During third and fourth period, April 26, students stared intently at Manuel Cano as he gave his emotional experience of fighting both a mental and physical battle after becoming paralyzed at the age of 18 after an accident with a horse.  

Westview held an Ability Awareness assembly in the Westview theater during third and fourth period, April 26. Speakers included students from Best Buddies, special education teacher Meg Heidrick-Barnes, social science teacher David Ramos, Kim, and  Manuel Cano from the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF).

Jason Kim (11) and Robert Gray (11) conceived of the idea of the fair and organized speakers. `Kim wanted to put on this event to teach others about different disabilities so that students at Westview can have a better understanding about what makes a person disabled, because he says that people with disabilities didn’t choose to have those disabilities.

Kim and Gray contacted Cano through CAF. Cano became paralyzed after an accident with a horse at age 18, and he now speaks at schools and plays sports through the funding of CAF. 

Cano said he hopes that his speeches at Westview and around the country will have a lasting impact on student’s lives, teaching them how he was able to love life after his paralyzation. 

“At the beginning, I hated everybody,” Cano said.  “It took me a long time to realize that life is beautiful, we just have to know how to live it under whatever life throws at you. I want to inspire people who had a horrific accident and [use a wheelchair] to mentally be strong and physically don’t give up. Push through. It will be rewarding at the end.”

Kim was particularly impacted by Cano’s speech. 

“Everybody has their own hurtful stories,” Kim said. “I think you can just be grateful because the things you have, others may not have.” 

Kim was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy (CP), a motor disability. Before his diagnosis, doctors didn’t know what he had. Although he said most people treated him like a normal person, others were not as nice. 

“People would push me anywhere like the hallway or gym.” Kim said. “It used to happen a lot in my sophomore year. It pissed me off but I just learned how to shake it off. I went to therapy appointments. It’s just mental. If they take, say, two seconds of entertainment and you focus on that for hours each day, you’re giving more to them than they are trying to take out of you.” 

When Kim told Ramos what he was experiencing, Ramos was horrified that nobody had said anything or tried to help at all. 

“I encourage students to become what’s called an upstander, meaning you actually take action in that moment, meaning not only help Jason up but call that kid out,” Ramos said.  “I mean that you make them right away acknowledge that that is not going to be tolerated, that you’re out of line, that you’re doing that from a place of weakness, that no one here is going to stand for that, and essentially call them out; call them out on that lack of compassion and say, ‘What is wrong with you?’ And then immediately inform an adult or a staff that this incident had happened.”

Cano says he hopes that the Ability Awareness event will cause people to be more respectful of people who have disabilities, and show more kindness to people who are struggling. 

 “At some point, we all have to love each other and understand each other,” Cano said. “ You don’t have to treat us differently, but it would be nice to show kindness. If you see me struggling opening the door, it would be nice for somebody to tell me, ‘Heyhey, would you like help with that?’” 

Even Cano was able to learn more about different disabilities through this fair. He became more knowledgeable on CP, a disorder that he previously did not know much about. 

 “I learned from Jason that there are four kinds of CP,” Cano said. “I didn’t know stuff like that but I learned from them just little things like that.” 

Gray said he thinks that this type of event is absolutely necessary to create a better environment for those who have disabilities, at Westview, but also outside of Westview.

“The point of going to school is to learn about different subjects,” Gray said. “But it’s also to form people into fully formed, fully functioning tolerant, respectful, and empathetic members of society. And I think there’s no other event that we could put on that would do that as effectively as ability awareness day would. For the people that do come, maybe when they go off to university or see someone with a disability, not in school or in school, they will think differently about how they might judge them.”

Ramos said that he hopes this event will help with bullying at Westview specifically by inciting empathy in students.

“I hope that they create compassion more than anything–compassion and empathy and respect for your fellow human being and to create more awareness on what people with disabilities are experiencing in their day to day lives,” Ramos said.