Teenager with DS on Oprah

[eidsvold]

Today on Oprah she featured people with physical and intellectual impairment. One of the people featured was a young man with ds. His parents allowed a film maker to film aspects of his life ( Peter is his name) Part of it made me cry - the isolation that he experienced in middle school due to his inability to communicate effectively and teenagers lack of understanding and tolerance. One shot showed him sitting all alone in the dining hall eating his lunch. Boy I cried.

Apparently the film maker did it first 10 years ago and then followed him when he graduated high school.

He was made the manager of the soccer team and accepted by the team who think he is great. He also had a part time job. Treating him as one of them and joking and talking about the dance and who each boy was taking to the dance etc. While he would not be graduating for a while - the students in the year he was in stated they wanted him to take part in the graduation ceremony - cap, gown and all. That made me smile.

I would have loved to see both dopcumentaries - first one called 'Educating Peter" and the other 'Graduating Peter'.

They are featuring a documentary that was part of a film festival here in Aus - next week on our TV. It features a 17 yo young man who has ds. Looks very interesting. Might try and tape it in case anyone wants to see it.

[milward]

Sounds an interesting programme. Have been thinking recently why there is so little in the media of people with special needs. I love reading magazines & none of the models are people with with ds or anything else & very rarely the stories or issues- why not?? - would help others to just accept.