Have you ever wondered what sports and activities look like for our Significant Support Needs (SSN) kids? Every day our SSN students have a physical education class called Unified Sports 6th hour where they do pretty much the same thing that the rest of the school’s students do in their PE classes. 

Sophomore Erin Storey helps with adaptive PE everyday in class and she said that her favorite part “is seeing the kids in the hall and them telling her how excited they are to see her in class later.” We are able to make a much stronger community around the school. 

Not only does this class give our special needs students a chance to enjoy regular activities, like bowling or basketball, it brings two groups together at our school that normally wouldn’t be as close. There are general education students in that same class.

Bringing the general population and our special needs students together creates more of an all-inclusive  school culture. Having class together creates a great learning  environment for both school populations. 

Physical education teacher Alison Murphy told us, “Neither population feels like an outcast anymore; everybody feels like they belong.” The students learn that just by spending an hour of their life, they can help create a stronger community that supports one another. 

There are many people at our school that help get involved with our SSN activities, but we don’t have nearly enough to make it this amazing, successful program. So many students at our school are involved in multiple different activities and sports, making it difficult for them to join another activity. But everyone that gets involved with unified sports seems to get amazing things out of it.  Senior Kit Arbuckle is a student who has spent many hours of her time helping with Unified Sports. She said that her favorite part was “to see them come and light up with a lot of energy” being able to see the joy that it brings them can really make a difference in their world. 

Although, because there is a PE class that anyone can join during the day, that gives our general population students an opportunity to work it into their schedule and not take time away from their other activities. Anything that you can do to help make school a better environment for our students will make a huge impact in their lives. 

The Unified Sports students finished their bowling season about two weeks ago and every one of those kids loved it. Allowing them to get a chance to live a normal high school life creates such a big impact in their lives. During their adaptive PE they also got to go play football at trailblazer stadium and they all loved it. Senior bowler Laszlo Bjork says that his favorite part of bowling is when he gets a strike.  

Just by spending a little bit of your time can make a massive impact on each and everyone of their lives. So, find some time in your day to make an effort to make their day better even if it’s just a high five or ask them how their day is.