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Health & Fitness

Orchard Farm girls fight bullying with autism awareness

Three Orchard Farm girls, each with an autistic brother, fought back against bullying by creating an autism awareness campaign and raising money for autism services.

By Raymond Castile, United Services marketing coordinator

Ella Duffy and her twin brother, Pete Duffy, share a bond only twins can understand. But there is one thing they do not share. Pete has autism. Ella does not.

The 15-year-old siblings are freshmen at Orchard Farm High School. Over the years, the school has taken steps to end bullying. But the problem continues, often targeted at students with disabilities.

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“To see him get hurt really upsets me,” said Ella, who said has seen other teens bullying Pete. “They call him weird and different. But people with disabilities are not weird. They are unique.”

Two of Ella’s classmates, Kayleigh Grandy and Erin Talbert, both 15, also have brothers with autism. The girls joined forces this April to create a student awareness campaign aimed at fighting bullying and educating their peers about autism.

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“My goal was to teach people that it’s not right to make fun of people with disabilities,” Ella said.

Erin’s 13-year-old brother, Adam Talbert, is a seventh-grader at Orchard Farm Middle School. Kayleigh’s 5-year-old brother, Jake, will begin classes this fall at Orchard Farm Elementary School.

All three boys attended United Services Early Childhood Center in St. Peters. United Services is a nonprofit organization that provides early intervention, educational and therapeutic services for children of all abilities. Last year, United Services enrolled more than 1,300 children at three facilities in St. Charles and Warren counties.

At United Services, the girls’ brothers attended classes that combined children with disabilities and typically developing children in an inclusive environment, allowing them to learn from each other.

Teachers and therapists at United Services said their typically developing students seem to not even notice that their classmates have disabilities. The kids see each other simply as fellow kids, they said.

But in high school, Pete encountered hostility from some of his peers. Erin said her brother, Adam, also experienced problems in middle school.

“I see how people harass my brother on the bus and at the bus stop,” Erin said. “They think he is different. But he can do everything everyone else can do. In fact, he can do even more than they can do.”

Erin said her brother can make astounding calculations in his head. If you tell him your birthday, he can tell you what day of the week it will fall on this year and in future years, she said.

Kayleigh said she has observed Pete being bullied and does not want the same thing to happen to her brother, Jake, when he starts school this fall.

Determined to “stop the bullying,” the girls sought help from high school guidance counselor Kelly Bristol, who acted as a liaison with school administrators and helped the girls with planning and scheduling as they executed their plan.

“I was touched by their love for their siblings,” Bristol said. “All three found it therapeutic to get together and talk about their experiences.”

The girls launched their campaign in April, national Autism Awareness Month. They created a 15-minute video chronicling life with an autistic sibling.

“The students we showed the video to said they never really understood what autism meant before,” Bristol said.

The girls designed colorful T-shirts and pins, selling them to students. They declared April 20 as “Hat Day,” charging students $1 for the privilege of wearing a hat in school. Their fundraising activities netted $400 total.

The girls decided to donate all the money to United Services. On May 11, they presented a check to Jeanne Palombo, United Services development manager. Palombo said she was touched and honored that the girls chose United Services as the beneficiary of their hard work. The girls said it was an easy choice.

“United Services is a great program,” Ella said. “It helps people with a ton of disabilities and teaches them in a way they understand.”

Kayleigh said her brother could not talk before he enrolled in United Services. “Now he can speak complete sentences,” she said.

Palombo said the donation comes at the perfect time, as the organization is launching its annual fundraising campaign, beginning with a golf tournament May 18 at Bear Creek Golf Club in Wentzville and concluding with a luau-style dinner auction Aug. 25 at The Columns Banquet Center in St. Charles.

 

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