We’ve been on summer hiatus and we hope you’ve had a restful summer and are ready to head back to school. Our Facebook page and Twitter feed has been sharing First Day of School Pictures almost every day for the past few weeks. There is something so magical about children on that first day: their eyes are full of hope, excitement, and the best magic of all careful curiosity. Will it be a good year? Will I make a new friend? What will I learn? Will my teacher like me?
Speaking of teachers, I don’t envy any of them who have to start on a brand new pile of tests and assignments very soon! There must be something that makes it easier for then, maybe like an essay grader for teachers perhaps? There’s something out there for everything these days. Good luck to all the kids going back to school and be sure to keep on top of your work with help from collegepaperworld, to make it easier for your teachers, but most importantly, yourself.
For a child with a disability, the questions get more urgent. Do I get to start school with my brothers and sisters? Will I have friends? Can I do the work? Am I part of this or not?
One year ago, a family was told no. Their child could not attend the school where his sister attended. He was left out. Being shut out of a Catholic school is even more heart-breaking since our faith tells us “ALL are welcome”…every single life is sacred and holy and worthy. How can such a juxtaposition exist?
The Armitage family has shared their story below. This is straight from LeeAnn — no editing from me. We are grateful they have shared their journey here. Grateful for their persistence, their resolve and for their faith.
This picture right here means a whole new beginning for Mary Queen of Peace Catholic School in Webster Groves, Missouri. This fall, just one year later, this school has opened their doors to three students with Down Syndrome, including Christopher. ALL are welcome at Mary Queen of Peace…and every single one of us is better for it.
It won’t be easy. But what effort of any note ever is? It will take hard work, a commitment to the idea that inclusion matters and an unwavering belief that it can be done. We expect great things from Mary Queen of Peace and look forward to following their journey to inclusion. God bless all of you.
“Journey Of Mazes
“Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it polite? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular – but one must take it because it’s right.”
Martin Luther King, Jr spoke those words in the 1950’s as he was advocating for African-American civil right in America. He was all about using non-violent ways to show your civil disobedience. Many of his messages were tied to his faith as a Baptist minister. He understood the connection between having a faith to lean on and questioning authority when the fight was a noble one which, when fought graciously and with conviction, would ultimately lead to the glory of God and not personal gain or personal agendas. I think that’s how he knew which fights to fight, and which to abandon – by asking would the outcome give glory to God?
In 2013, my husband and I started the conversation with our Catholic parish school to include our son, Christopher in their school. Chris has Down syndrome. Children with Down syndrome are not typically included in catholic schools. And it certainly had never been done at Mary, Queen of Peace. It was a bold question we were asking, yet our story is not unique or special. Many catholic families around the country have approached their parish schools asking for their children with disabilities to be included in the school with their siblings and friends. Many have knocked and been turned away. No room at the Inn.
We heard all of the “reasons” every other family has heard. Teachers aren’t qualified. We have no money to hire and train teachers. What happens when the academic gap gets too large between the child and his peers? What will it look like in 7th grade science when the child cannot read yet? The community will not support this. We have no money. The public schools have what he needs, you can send him there. This is an academic institution, therefore the child must be making significant academic gains. Won’t this bring down our school’s test scores? The child will be disruptive. Your child’s needs will take away from the other kids in the class. Did I mention: We have no money?
We heard them all. We methodically took all of the “reasons” and attempted to address or solve each of them. Each time we were just met with another “reason” and it made us question what IS the real reason Catholic schools choose not to practice inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities? Many families have been deeply hurt by the rejection. Some have even left the catholic faith altogether because of this.
My husband and I chose to keep advocating. There were many ups and downs in the two year process. MQP allowed Chris to attend for preschool for one year. After what we considered a successful year for him, we were told he was not welcome to come back for kindergarten. We fought the decision. They fought back. We fought more. They fought even more. The first day of kindergarten came and went and my son was not in class. We went “underground” and stayed quiet for several months licking our wounds, weary after all the fighting. The crazy thing was, our parish community got it. They were supportive of the school accepting Chris. Yet our administration was fearful and not willing to budge.
This whole time I kept hearing the whisper of God’s voice to keep going. God was telling me very clearly that all of the ‘No’ voices I was hearing were the devil’s work. God told me to keep going. In my head I saw myself in one of those hedge or corn mazes. Where, when you are in them, you take a turn and run into a wall, so you turn around and go another way, and you keep bumping into dead ends or you gain some ground. When you’re in the maze you can’t see the way out but if someone was looking down on the maze, they could see that with just one more turn, you would be out and free. I thought of God looking down on us and this journey and I kept hearing Him say, “Keep going. You’re almost there. Just keep going!” The no’s where still louder than the whisper of God. We chose to lean on and focus on that whisper rather than the loud and overpowering nos.
We decided to home school him for kindergarten. We did not believe that the public school option was right for him – he would just be segregated. Around Thanksgiving of this year, my husband heard the battle cry once more and was moved to start asking yet again. He knew many had fought as hard as we had. He knew that in order to be successful we needed to have a sustained effort and we needed to work through people in our parish. There were a lot of passionate people on our side. We needed to keep fighting this God-given task. We very much believe we were directly called to fight for this in our own parish.
We started a non-for-profit foundation to raise money so that grants could be given to schools in St. Louis who would welcome children with special needs. The One Classroom Foundation was modeled after the F.I.R.E. Foundation in KC. They have been incredible mentors to us along the way. We have a few angel investors to get us financially ready to support a pilot program and we have plans to begin fund raising in the fall of 2015.
Fast forward to April 15, 2015 and a fateful bus ride to KC diocese to see inclusion in catholic schools in action. One Classroom Foundation sponsored the trip and invited many parish and school stakeholders to take the trip with us. They didn’t agree to go because they thought we were right. I suspect they went to shut us up or maybe as a favor to one of our supporters. I’m not sure why they went. But they went. And it was transforming for everyone. Only the Holy Spirit can change hearts the way they were changed that day.
Since the day we returned, it has been like a boulder rolling down the hill and we can’t get a program started fast enough! I spent the week after we returned laughing with each new development! Laughing at the incredibleness that was happening all around me. It was unbelievable and I think I was laughing because it was all so improbable. Only God can create something like this!
And so on August 19, 2015 my son will be in full uniform and lined up with his peers from preschool ready to start their first day of First Grade at Mary, Queen of Peace School. The really beautiful thing is that there will also be two other children with Down syndrome starting in kindergarten on that first day! They’re in too! Yes, the Holy Spirit has sent three children with Down syndrome to our parish. This journey has been divinely guided since the beginning and we were always on God’s time, not ours.
I always trusted that this fight was about more than Christopher. The realization of this dream brings glory to God in every way and to many. Jesus would not turn our children away. We are called to be the hands and eyes and heart of Jesus here on earth. How we treat the least of our brothers and sisters is how we would treat Jesus himself. We fought this fight for Christopher and others like him, but we fought the fight because it was the right thing to do.
We tried to always make decisions based on taking the high road and not going rogue and demanding this for our son or bullying the school to accept him. It wasn’t always the easy thing to do and I have spent more time than I’m willing to admit, on my knees in the confessional trying to reconcile my strong feelings of dislike for some of the decision makers. I think that has paid off in the end and gained us the respect of the administration we were once fighting. After all, we now are working together on the pilot program at our school for the coming school year, and it helps that we can have civilized conversations and be in the same room together. I have a new respect for our administration – changing your decision is never easy – but I respect that they were able to take in new information and then make new decisions and most of all I respect their leap of faith.
God has shown us that we can do so much more with his help. But He has also shown us that you have to keep pushing while you’re praying!! I truly offer up to God all of the suffering this journey has asked me to endure.
Someday, perhaps, our catholic schools will more readily accept children with intellectual disabilities because of our fight and can stand on our shoulders just as we are standing on other’s shoulders now. In the kingdom of God, we are all in One Classroom.
(I am forever grateful to Beth Foraker and her vision and support. We are of one tribe. Thank you for starting the National Catholic Board on Full Inclusion and taking a national stance when no one else would own it.)” — LeeAnn Armitage
