Join the conversation

The following blog post is from Samantha Huffman and was written in response to a recent article about a special needs student who was bound with duct tape during school.

Samantha is a former National Youth Activation Committee member and current senior, studying Elementary Education at Hanover College. Samantha has been a student leader in Project UNIFY for many years.

I recently went to a conference where a young man with cerebral palsy kept bringing up how we needed to focus on students with disabilities being tied down to chairs or restrained and/or harmed in some other way by educators. I kept thinking to myself how this wasn’t important because this would never be allowed to happen in a school in today’s society. I’m a senior Elementary Education major and never once in my four years of classes have we addressed the idea of restraining students because that’s just plain wrong, isn’t it? Well, apparently I was living in some kind of dream world and this young man at the conference was living in the real world. ...

By Andrea Cahn, Senior Director of Special Olympics Project UNIFY

Editor’s Note: This post is form our partners at the Special Olympics Project UNIFY. Each week in January, we will feature a new article on a topic related to the social inclusion of youth with intellectual disabilities. Through this effort, we hope to inform the public of the importance of such inclusion as well as offer educators and parents resources to implement it.

In recent months, a dizzying number of headlines about the tragedies of school bullying have sent policymakers, educators, parents, and students in search of solutions.  While it would be easy to latch on to a targeted anti-bullying campaign, as we’ve done with issues like drug abuse, teen pregnancy, youth violence, and suicide, it’s time to address the root causes. During the past three decades, educators have funneled scarce resources into a fragmented web of school-based prevention programs. However well-intentioned, this approach has focused on symptoms, not causes, and has missed an opportunity to expand the skills and capacities of young people as they grow and develop. ...

Editor’s note: This post is from our partners at Special Olympics Project UNIFY. Each week in January, we will feature a new article on a topic related to the social inclusion of youth with intellectual disabilities. Through this effort, we hope to inform the public of the importance of such inclusion as well as offer educators and parents resources to implement it.

 Haylie Bernacki , the newest member of the LFA team,  is currently a student at American University in Washington, DC,  majoring in International Relations (focus on International Development)  with a  minor in Special Education. Haylie’s professional  goal is to work in international education policy, specifically special education.

Haylie presently works at Special Olympics International in the Project UNIFY division. Project UNIFY works directly with students in K-12 to enhance school climate and create school communities of acceptance and inclusion for all students regardless of ability level. She  also serves as  a board member for the National Coalition for Academic Service Learning (NCASL).  NCASL  supports state education agencies and education professionals by providing leadership and resources that lead to the intentional and sustainable use of academic service-learning as an engaging pedagogy in the instructional setting. ...