By Wilson Russell and Aaron Flint, from Inclusive High Schools: Learning from Contemporary Classrooms, by Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., Caren Sax, Ed.D., & Ian Pumpian, Ph.D., with invited contributors

Copyright © 1999 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

There was something unique about the bus we were riding in on that cloudy, drizzly morning in March 1997. It was the peak of our trip to Washington, D.C., for Close-Up, and we were spending the day on Capitol Hill to meet our legislators. Dressed in tuxedos borrowed from Adam's Leaf, a tuxedo shop in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where we live, we were an unlikely pair: Aaron, the voluble one, and Wilson, who speaks without a voice and uses a wheelchair and a Canon communicator.

One day on Capitol Hill was the most action packed, but the whole week was cool. Part of an amalgamation of more than 100 students from five states, we explored our nation's capitol, attended debates, visited historic sites and monuments, and became familiar with Washington as a community rather than a shrine.

The group of students were divided into about 14 different groups called workshops. Our workshop was unique. Well, all high school students think they are unique; but our bus had a wheelchair lift. This provided students who did not have disabilities with the opportunity to learn more about and form friendships with students who happened to have a disability. That week, for us, a new adventure began.

Aaron: Inside the Lincoln Memorial, standing in the exact spot where Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream" speech was the most memorable part of the trip for me.

Wilson: We all laughed at how I had the very same pose, in my wheelchair, as Abraham Lincoln had in his chair in the monument.

Aaron: I thought it was funny when we were in the basement of the Capitol, and the only potentially accessible rest room that we found was a women's room. While you in the rest room, I was guarding the doorway in my tuxedo. I felt like the Secret Service or one of the Louis Farrakhan's bodyguards.

Wilson: Remember when we toured around the inside the Capitol dome and we heard President Clinton was coming? Security was going to close off the Capitol, so we had to rush to get out of there and be on time for the bus. As we zipped from door to door following our instructor, it seemed that every exit had flights of stairs to get out.

Aaron: The subway from the Senate office building to the Capitol building was inaccessible. I remember telling the rest of our Close-Up group, "We'll beat you anyway," and we ran on the walkway next to the tract and beat the subway and the Close-Up group to the Capitol.

Wilson: It was cool staying in the hotel, and because of the support I needed in the evenings, we were able to make our own curfew and cruise around for hours.

Aaron: I learned for the first time how well you can read with your peripheral vision during the liberal-conservative debate. I wrote, "Can you read this?" and you looked over and blinked. We then had a written conversation about the debate, and you gave a blink when I wrote, "Do you think she's cute?" I noticed that other kids were watching how we communicated during the debateÑme writing questions, you blinking for yes or not blinking for no.

Wilson: Maybe they'll use my idea for passing notes in class.

Our week in Washington was busy. We learned many things about our government and its history. It was also a chance for us to teach others from around the United States about disability and inclusion. That one week in Washington, D.C., is a fraction of what happens in a fully inclusive educational environment.

When we were telling Douglas Fisher, Caren Sax, and Ian Pumpian about our trip, they told us about a book that they were working on. They said that there were a number of high schools across the United States that had changed and become inclusive. They asked us to consider writing the foreword for the book and to share our experiences and perspectives. They seemed to think that adults would be interested in the perspective of two high school seniors and their thoughts on friendship and inclusion. So, here goes.

Becoming Friends

We were not paired as partners for a certain class; that is not how we became friends. We noticed each other in our junior year at Wasson High School. Both of us were fairly new; Wilson arrived in his junior year, and Aaron arrived in his sophomore year. We formally met in our senior year, when we were both involved in the Student Organization, which is the student council for our school.

Aaron: I wanted to get to know Wilson, but I didn't want Wilson to think that I was just being nice just to be nice or to look like one of those résumé-building teems who try to turn hanging out with someone as a friend into community service.

Wilson: I wanted to get to know Aaron but was kind of hesitant for a while, since he was president of the student body.

The first week of class, Wilson was introduced to Aaron by a classmate named Jeremy. Jeremy found out from Jan Sutherland, one of our teachers, how Wilson communicated and what his talents, abilities, and interests were. It was an easy way for the class to learn how to talk with Wilson.

Each day in the Student Organization, we would talk while making posters or get ideas from each other while brainstorming for new fund raisers or activities. Around Halloween, we knew that we both wanted to go on the Washington Close-Up trip. It took us a while for us to know for sure if we could go. We had to overcome a couple of obstacles. The first was raising enough money for the trip, and the second was the attitudes and beliefs of some of the Close-Up staff. We heard that some staff members were skeptical about Wilson's support needs and questioned whether he should go. We made going to Washington, D.C., a priority, though, because we were eager to have our opinions about politics heard.

Planning the trip to D.C. helped us get to know each other outside of school as well. At basketball games, Aaron would embarrass Wilson with his obnoxiously loud comments about the other team. In class, Wilson would laugh at Aaron and make fun of him when he frantically searched for the agenda for the Student Organization meeting that day.

On our trip to D.C., we realized how alike we were, even though we had different opinions. We offered different perspectives to each other. Although we had differing political positions, with Wilson being the independent and Aaron being conservative, we respected each other because we are both fighters for social justice and believe in fighting the status quo. We both communicate a lot through our actions.

We became friends because of all of the experiences we have had together: the experiences in Washington and the experiences at basketball games outside school, and our experiences in the community discussions on racism. Our friendship had to begin in a general education classroom, though. When we read the book you are about to read, we learned that lots of people share our experiences. It comes down to one thing: You have to be there.

Understanding Friendship

"How's Wilson? Has he urinated yet?" asked the nurse. The only way I could respond was by saying, "I don't know. May I take a message and have his parents call you?" Aaron reports. What a crazy conversation. Nobody would call and ask my friends that, I hope!

Everywhere we go, it is assumed that, since we are hanging out together, we must be brothers or else Aaron is an aide and has expertise with Wilson's medical needs. In D.C., Aaron told at least six people that we were not brothers. When I got tight sitting in my wheelchair for a long time, people even asked Aaron, "Who taught you how to rub Wilson's shoulders?"

One girl came up to us and said, "That's so great that you're helping him out." She had good intentions, but it still angered Aaron. She did not have a clue. Helpers are teens who join some school program working with certain students for part of a class to add to their community service list. Wilson cannot stand people who are acting as helpers for at least partly selfish reasons. If that girl had truly experienced inclusion, she would have congratulated Wilson for helping me to understand the range of human experience, the more liberal side of politics, and how to drive a van! Until inclusive education, especially in the high school, becomes more common, people will continue to misunderstand friendship.

Needed Chances

Wilson enjoyed his last few years in high school. He was able to get involved in Student Organization; take advanced classes in English, math, and the sciences; and kick back and enjoy basketball games. It was an amazing experience for both of us. We just needed a chance to get to know each other. How can society expect us to accept people with disabilities if we are taught in separate classrooms or treated like we should be separated?

ACT did a study to find out what was the number 1 factor in determining future success. That factor was involvement in extracurricular activities because in that aspect of their high school experience, students learned how to work with different personalities and egos. The reason why some people with disabilities do not succeed later in life is the same reason why people without disabilities do not succeed later in life. It is not because they have not learned job skills but because they have not learned how to deal effectively with people.

American society is still backward in the way it deals with people who have disabilities and with people who are different in general. It seems ironic that the one subway that led directly underneath the Capitol was inaccessible — Capitol Hill, the place that is supposed to provide the moral leadership, believe it or not, for the United States. Congress passes legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (PL-101-336), but what really needs to change is Americans' attitudes toward people who have disabilities. Attitudes like the ones that kept Wilson from joining group activities with the other students — segregation. Attitudes of college admissions directors who refused to admit Wilson because they did not think his intelligence would accurately be measured — scared. Attitudes assuming that we are brothers — traditional pity.

Aaron: When one person asked if we were brothers, I responded sarcastically, "Why the hell would I wanna be related to him?" Wilson responded with a strong blink, meaning, "Ditto." The person walked away and left us alone.

Wilson: The nurse's question to Aaron when he answered the telephone wasn't mean or ignorant; it was just habit. I need support for things like taking medicine, eating through my g-tube, getting in and out of my wheelchair, and breathing treatments. This means that people like nurses are in my life each day. It's only a small part of my life, though.

Aaron: Through an inclusive educational philosophy at Wasson, Wilson has been able to show other students his personality and abilities. Wasson's principal, Jackie Provenzano, describes Wilson as "a teacher to teachers." He has made many real friends. The nurse just happened to call while we were hanging out. Maybe I should have explained to her that guys keep track of each other's urinary habits only when we are in the woods having a contest to see who can do it the farthest.

Although we have been able to share some cool and crazy experiences, we know that there are schools out there that follow a noninclusive philosophy. Students are left in "special" classrooms and live around only other people who have disabilities. Aaron has made it clear that he would hate a school with only European American males who communicated in the same way he does. Part of the excitement of our world is the diversity that we all get to experience.

A girl named Natalie who was in our Close-Up workshop in Washington sent Wilson a postcard. It reads, "I just wanted to let you know how cool it was to have you in the workshop I was in. I hope you had as much as I did. I had so many stories to tell when I got home, and without the diversity of students who were there, I don't think I would have had as many."

Our friend Freddie said he knew a kid in Hawaii who had a disability like Wilson's and even the Deep South country boys from Alabama could relate to disability. Maybe just as the trip to D.C. made a difference in their lives, our other friends from Alabama, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Michigan all have stories to tell and friendships to begin.

We think that you will a lot of examples of what can change in high school by reading this book.

Aaron: Can you believe it? We get to assign reading to adults, a lot of them teachers!

Wilson: Yes, maybe we should have a test at the end. Of course, our test wouldn't be multiple-choice or true-false. Our test would be one of those fancy school-to-career versions: Can they use what they have learned?

Aaron and Wilson: Time to do your homework!

Wilson Russell and Aaron Flint
Wasson High School Class of 1998