NYSUT Gives Hand To Disabled Pupils;

Keeps Newspaper Going
NYSUT Gives Hand To Disabled Pupils

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

Students last week gathered in the offices of the New York State United Teachers after the union stepped in to support and fund a student disabilities newspaper that had been axed by the state.

RICHARD IANNUZZI: One from the heart. The students, with and without disabilities, attended the three-day workshop where they produced articles on issues related to autism, alcoholism, asthma, eating disorders, reading disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

The students had thought they published their final issue last year after two state agencies merged and their project was eliminated.

NYSUT Covered Tab

The union funded the students' travel and workshop expenses and provided in-house production assistance. Officials said they hoped to increase its circulation of 50,000 through the use of its Web site and access to educators statewide.

"We didn't want kids to have to say 'Stop the presses,''' said NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi. He called the project "near and dear" to the union's goals of improving education overall and providing students with disabilities the opportunity to thrive.

Mitchell Golibert from Schenectady High School, who is autistic and has been working on the newspaper for three years, told union officials, "Before this, I was not aware there were so many disabilities. Now I am more sensitive."

The students were given a list of topics to choose from before they came to the workshop and began their research before arriving. The newsletter project will continue to be led by Catharine McHugh, who has been spearheading the program since it began in the 1980s. She invited Clarence Sundram, who founded the New York State Commission on Quality of Care for the Mentally Disabled, to speak at the workshop's first session. "As soon as you start saying "them" vs. "us," you start on a path of exclusion," Mr. Sundram told the students.

Union officials said they hoped in the future to increase the frequency of the workshops and to involve more educators and students in the project.