Chip Chick
“His mother asked me to make sure Connor never lost a game,” she said. “This included his team never losing, letting him win all the races, making sure his team came first in the relays, never letting him get tagged in tag, and never letting him get eliminated in any sort of last-man-standing game.”
“I told her on no uncertain terms that I couldn’t control that and that it was unfair to the other kids if I told them to always let him win. She was not happy about this and told me that they were trying to avoid meltdowns this week and that he was working on it, but losing was still incredibly emotional for him.”
“I told her that she really shouldn’t have sent him to a sports camp if she thought it would put him in distress or force all the other kids to cater to him.”
Sara then demanded to know what the point of the inclusion program was, and she specified that it means that as a coach, she can help Connor or one of the inclusion specialists can be there to give him extra help too, but the rest of the kids weren’t involved in the program.
Connor is the only child at camp this week who is neurodivergent, and the rest of the kids are not and do not need the inclusion specialists.
Sara was furious when she left but allowed Connor to stay. Later on, Connor experienced two meltdowns that were handled by an inclusion specialist, and he was back to playing with the rest of the kids in around a half hour each time, but she began feeling quite guilty.
“The whole point of the program was to allow kids like him to participate, but I didn’t want to sacrifice the other kids’ experience just for him,” she concluded.
She’s left wondering if it was wrong of her to tell Sara that Connor shouldn’t be at their camp. What do you think?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
