Act of Service and Love: Opelika students make a difference in the life of peer with special needs
By Rosanna Smith
OPELIKA, AL (WSFA)
A group of students at Opelika Middle School are making a difference in the life of one of their peers one music note at a time.
Each day since the start of the school year, Mia Counts, Mercedes Kraft, Aniya Hughley and several other eighth graders have taken part of their lunch time to sing to their classmate Jaylon Harkins.
Jaylon is a sixth grader with special needs. While he has trouble communicating, walking, and talking, there is no question these songs are brightening up his day.
"He loves gospel music and has school songs he loves too. Music soothes him. It calms him. For the school to have identified that it's amazing. It's great to know they took the extra steps and allowed the students to be able to do this for him every day," said Amanda Harkins, Jaylon's mother.
"Over the course of these last four months, students have been more accepting of all children with disabilities. A lot of times kids see other kids that have disabilities, and they don't know how to interact with them. So as we have exposed them to being themselves around children with disabilities, they have been able to go and tell their friends and everybody has joined in," said guidance counselor Kimberly Sparks.
These students will be graduating at the end of spring and heading to the high school but say they will make sure this continues.