The first week of March always highlights a cornerstone of human interactions: inclusion. Typically held on the first Wednesday of March, Spread the Word: Inclusion Day was founded by the Special Olympics to foster inclusion for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
At MN, this day has been turned into a week-long event to celebrate and promote the school’s unified classes and activities.
“‘Spread The Inclusion Week’ is about spreading the word, promoting inclusion, and just letting everybody know how important it is to include, whether it’s someone who visibly has a disability or maybe someone who doesn’t necessarily look like they have a disability, but just includes everybody,” ACP teacher Skylar Phillips said. “It doesn’t matter who they are, having them sit at your lunch table or having a conversation with them when you’re in math class and being inclusive and kind to others is really what this week is about.”
From an Inclusion Day Party to a student vs. staff basketball game, there are a myriad of activities held throughout the week to spread awareness about the ACP program.
“This week is just getting together to celebrate that we are a unified school, promoting inclusion, and reminding people that we have unified classes and we have unified sports,” ACP teacher Alexa Ryan said.
Through the promotion of inclusivity and the number of unified activities and programs offered, MN has been able to be certified as a unified school and has received a banner twice for recognition.
“You have to have a certain number of sports or clubs to be a unified school; you have to have so many things that are schoolwide that include or impact the whole school, and you have to have things that are student-led,” resource teacher Tricia Rohde said.
MN offers unified cheer, bowling, basketball, and track, as well as unified Spanish, music, and art classes that all students participate in.
“They love it. They have a great opportunity to build relationships with ACP students, and they come to realize that they’re not much different from themselves,” Phillips said. “They can build lifelong relationships with them as an individual and not just the kid down the hall; when our students see them out, they can have that interaction with them.”
Additionally, there is also a Unified Club where students meet once a month to play games and hang out.
“That’s another way to get the word out; it helps some of our kids who don’t get out and about in the school as much to meet more friends,” Ryan said.
Students are also able to partake in unified activities and classes; for senior Bailey Linger, she has been able to interact with ACP students through participating in unified Spanish.
“It’s really fun, and it’s a break in the routine of your day-to-day classes, and it lets you build relationships with ACP kids and other peers, and you get to become a lot closer to other kids who are also helping in the classes,” Linger said.
The positive experiences from increased inclusivity are only further strengthened through Inclusion Week, which is set to remain in future years.
“We hope to do it every year. I’ve only been here for four school years, and we’ve done it every school year I’ve been here,” Ryan said.
The exposure of the ACP program throughout the school is a major objective of ‘Spread the Inclusion Week,’ as it allows for the increased inclusion and integration of ACP students and promotes inclusivity for all students.
“We really just want kindness across the board. A lot of people think the focus is just special education and having special education kids included, which yes, we do want that; it’s what the first push for this week was, but also just to make sure everybody is included,” Rohde said. “Everybody wants to have friends, so I feel like it branches across all socioeconomics and races so that we are all just included and no group will be excluded.”