An estimated 13-20% or one in five children under the age of 18 suffer from a mental illness so it is easy to see why public schools have to accommodate special education students.

A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

There are many students who are special education students at Placer High School and just like any other student at Placer special education students have their own set of  challenges. For special education students their challenges are personal but most of them have a difficulty being accepted or fitting in.

Jared Sellers the functional skills program teacher at Placer says that the school has made a lot of headway in getting the special education students to be accepted by their fellow non special education students but there is still much more that we can do to improve the interaction and acceptance of the special education students with the non special education students.

Some things that students are able to do to help improve the treatment of special education students is to talk to them and to treat them like any other student. One very important thing to keep in mind when talking to special education students is that they are more like us then they are different.

The school is also doing many things to help improve the treatment of special education students. Last year there was a joint lunch between the leadership students, regular education students and the special education students. This year there has already been some communication on setting up more joint lunches.

If you are interested in being a part of these lunches you can either talk to Mike Sabins or Jared Sellers.

Placer also has tried its best to integrate the special education students into the school so that they can be accepted by the community.

The special education students are integrated into our campus by being able to eat lunch in the cafeteria with the other students and being able to attend the rallies. Although the special education students are at the rallies they don’t have precedence over where they sit in the gym.

The special education students are currently sitting on the floor behind the football players and the band. However, there have been discussions between the special education department and the rally coordinators about where they sit so that they can better be able to enjoy the rallies.

If you are a student at Placer and would like to help in the special education program you can contact Jared Sellers the functional skills program teacher or talk to your counselor.