Hoots and hollers arose from the small crowd of desks and wheelchairs as Zac Efron took the court for the final basketball game of “High School Musical.”
Cheers erupted with each theatrical basket made. Moscow High School special education paraprofessional Jeanette Humphreys sat in a plush office chair near the back of the room and clapped along, shouting encouragements toward the students.
“They were so good during the lockdown drills yesterday,” Humphreys said. “This is their reward. They love “High School Musical” and “The Ringer,” but we had a movie night the other night for Buddy Club and watched something different.”
Buddy Club, a group comprised of students both with and without special needs, is focused on building friendships and promoting acceptance. Buddy Club adviser and special education teacher Cory Singleton said the club hosts monthly events and has no formal membership list – the entire student body is invited, with an emphasis on including those with disabilities.
The club began in 2008 after a parent of a special needs student at MHS saw a need for the further inclusion of her student in activities outside of school, Singleton said. Singleton became the adviser of the club in 2009, and said the club had to battle for attention, but is now arguably the most active club on campus.
“We’d plan an event and somebody would plan over the top of us, and they would be like, ‘Oh, it’s not that big of a deal,’ and I’d be going down to the office and I’d be like ‘Excuse me, this is a big deal, this is not OK,'” Singleton said. “I don’t think people are used to including people with disabilities into the mainstream as much as I think they should be.”
Buddy Club events include movie nights, softball tournaments, a yearly trip to Silverwood Theme Park and much more.
Singleton said the Buddy Club’s biggest annual event is the Friendship Ball, a dance geared toward students with special needs, but is open to all students. Since it began in 2008, Singleton said the dance’ attendance has hovered around 150 students.
“I had a parent tell me, ‘I did not think that my daughter would ever get to do something like this. I never thought I’d get my daughter all dressed up and send her to a formal dance like this. This was not something that was ever in the picture for me,'” Singleton said. “So that in itself tells you, you know, that’s why you do it. That’s why we have these things.”
In order to pay for transportation to Silverwood and other events, Singleton said she writes grants to Stepping Stones Inc. and Moscow Opportunity School, which together bring in almost $3,000 annually. Students also fundraise throughout the school year.
Singleton said another facet of Buddy Club is the peer mentoring class she offers to all MHS students. In the class students are assigned a “buddy,” a student with special needs they occasionally attend class with and are responsible for teaching appropriate social skills.
“It means so much more when a peer says, ‘Dude, we don’t act that way in high school,’ versus me saying, ‘Knock it off,'” Singleton said. “It’s a peer saying it, and so that’s been huge for the kids.”
The peer mentoring class is how many students begin their stints as Buddy Club members, Singleton said. MHS senior Rachel Bechtel, former Buddy Club president and current vice president, said she spends time with a student with cerebral palsy. Despite the student’s tough days when her confinement to a wheelchair frustrates her, the girl remains positive.
“If you ask her how she’s doing, every day she says the same thing, she says she’s awesome,” she said.
Bechtel said it’s a common misconception that the peer mentoring through Buddy Club exclusively entails regular students aiding students with special needs. Bechtel she learns so much from her buddy from each meeting.
“People always think, ‘Oh, you’re the volunteer, you’re the mentor helping them,’ but it’s so much more than that because, like, working with a student with Down Syndrome, seeing someone that is capable of being so kind and so positive and so happy to everyone around them — that’s something that I’ve learned from,” Bechtel said.
Margaret Hanley, a mother of a MHS student with special needs and member of the Buddy Club, said the benefits of the club are mutual for both regular and disabled students.
“When you’re a disabled kid it’s not like the phone’s ringing off the wall with people saying ‘Hey let’s go to a movie or let’s go cruise the mall or whatever,'” Hanley said. “It’s nice because you have a built-in group of support — it’s a good thing for the kids (with disabilities), and it’s good for their peers too. It’s just a win-win.”
Hanley’s daughter, Mary, who was diagnosed as severely cognitively impaired at 9 years old, is a senior at MHS and active member of the Buddy Club. Hanley said that Moscow — and Idaho as a whole — is a great place to raise a child with disabilities.
“I know in some places she’d be sitting in a corner doing nothing all day,” Hanley said. “It’s very interesting because in many areas Idaho is way behind, but in how they treat their disabled folks — they’re just amazing.”
Mary recently attended the Friendship Ball with a friend of hers who also has special needs. He asked her two days prior to the dance with a large sign displaying “yes” and “no” check boxes. Without hesitation, Mary said yes.
“I make a lot of friends in Buddy Club,” Mary said. “Everyone is nice to me.”
Hanley said she’d hate to know where Mary would be without the club.
“She thinks differently than we do and she doesn’t communicate like we do. But here you learn that that’s OK — she doesn’t have to,” Hanley said. “She can just be who she is and that’s OK.”
Friendships formed in Buddy Club continue after high school and regular student members are pursuing special education careers, Humphreys said, which is where she said she sees the club shine.
“It only takes one person to build a bond with, and that’s where I think the strength is,” Humphreys said.
Humphreys’ daughter, Alexis, was the first president of the Buddy Club. Humphreys said that in her time teaching at MHS she has seen the attitude of students change who were previously hesitant to interact with students with special needs. She said students with disabilities promote kindness and acceptance — something she loves about her job.
“I think sometimes teenagers can tend to be cruel to each other or they’ll nit-pick at things, and I think our students (with special needs) have a way of washing all that aside,” Humphreys said. “I think they soften them.”
Humphreys said the Buddy Club is a big contributor to the accepting environment of MHS and that she would never want to work anywhere else.
“I think that is the biggest gift (students with special needs) give us,” Humphreys said. “We’re not so focused on ourselves. You can’t have your own agenda with them. You just can’t.”