The roaring of hundreds of students filled the gym at the West Salem High School when 10 basketball players went to the pitch.
It was a Tuesday morning, and most of the school turned out to be an exhibition game. A player competed in a wheelchair. Several worn earm Fonders to mask the overwhelming sound of a PEP meeting of the high school. Every shot and every basket owed another loud cheers from the stands and a flood of Pom Poms from the Titancheerleaders.
The athletes were all part of the Unified Program from West, a diversity and inclusion program of the special Olympics, which helps schools develop activities in which students play and learn together with and without disabilities.
The meeting on February 11 marked a special occasion. West had received a name as a national champion school that South and Sprague High Schools had joined. Only three Oregon schools, including Auburn Elementary in East Salem, earned the award in 2024.
“This is huge for us,” said Amanda Burke, who organizes uniform programs for the Salem Keizer School district. It is “kind of unknown” for a district to have several schools with national honor.
She said the west program emerges to work with the nearby middle school to develop integrative activities.
West was also recorded for its inclusion efforts in ESPNS Honor Roll, an award that was only awarded one school per US state per year.
Lori Anderson is a West's sports teacher and heads the school's uniform program. She is at school in her fourth year and worked on expanding the devices available for her courses so that all students can take part in sports. With a recent grant from the Maps Community Foundation, she ordered balls that make noise when they are thrown so that blind students can be part of the game, and shorter basketball tires for students in a wheelchair.
“Then they are all with their colleagues on a flat playing field, which is super cool,” she said.
Allen fashion is one of the West students who have benefited from the combined fitness courses of the program. He is autistic and said his experiences help him work with classmates who have disabilities and lead them through activities.
“There is a kind of connection when I understand what you go through,” he said.
The assembly in February also started the fundraising trip from west for Special Olympics Oregon, which holds polar falls in the state. Four West students from the Unified Program have volunteered to throw icy water over their heads in the middle of the gym.
Carlos Ruiz, the school's headmaster, said the uniform program brings energy to the west and helps the students feel connected to the school.
“This is what Unified with our school is doing,” he said, striving to hear about a gym with screaming students.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is the Managing Editor of Salem Reporter. She came to Salem Reporter when she was founded in 2018 and covers City News, Education, Charter Organizations and a bit of everything else. She has been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she is a skater and board member at Salems Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be buried in a book with her nose.