my son’s small class was listed and shown after all the other “regular” classes.
Exactly what I asked our PTA not to do.
I honestly don’t think there was bad intent on their part — one of them is an instructional aide in our preschool class — but I think things get done a “certain way.”
Also, people were very invested in the idea of my class as an “other” — they were shocked when I said I was sending homework home, for instance, and I also had to ask to be listed at “4th – 6th grades” instead of just “Special Ed” on the class picture.
Once I asked that we be put with the rest of the intermediate grades, they immediately said yes, and that’s where we’ve been for the past 4 years.
I think it’s a reminder that inclusion isn’t just about the kids — it’s an attitude that needs to be prevalent in the whole school community, that everybody is a part of the school, and belongs to it, no matter where and what kind of support they receive.
I think we’ll be hearing more of these types of “exclusions” and of cases like what Joeysmom describes. I don’t think the exclusion is always conscious but that, very often, people don’t realize the assumptions they may be making, or why an attempt to include ends up excluding a child even more.
I am really surprised that more parents from the Quail Glen Elementary School haven’t complained and that they haven’t contacted Darla. There is strength in numbers and it would be more difficult for the school to discriminate on these children. They have a right to be treated with dignity and respect and a right to be a part of their school. After all Darla and Blandon pay taxes on that school just like every one else. The only ones that don’t pay school levy taxes are renters.
Yearbooks are supposed to trigger all these wonderful memories – but all too often exclusion seems to be more common than inclusion. Some kids appear on all the pages, while others are delegated to a single awkward portrait.
I recently discovered this great new yearbook company called TreeRing. With TreeRing, the school’s yearbook staff produces most of the book, but 10% is left for every student to PERSONALIZE. And the process could not be any easier – the web-based program is simple to use and sharing/borrowing photos from across the web is seamless (you don’t even have to wait for your photos to upload from your favorite photo sites!). I urge you all to check out this site: treering.com – you won’t be disappointed! Oh, and the prices are a downright bargain!