Credit – Standard Democrat
In an effort to create awareness while providing a fun morning of activities, a group of high school juniors created “No One Stands Alone.”
“This event is in honor of special needs awareness,” said Gloria Houston, health occupations instructor at Sikeston Career and Technology Center,
Nearly 120 special needs students in kindergarten through eighth grades from throughout the district attended the two-hour event Wednesday at the Field House, where they enjoyed multiple activities. Ten special needs students from the high school served as coaches to the elementary students, Houston said.
Sikeston Career and Technology Center SkillsUSA and Health Occupational Science Association Community Service team sponsored the two-hour event created by Sikeston High School juniors Karleigh Jenkins and Hana Razor and Dexter High School junior Allison Sneed.
Jenkins, Razor and Sneed are competing as a group in the public health announcements portion of the upcoming SkillsUSA competition. As part of their project, they chose to raise awareness about students who have special needs.
“They wrote lesson plans and taught kids in different classes at the high how school how it feels to see life through the eyes of a special needs student,” Houston said.
One activity included writing a color on the board but using a different color of ink than the word of the color.
“The word might be blue but it’s written in yellow so your mind wants to say it’s blue but it’s yellow,” Razor said.
Jenkins described another classroom activity they did.
“We went into the high school classes and had a sentence on a paper, and you had to describe the sentence without talking. You had to act it out. We learned that it’s hard for some special needs students to communicate,” Jenkins said.
After going into the high school classrooms, the students wanted to take it to the next level and host a fun day of some sort for special needs students, Houston said.
“It’s teaching students to give back,” Houston said.
The students planned the event over several months, they said.
“We’re going to use this as an example that we helped inform our community,” Sneed said.
Joining in organizing the effort were community service team members and SHS students Amalia Day, Hallie Kimball and Lauren Housman.
Sikeston High School student Jana Sebag, 17, said she enjoyed participating in Wednesday’s two-hour event. She said her favorite activity was playing basketball.
“I made two hoops,” she said with a smile.
Activities included basketball, volleyball, kickball, photo booth and relay races.
“I think it’s awesome,” said Mychelle Sloan, an aide at Sikeston High School. “It gives the kids the opportunity to try other things.”
Houston said she was also pleased with the event.
“It’s teaching the high school students leadership, and they’re coming out of their shells,” Houston said.
In addition to the Skills USA/HOSA students, the event also included Sikeston High School PE classes, with those students acting as referees and coaches for each team, Houston said.
“The younger kids played sports with the older kids,” Houston, said adding the older students served as mentors during the event.
The event also involved culinary arts students provided refreshments, Houston noted.
“I think it turned out very well. I was nervous at first. We weren’t sure how it was going to turn out but it’s been great,” said Sneed said.
Razor said it’s good for others to put themselves in someone else’s shoes.
“With all the different grades coming together, it’s good to see how they act and how they mature as they move on to certain grade levels,” Razor added.
The students agreed they want to offer the event again next year.
“I think the students are really enjoying it,” Sneed said.
What they want the students and the community to know is that special needs students are no different than anyone else.
“They can do the same things we can but maybe just not as as fast. Or it may not be as easy for them to play volleyball, for instance, but they are playing it and they are having fun,” Jenkins said.
She said they wanted to make all students feel like they matter and are not left out.
Sneed agreed.
“That was our motto: ‘No one stands alone’ because we didn’t want them to feel like they were different,” Sneed said. “… It makes me happy to see them just happy to be here.”
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