The month of April is also known as Autism Awareness Month. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects a person’s communication, behavior, and social interactions. Many humans never truly see the uniqueness and remarkable qualities of people who have autism. Each challenge can vary depending on the individual who has autism and their characteristics.
At Carolina Forest High School, Mrs. Randi Aubry is one of the teachers for some of our beloved students.
Since the Special Olympics is on April 30 at Myrtle Beach High School, CFHS wanted to give these students an opportunity to be involved with the varsity sports team here. On April 2, Jessica Ferdetta threw the first pitch for softball and Nick Maggio threw the first pitch for baseball. We also had the following students run the 100 meter dash at the track meet held at CF: James Davis, Daniel Deras, Joseph Gardo, Wyatt Gliss, Mikey Koether, Emmy Levinsky, Caleb Miller, Nick Scaturro, McKayla Seafross, Jack Senig, and Keira Tate.
Aubry and her students had an amazing night being involved.
Aubry stated, “ It was an indescribable feeling. I am so proud of these students, and you could see it on their faces how proud they were of themselves. We work so hard advocating for our students and creating opportunities for them to be included and to experience things just like every other student on campus. This opportunity allowed these kids to feel on top of the world, and I couldn’t be any happier with how everything turned out. I believe we successfully showed what acceptance, awareness, and inclusion really is and how amazing our students are here in The Forest.”
Aubry added, “Every day, I had students coming to me saying “Ms. Aubry, I’m going to run on the track!” or asking a bunch of questions about the event! You could tell that the students were so excited for this opportunity and on the day of the event, the anticipation and excitement was so much bigger!”
In the U.S, about 4 in 100 boys and 1 in 100 girls have autism. Autism can be reliably diagnosed by a specialist by the age of 2, but the average age of autism diagnosis in the U.S. is 5 years.
Daniel Deras, a student who participated in the 100 meter dash, voiced, “I was excited to run on the track. At the event, I had a lot of fun and liked running in front of all the people in the stands. I was proud of myself for running in the race. I would like to do this again!”
Deras’ favorite part about coming to school is to work the Cool Beans Coffee Cart and seeing his cool teachers. He loves watching soccer as his favorite player is Messi.
April is such a special month to highlight the importance of autism. It helps give recognition to all the humans who have this unique characteristic. We should always remember, treat people how you want to be treated.
