Betsy DeVos: An Open Invite

Dear Secretary Betsy DeVos,

Please accept this letter as your formal invitation to visit Columbia High School in East Greenbush, NY on May 22nd, 2019 to watch one of the most meaningful, exciting, and authentic sporting events you will ever witness. We, the Unified Basketball team, invite you to our gymnasium to witness a Unified Basketball game. Upon arrival, you will likely be greeted with a gymnasium full of fans wrought with excitement over the history and life-changing moments being made before their eyes. You will witness a team of students both with and without intellectual disabilities, many of whom would have never even known each other’s names let alone be forming one of the closest bonds they will ever possess. You will witness a team of once strangers who grow into a family each and every year. You will witness a team of students learning what it means to be a teammate and a friend, and most importantly, what it means to be inclusive. A Unified Basketball game funded in part by Special Olympics, the same organization facing a proposed budget cut of nearly $18 million, potentially threatening the longevity and survival of one of the most important programs available to schools.

I invite you to attend one of our games because until you have witnessed a young woman leap through the air because she made the first basket in her entire life and was showered with cheers and embraces from athletes, parents, and teachers... you won’t get it. Until you observe the look in the eyes of a young man who hobbles back to the bench after turning the ball over to the other team -- because that is what sometimes happens in real basketball...you won’t get it. Until you see students who would have graduated high school unaware of each other’s existence, sitting together in the lunchroom laughing and joking... you won’t get it. Until you can observe a sea full of tied-dyed blue shirts, donned with “Big Heads” of all team members -- team members who had previously never even made it onto a school team... you won’t get it. Until you ride a plane across the country with ten young adults, most of whom had never left the state of NY let alone sat on a plane, and witnessed them play basketball on a Division I court, sleep in a college dorm room, and pose for photos in front of landmarks they never would have seen in a lifetime... you won’t get it. Until you have watched a group of young athletes over a seven year period turn into Bronze Medal Special Olympians...you won’t get it.

Let me assist you in "getting it" though. Nearly seven years ago, Unified Sports entered our school. Truth-be-told, it sounded like a “nice” program. No one could deny that giving students with disabilities the opportunity to play on a school athletic team was a “nice” idea. We were told that there was an opportunity for students to participate on an authentic, New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) recognized team. Special Olympics is an important organization that prides itself on giving opportunities to individuals with disabilities; this particular opportunity would allow students with disabilities to play on a team alongside students without disabilities under the same rules of a traditional basketball team. As we all quickly learned, Unified Sports was more than just a “nice” program for our school and students. When the other team steals the ball right from your hands -- despite you having an intellectual disability -- that is authentic basketball. When you leave every ounce of energy and heart on the court, and still maybe lose the game -- that is authentic basketball. When you decide to skip a few practices resulting in you being forced to sit the bench for a game --- that is real basketball. When the game ends in a tie-breaker, and you stand on the foul line to make what will be the winning or losing basket for your team, and you miss it --- that is real basketball. Unified Basketball teaches our students about winning and losing and how to handle those losses with grace. Unified Basketball teaches our students the bond of friendship and teamwork, and how winning isn't always as important as knowing you played your hardest. Unified Basketball teaches our players the consequences of actions, sometimes the hard way when they had to sit the bench during an integral moment of a game, and (most importantly) Unified Basketball teaches our students about family -- our basketball family.

As I am sure you are aware, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), students with disabilities are over three times as likely to drop out of high school. In an environment that can often be stressful, taxing, and unsupported without the proper programs in place, students with disabilities face an even more difficult journey through their high school years. Programs including Unified Sports have changed this; I have seen it first hand with our own students. Unified Sports has been the catalyst for change within the walls of our school. In a generation where bullying is rampant, Unified Sports created an opportunity for ALL students to be included regardless of athletic ability, background, social status, or intellectual disability. It changed the entire climate of our school making it safer and more inclusive. You see it in the lunchroom where used-to-be strangers sit eating together, in the gym classes where students coexist instead of segregating themselves among any number of social lines, in the classrooms and in the hallways with the high-fives and silent nods that used to be non-existent. At-risk students who were in danger of leaving high school altogether, not only graduated, but were able to positively contribute to the school community. Students both with and without disabilities who needed to find their niche found it within the confines of our gymnasium. Though that athletic team is where it began, Unified Sports has proven itself to be more than just an athletic team. In conjunction with our Unified Bowling team, even more opportunities for inclusion are available. Students who never would have been friends in the past, mainly because there would have been no opportunities for them to meet, are attending local baseball games together. Students standing against the wall at a school dance are now invited to sing and dance with new friends. Students both with and without intellectual disabilities who have never previously played a sport have opportunities to earn a Varsity high school letter -- a feat symbolic of the accomplishments and hard work on the court and on the team. As educators, our ultimate goal is to provide students opportunities to become the best versions of themselves before we expose them to the outside world. It is our job to ensure our students are prepared for the stark reality of the real world: winning and losing, working with others, respecting fellow human beings, rising above in the face of defeat, and experiencing true pride. An athletic program like Unified Sports accomplishes all of this for our players. I firmly believe that some of our students would not be as successful as they currently are without the opportunity to learn these massively important life lessons while in the confines of a safe, inclusive environment. These programs do not just assist those students who possess intellectual disabilities -- they impact the entire culture of our school and leave a lasting impression on all students involved. Cutting funding to a program such as this would be detrimental to our students and to our schools, and frankly, is a disservice to our entire educational process.

...and I leave you with this. This summer, as all thirteen of us from Upstate NY traveled to Seattle, Washington to represent our state in the Special Olympics, we rode home from the closing ceremonies in silence. This train ride for many of the young adults in our presence would be the last time they would be on a team. Those fleeting moments, after a whirlwind of a week full of teachable moments and life-changing wins would be the final opportunities for us to be all together as this particular team. And just as we approached our dorm rooms (dorm rooms that for many would be the only away-from-home college experience they will have), one of the founding members of our team glanced up and said, “This is it. It’s over. I can’t believe it’s over. You know we’ll always be family though…”

And that, Betsy DeVos, United States Secretary of Education, is what Unified Sports has done for our kids. I challenge you to attend just one Unified Basketball game so you can truly “get it.” That is the only way you will…

Yours Truly,

Columbia High School's Unified Sports Program