Assistant makes school enjoyable for a boy with special needs

VIRGINIA BEACH

Sean Blackford used to lock the brakes on his wheelchair to stop Grandma from taking him to school.

Those days are over. A man named Don Perry is the reason.

In gym class at Brookwood Elementary last week, the fourth-grader grasped an orange kickball with both hands. "I want to play catch with my best friend, and my best friend is Mr. Perry," he said.

He tossed the ball up to a grinning man with a shock of white hair, wearing a green cable-knit sweater.

"When I first got here, he couldn't catch anything," Perry said. He followed his wife, a Brookwood secretary, to the school after about 35 years working as a highway inspection coordinator for the city. The school was looking for an assistant for 9-year-old Sean, who can't feel his legs because of spina bifida.

A series of previous assistants hadn't worked out. They are hired by schools to work one-on-one with students who have extensive individual needs. There are about 500 special education assistants in Beach schools, but only a small group are assigned to a single student.

Perry is "not just an assistant, he's a mentor and a surrogate grandfather," said Sean's great-grandmother Linda Greene, whom Sean calls Grandma. "He's our hero," she said of Perry.

In the morning, he meets them at the school door and helps hoist Sean into a stander where he can be on eye level. Perry accompanies Sean on his daily visit to the nurse's office, and he sits with him in all his classes.

In the gym class, a teacher offered to get out a special hand-controlled tricycle for Sean, but he wasn't buying it. He shook his head, crossed his arms and looked down.

Perry got down on his knees in front of Sean's wheelchair and put his hands on Sean's shoulders. He patted his arms and talked to him slowly, gently. In moments, the head shakes turned to nods.

After a moment of sulking, Sean reached up and put his arms around Perry's neck. Perry lifted the boy onto the bike, and fastened his waist and feet.

Sean spent the next 15 minutes biking around the gym and nearby cafeteria, chatting about Mr. Perry, dinosaurs, machines and an upcoming field trip to the orchestra.

Head custodian Mike Felton was pushing a floor cleaner around the pair. "You would think that's his son," he said. "That's how close they seem. It's a beautiful relationship."

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com