Panthers encourage inclusion amongst the community

            Each year, Peninsula High School continues to show inclusion and acceptance among the community. More specifically, numerous students are involved with organizations and clubs that help disabled children feel welcomed.

The National Bullying Prevention Center found that children with disabilities were two or three times more likely to be bullied compared to their nondisabled peers. At Peninsula, accepting people for who they are is a pertinent concept; which is why students emphasize the prevention of discriminating disabled students.

In fact, senior Alyson Kim has been working with disabled students since freshman year.  During Kim’s sophomore year, she joined Best Buddies in order to develop friendships with students who have disabilities.  Having a visual disability herself, Kim has never been looked down on because of her handicap in vision so she felt it was wrong for others to look down on students in our special education department.

“Students who happen to have a disability should not be, and are not in our club, defined by just their disability but celebrated for all their abilities,” Kim said.

Kim enjoys the experience of being able to spend quality time with her disabled peers. A memorable experience for her was when the students started remembering her name and getting excited when she would enter the room.