OXNARD : 11 Disabled Pupils Camp Out at Beach

For many Southern California junior high school students, Friday was just another day at the beach. But for 11 severely handicapped students at Richard B. Haydock Junior High, it was the chance to prove their independence.

The students, who suffer from severe physical and mental disabilities, were allowed to participate Thursday and Friday in an overnight beach camp-out at McGrath State Beach. Many of the children in the program have Down’s syndrome and are either blind or deaf, or both.

Norman Brekke, superintendent of the Oxnard Elementary School District, said it was the first time the district took the students on an overnight camping trip.

“There is no doubt that because of its success it will become an annual event,” Brekke said.

The daily curriculum in Beth Jacobs’ class teaches the students how to handle financial transactions, ride the bus, cook simple meals and many other skills most people take for granted. “These programs emphasize students developing their self-sufficiency and independence,” Brekke said.

Teaching assistant and parent Connie Wilbur said the vocational training, individualized treatment and attention the students receive make it possible for them to overcome their disabilities and survive in the community.

The Oxnard Elementary School District has hired several graduates of the program--a gardener, an assistant cook and a teacher’s aide.

“If these kids didn’t have this program,” Wilbur said, “they’d be in a state institution.”

The camp-out was the culmination of the curriculum, a chance for the students to test themselves away from the familiar territories of home and school. The children, who range in age from 12 to 14, saw two schools of dolphins offshore, learned the “right” way to eat an Oreo cookie--carefully twist the cookies apart and then lick them--and told ghost stories.

For some of them, the camping trip was a rare opportunity to get out. Student Mara Davenport, of Oxnard has one parent who is confined to a wheelchair and another who can barely walk. The family lives in a trailer.

Teaching Assistant Margie Banales, watching Mara run along the beach, said she is “like a little bird set free . . . she is so motivated to learn and experience new things.”