Education leaders, parents learn about SBHS program from
founder
San Benito County special education staff, administrators and a
handful of parents gathered at the Hollister School District office
Nov. 30 to learn more about a unique program launched at San Benito
High School last spring called Circle of Friends
– The Path to Inclusion.
The San Benito High School club pairs general education students
with those who have a developmental disorder that makes social
interaction a struggle, such as those with an autism spectrum
disorder. The students enjoy lunch together, exchange phone numbers
and some even set up activities outside of school.
Education leaders, parents learn about SBHS program from founder
San Benito County special education staff, administrators and a handful of parents gathered at the Hollister School District office Nov. 30 to learn more about a unique program launched at San Benito High School last spring called Circle of Friends – The Path to Inclusion.
The San Benito High School club pairs general education students with those who have a developmental disorder that makes social interaction a struggle, such as those with an autism spectrum disorder. The students enjoy lunch together, exchange phone numbers and some even set up activities outside of school.
“Our high school district really blazed a trail here,” said Chris Lompa, the SELPA director for the San Benito County Office of Education.
The local club is just one of 45 chapters in California and Oregon, but the first of its kind in San Benito. Founder and Circle of Friends Executive Director Barbara Palilis visited Hollister from Southern California, where she started the club in 1999, to talk about the evolution of the program last week. Casandra Guerrero, a speech and language specialist at SBHS, who launched the club last year in May talked about the local program.
One of the goals of the meetings was to share information about the program with other school administrators in San Benito who are interested in starting their own chapters.
Though Palilis said her expertise has been with working with high school and middle school students, she has worked with elementary schools who wanted to adapt the program.
“I am very excited to be here,” Palilis said. “I was very excited when I first heard from Casandra in January. To start that pilot program in spring enabled her to have a burst when school started in September. She quadrupled the numbers. But it’s not about the numbers, but about the numbers of lives touched. It’s about the impact this has on lives.”
Guerrero first looked into finding a peer-to-peer program last November after attending a conference where it was revealed as an evidence-based practice, meaning studies show that it works to help students with such diagnoses as autism to learn social skills.
“I started thinking about peer lunch groups,” she said.
Guerrero researched different programs and visited a Stockton chapter of Circle of Friends in January.
“They said they had a lot of kids making fun of (students with special needs) – imitating the way they walk or talk. But since the program started, it’s stopped,” Guerrero said.
Guerrero started the SBHS pilot program with eight students with special needs and 30 general education students. For the fall, she had selected 30 students with special needs so she recruited more than 100 general education students with whom to build circles.
“Over the years it transitioned to being about inclusion,” she said. “It changes the lives of all the participants.”
The challenge for Palilis when starting the program was finding a way to have students work together in a natural environment without teachers or adults watching over them. Part of her inspiration was a student with autism who came to her as a ninth-grader. In middle school, he had friends, but in high school he was isolated and reverted back to many inappropriate behaviors.
“I knew students learn best from peers,” she said. “They did really well on pragmatic skills in my classroom, but they didn’t generalize and didn’t maintain. We needed to take away the walls.”
Palilis set up a schedule for the students to meet at lunchtime and she offered training to the general education students on how to work with the students with special needs.
The general education students worked with their friends on such things as maintaining their volume, having a conversation with someone or how to leave a phone message for someone.
Soon, Palilis saw that students outside of the circle started saying “hi” to the students with special needs and including them in school activities. She heard from parents that before participating in the program, their children with special needs had never received a phone call from a friend.
“It really was like a puddle in a pond when it started,” she said. “But it really rippled out.”
Palilis said through the years the students came up with other ideas, such as disability awareness presentations, community activities and fundraisers. At Santa Monica High School, the students host a holiday dance and a Thanksgiving Feast.
“It’s their passion and commitment, their energy that has kept it going,” Palilis said, of her students.
From the initial club, Palilis founded the nonprofit and now spends her time traveling to work with advisors who want to start their own chapters. Palilis and her staff or volunteers provide two years of consultation, which includes a comprehensive manual, four workshops in the first year and three workshops in the second year. At the end of two years, the schools have a self-sustained program.
“It’s been incredibly exhausting, but every moment has been worth it,” Guerrero said.
Like Palilis’ early group at Santa Monica High School, the San Benito chapter has already started creating ripples.
“I have a young man who was just identified with autism,” Guerrero said. “The students started sitting with him on their own.”
