SANTA ANA : Skits Teach Respect for the Disabled

Lending a light touch to a serious topic, puppeteers Friday performed a show at an elementary school aimed at teaching children to respect others with mental and physical disabilities.

About 1,100 students at Jackson Elementary School laughed and giggled during the skits, which pointed out that although all people are unique, their similarities far outweigh their differences.

The skits, performed by two women from the Girl Scout Council of Orange County, focused on the antics of a quintet of characters, including a wheelchair-bound boy with cerebral palsy and a mentally disabled woman employed as a veterinarian’s assistant.

“The message is that it’s OK to be different--and if (children) understand that, they’re a lot better off than many adults,” said puppeteer Sue Shatzel, 36. “Ultimately, kids will start thinking about the person and not the disability.”

After each skit, students were allowed to ask the puppets about their disabilities. Shatzel said that “children can ask things of a puppet that they definitely wouldn’t say to an adult.”

Shelly Clendenon, 23, of Huntington Beach, joined Shatzel in putting on the show. During their act, the women placed their two-foot-tall puppets atop a makeshift stage and shouted out dialogue while moving the characters’ arms and legs for dramatic emphasis.

One skit concerned Mark, a boy with cerebral palsy who prefers to call his wheelchair a “souped up, super-sport, faster-than-a-speeding-bullet cruiser.” He explained to a newfound friend that a disability doesn’t make him incapable of doing things like playing sports and pointed out that he can even go horseback riding with the help of a special saddle. His other favorite activities include playing basketball, for which he needs his wheelchair, and swimming.

During a question-and-answer session after the skit, one student asked Mark, “How do you run?”

Mark responded: “I do all my running around in my cruiser. . . . I can do just about anything you can do, but I do it a little differently.”

Steve Mendoza, 9, of Santa Ana was especially interested in the performance, in part because he has cerebral palsy and must wear leg braces to walk. Seated toward the front of the audience, the third-grade student smiled throughout the show and watched intently as the puppets discussed how cerebral palsy affects people.

“It was pretty interesting. I liked it,” he said later.

The show was important because it showed students that their disabled peers are just like them, Steve said. Students at other schools should see skits about disabled people, “so they won’t make fun of them.”