The CHIEF February 2019

BY CARSON GREGORY

There are many clubs, programs, and associations at PTHS that embody the school spirit of adaptive learning, global thinking, responsible citizenship, and collaboration as the school motto states. However, there may be no club that greater exemplifies these than Peers in Action. Peers in Action was founded in 1996 by Ms. Laura Baumgardner, making 2019 the twenty-third year for the club. Ever since then, Peers has been a program for respect, accountability, learning, and cooperation. For those who do not know, Peers is a program that allows non-special needs students to begin and continue friendships with students who have special needs. Acts of friendship and respect take place in the classroom, athletic events, outside of school, and nearly everywhere else. Peers’ biggest mission is to establish respect for ALL people as an intrinsic value in society, starting with the school culture at PTHS. Of course, this mission has evolved greatly over time. Pontiac became a Unified Champion School in 2011, the second year of the national projects’ existence. Being a Unified Champion School means that Pontiac activates the youth in order to foster respect, dignity, and advocacy for people with cognitive disabilities by utilizing different programs and initiatives of Special Olympics, according to Special Olympics Illinois. 2012 brought the first year of the annual Run for Respect. 2013 brought the first Run for Respect Virtual Run, which allows people from around the state, country, and world to participate with PTHS from a distance. For many years, Virtual Runs have taken place in all fifty states and each of the seven continents, spreading the message of respect all the while. With being a Unified Champion School, however, there are projects that must be undertaken by PTHS to further advance the message of respect. For example, the Run for Respect was started as one of these projects. Other projects include raising awareness in the community, and Peers does this through the Poster Contest. Each year for the past six years, Peers in Action travels to all grade schools of Livingston County to give a presentation on Spread the Word to End the Word and ask students to design and send in posters that demonstrate respect. Spread the Word to End the Word is a massive project with a mission to eliminate a certain “r word” and replace it with a greater “r word”: respect. Hundreds of posters are received annually. Peers in Action also hosts a school wide assembly each year to show off the Respect Video of the current year. Guest speakers are also present. On top of each of these significant projects, PTHS is home to three Unified Sports. Unified Sports are sporting competitions where non special needs athletes compete with special needs athletes. Pontiac has Unified Soccer, established in 2013, Unified Bass Fishing, established in 2014, and Unified Basketball, established in 2018. Last year, Unified Basketball won the state championship in its inaugural season, while Unified Bass Fishing also won a championship and Unified Soccer experienced great success and growth. 2018 was a pivotal year for Peers in Action. All of the great work done by the special needs teachers and Peers members came to fruition. Pontiac was named a Special Olympics and ESPN Honor Roll Unified Champion School, meaning PTHS is the top school in Illinois and is in the top thirty schools in the entire nation for its special needs and Special Olympics programs. Becoming an Honor Roll School is extremely difficult and has very stringent requirements. Pontiac not only met those requirements, but far exceeded them. Out of hundreds of thousands of schools with special needs programs, Pontiac was in the top thirty. Clearly, Peers in Action is creating a unique kind environment, both in the school and out in the community. The campaign to end the “r word” and replace it with respect has been a great success and is only growing with each year. Each part of PTHS has tremendous impacts on the school and community culture, but there is perhaps no greater impact than the effects of Peers in Action. Most students at the school have been involved with Peers in Action or Spread the Word to End the Word in some way, shape, or form. After all, society’s greatest disability is the inability to see a person as “more.”