4th-Grade Class Participates in Silent Special Olympics

By ETHAN WALLACE

Cleaver Staff Writer

HARRISON – For the first time, Harrison Community Schools held a Silent Special Olympics with Joshua Kreider’s fourth-grade class June 3 on the football field. Emmet is a student in Kreider’s class, and he is deaf and hard of hearing and the only student at Harrison schools who is. He uses non-verbal communication, such as sign language, to communicate with his classmates.

The Silent Special Olympics was made possible by Karen Lonsway, the Deaf & Hard of Hearing Consultant from CGRESD, who received the SOMI (Special Olympics Michigan) Unified Champion School Grant. She chose to use the grant to have an inclusion event for the students to help connect disabled and nondisabled students like Emmet and his classmates.

“We are building their village,” Lonsway said. “This event is an opportunity for their peers to walk in their shoes for a couple of hours. I hope this helps peers understand students who are deaf and hard of hearing better as well as instill some empathy for how difficult it is for them to get through the school day without the benefit of hearing.”

Along with Lonsway, Kristin Leman and Lidia Mikee from Central Michigan University – who have been with Kreider’s class since September – helped set up and run the event. Once a week, Leman and Mikee would go to Kreider’s class and teach the students ASL [American Sign Language]. This has enabled Emmet’s classmates to be better able to communicate with him, as well as understand.

Lonsway talked to Kreider’s class about the games: a three-legged race, sack race, chess, and many more activities. After the introduction, everyone was to be silent and use only non-verbal communication during the games to help them to understand what Emmet goes through. During the activities they used what they learned in sign language, such as spelling out animals during the three-legged race to continue forward. The games provided engaging challenges and fun interactions for the students.

The Olympics was quiet and didn’t have roaring crowds cheering, and while the kids stayed quiet during most of the event with only a little bit of talking, there were plenty of laughs and screams from the kids. Coined as “Deaf Day 2025” the fourth-graders received T-shirts to wear that read “DEAFinitely Awesome” on the back and “I love you” in ASL on the front.

Lonsway hopes to continue this event annually to help more kids walk in Emmet’s shoes and that it will continue to be an engaging opportunity to help students connect and understand each other.