Freshmen Learn Disability Challenges by Experiencing Them

A NEW EMPATHY: Freshmen at North High School in Torrance are experiencing some of the same challenges that their disabled colleagues do, thanks to a three-day awareness program called Mainstreaming the Disabled.

School officials started the program eight years ago to educate students about physical and mental disabilities. Since then, every freshman class has participated in the awareness workshops.

“We want to orient our students to the disabled students at North High and (in) the real world so they will be comfortable dealing with handicapped people throughout their lives,” said Peggy Tremayne, principal of North High.

About 10% of the 1,700 students enrolled at North High have disabilities, Tremayne said.

Four hundred students in the freshman class began the program Wednesday with simulation exercises to experience physical, mental and learning disabilities.

In one exercise, students took turns watching each other maneuver through a wheelchair obstacle course. In another, they experimented with reading Braille. To simulate motor coordination impairment, students tried to thread a needle wearing gloves and to experience reading disabilities, they tried reading words reflected in a mirror.

In today’s program, a dozen North High students with disabilities including cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy and little or no vision will conduct a panel discussion, addressing such topics as the advantages and disadvantages of being disabled and the students’ strengths and limitations because of their disabilities.

The program will conclude Friday with a panel of successful adults with disabilities, talking about how they conquered their challenges.

PITCHING IN FOR A GOOD CAUSE: San Pedro High students, with the help of architects from the Port of Los Angeles, will volunteer their time over the next several months to renovate a landscaped sitting area in the middle of the campus.

The 1,500-square-foot courtyard, which will include benches, handrails, retaining walls, concrete paving and landscaping, will replace a smaller sitting area that has fallen into disrepair. Groundbreaking ceremonies for the courtyard are scheduled for 10 a.m. today.

Local merchants and school alumni have donated plants, materials and tools for the project, which is expected to be completed in June. The work will be done on weekends and holidays.

Students began drawing plans to renovate the so-called “senior court” in 1978, but the school never had enough money to complete the project, which school officials at one time estimated would cost about $60,000.

The project was revived two years ago, when Port of Los Angeles officials agreed to ask their landscape architects and engineers to volunteer their time to the project.

“It’s part of our community outreach program and it’s a way that we can have our people work with their people, rather than just hand over a check,” said Mike Levitt, special-events coordinator for the Port of Los Angeles.

MENTORS, TUTORS: The “Interscholastic Alliance of African-American Males,” or the IAAM program, was officially christened Wednesday at Middle College High School in Los Angeles. Pronounced “I AM,” the program was created to inspire African-American high school youths to continue their education. It will serve young men from Inglewood and Morningside high schools in Inglewood, and Washington and Middle College high schools in Los Angeles.

About 85 boys are signed up to be a part of the program through the four schools.

Armed with a $50,000 grant from Southern California Edison, IAAM’s director, Moses Robinson, decided to combat what he saw as a lack of positive role models and incentives for young men to continue their education by pairing the youths with African-American role models and mentors.

Robinson, a teacher at Middle College High School, is also hiring tutors who will help the boys with their homework after school for two days a week, and is planning get-togethers at such places as the African-American Museum in Exposition Park on weekends, to show the youths how much their ancestors contributed to history.

Items for the weekly Class Notes column can be mailed to The Times South Bay office, 23133 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 200, Torrance 90505, or faxed to (310) 373-5753 to the attention of staff reporter Lorna Fernandes.