Under clear blue skies, two of South County’s most disparate
student populations came together for a morning of exercise and
entertainment.
Under clear blue skies, two of South County’s most disparate student populations came together for a morning of exercise and entertainment.
After dozens of mentally handicapped students were displaced by two suspicious fires that gutted Gateway School, some were faced with a surprising relocation to South County Community School – a campus that houses at-risk students who have not been successful in traditional middle and high school settings.
“We’re on this campus together for better or for worse,” said Heather Bass, a Gateway teacher whose 12 students were uprooted after the fire. “We’ve been working really hard to make this place home and we have. Now we just want to make some friends.”
In an effort to close the gaping void that separated the two schools’ oddly paired populations, Bass approached administrators at South County Community School to collaborate on a project.
The school acquiesced and six South County students volunteered, shedding their tough exteriors and taking up positions behind Gateway students’ wheelchairs to shuttle them between several physical activity stations set up on the campus’s baseball field.
“It’s taught me to be more mature and patient,” said Antonio Velasquez, 16, as he pushed his partner’s wheelchair up to the station situated at home plate. “They can’t just wake up in the morning and walk around like I can.”
Velasquez grinned and clapped when the plastic bat his partner, 15-year-old Jasmyne Longoria, was holding made solid contact with a large rubber ball.
“Good job baby girl,” Kathy Longoria cheered when her daughter completed the station, waving green and purple pompoms.
“I think this is great,” Kathy Longoria said, standing next to her husband, a retired Sheriff’s deputy, at the beanbag station. “We dressed her all up and told her we were going to do something special today. She was all excited.”
One of three triplets, Jasmyne Longoria and her siblings were born with cerebral palsy. While she attends Gateway, her brother and sister attend special programs at Gilroy and Sobrato high schools. She and her sister are both confined to wheelchairs.
“It’s been like that for 15 years,” Kathy Longoria said. “It’s always been like that.”
Several other parents attended the festivities to lend a helping hand and cheer their children on. When parent volunteer Jackie Mitchell greeted the students from South County that morning, she said she expected a little attitude from them. When they all grinned and said hello, Mitchell said she was pleasantly surprised.
“Their hearts are really open to this,” she said, watching as her 22-year-old daughter’s partner helped her score a strike at the bowling station. “Working with our kids gives them the opportunity to show their real side instead of wearing a mask.”
Developmentally delayed since Mitchell and her husband adopted her at birth, Melissa Mitchell isn’t like other kids, her mother said.
“You know how most kids start a race and can see the finish line,” Jackie Mitchell said. “Melissa’s never going to cross that finish line.”
Mitchell said the most frustrating part of her relationship with her daughter is the lack of communication and the guesswork she puts into teasing out Melissa’s many needs.
But despite the severe mental and physical disabilities of the Gateway students, administrators said the morning ran smoothly.
“This program brings out the best in all the students,” said Gateway Principal Laurene Beto from the sidelines. “It’s a good environment for the students from Gateway because of the level of compassion the alternative education students have demonstrated.”
David Betz, who teaches physical education to the students at South County Community School, said he noticed visible changes in his students while they were working with their Gateway partners. Both schools are run by the Santa Clara County Office of Education.
“Their world is so one dimensional,” he said of his students. “This is a great opportunity for them to take care of other people less fortunate. They learn that it’s not just about them, today is about other students. It forces them to get rid of the victim mentality and make them realize they have more to offer than they think.”
When South County student Jessyka Brown, 17, volunteered with the Gateway students to fulfill a community service requirement, she ended up really enjoying the work, she said. Now she stays after school every day to help Bass out with her students and hopes to pursue a teaching credential when she finishes high school.
“The kids each have their own personality,” Brown said.
Though many of the Gateway students have limited verbal abilities, Brown communicates with them using voice boxes and has gotten to know them since she started volunteering.
“I feel bad because they didn’t put themselves in this position,” she said. “But the teachers here are so kind. I’ve never met people with bigger hearts. I’m usually pretty impatient but I’m a different person when I work with them and these kids.”
