LTHS Gym Class

Posted in Living with a Disability. Written by on June 7th, 2010

Lockport Township High School Physical Education Class Provides Dual Lesson for Students Lockport Township High School District 205 physical education teacher Don McKillip not only is helping his students to stay physically fit this school year; he is also teaching them a lesson in life. Mr. McKillip and Stacy Sparlin, another physical education teacher at LTHS, share three students with disabilities who are confined to wheelchairs. Because these students had some difficulty competing in some of the physical education activities, Mr. McKillip decided to expand his curriculum to incorporate wheelchairs in some of them. Mr. McKillip asked the faculty and staff at LTHS to donate wheelchairs to the Physical Education Department and was contacted by LTHS mathematics teacher Robert Hughes, whose father, Roger T. Hughes, is the chairman of the Operations Committee at the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Greater Chicago. Roger Hughes, in cooperation with the United Cerebral Palsy Association, was able to donate ten wheelchairs to Mr. McKillip and his students. As a result, LTHS students have the opportunity to compete in physical education programs while maneuvering in wheelchairs. Mr. McKillip has begun with a basketball program, but expects to expand the wheelchair use to other activities as well, such as volleyball and others. “The benefits of this program are that students who may never have sat in a wheelchair can now empathize with those who have only known life in a …