So much has happened this past month that I decided to split this post into two parts so as not to make the post too long. This first post will focus on school, and Part 2 will cover everything else.
Have I mentioned how pleased we are with his school? We were really nervous about James moving out of the elementary school district where he had many awesome teachers and therapists and into the high school district. We jokingly asked in his transition meeting with the junior high and high school teachers and therapists if we could hold him back one more year. After the soft laughter died down, they told us no, and that he was ready to take on high school.
So far it has been a really good experience for him. Even though he’s not Mr. Popular like he was in elementary school and junior high, I have a feeling he will be soon enough. Look at him cruising down the hallway with his entourage:
The third week of September was homecoming week at school, and while he did not attend the football game or the dance, he did participate in the spirit days. I think Stacy enjoys the spirit days more than James does—anything to dress him up—but when she got the list of themes, she quickly realized that some of them were going to be a bit challenging. Like Adam Sandler Day. Who came up with this one, and how exactly does one dress up like Adam Sandler? Stacy did a Google search for Adam Sandler, looked at images, noticed that he seems to like wearing Hawaiian-type shirts, so that’s what she went with.
Monday: Adam Sandler Day
Tuesday: Twin Day
James and his nurse are sporting their Rollin’ for James shirts. You can get yours here.
Wednesday: Barbie and Friends
Thursday: Soccer Mom vs. BBQ Dad
Friday: Class Color / School Spirit Day
Freshman wear yellow.
We don’t know why, but that Adam Sandler picture really took off. It was posted on September 18th and in just six days it had been shared by 1,700 people and had reached over 10 million people.
Did it blow up just because “Adam Sandler”? I haven’t had the time to go through all of the shares yet, but it looks like a good chunk of those that shared it are from other countries. Is Adam that popular in other countries, or is James becoming more and more famous outside of the US?
Moving on to other school stuff, he took his first school photo as a high schooler:
We were a little worried about what the picture was going to look like when we got it in the mail because when they uploaded the photo to his online school profile, it looked like this:
It was the same photo, but they completely removed the background and his wheelchair. What the hell?! Stacy talked to his teacher, and she was just as shocked as we were. She had no idea they did this. We’re not sure what will happen from here. Will they upload the original photo to his profile, or will he be stuck with this weird picture all year?
His “normal” school photo is hung up on the wall outside of his bedroom along with every other school photo he has taken since preschool.
Stacy posted the above video of on James’ Facebook page, and for some reason it was shared over 400 times, and there were a few derogatory comments made on it. I just don’t get it. Do they think they’re cool for making fun of or mocking someone else? Do they feel any shame or guilt when they do? When they look in the mirror, are they happy with the person looking back at them? I guess I was raised differently. “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”
I may come back to these nasty and derogatory comments in a future post. This post is about school and not about these idiots who probably feel so bad about themselves that they have to make fun of someone else to make themselves feel better.
Let me just finish off this post with some pictures from school activities over the past few weeks.
I will try to get the second part of this post up in the next day or two. Worst case, it will be up this weekend.
