One of the Gang

Every morning, the big yellow school bus picks up Susanne Slay, 8, at her home in suburban Crestwood near St. Louis. The bright second-grader studies hard, plays hard, tackles one hour of homework each night. Why is this surprising? The daughter of a sales engineer, Susanne is a victim of cerebral palsy, wears heavy braces on both legs.

Susanne is one of 1,500 youngsters in the first school district catering entirely to handicapped children. There is nothing similar to it in the U.S. Last week, as the experiment neared the end of its first year, educators from across the nation arrived to inspect and admire it. They agreed that many a U.S. suburb might well copy it.

Drive, Drive, Drive. Like many such areas, growing St. Louis County (pop. 700,000) had long slighted handicapped students. Though such children are on the increase (because of life-saving modern medicine), the county was typical in having only a small number out of its total 150,000 school students. Along with 1,100 mentally retarded youngsters, the physically handicapped simply went to regular schools. Results were poor, sometimes disastrous.

When Susanne began first grade in a regular school, only her mother's iron persistence kept her there. Ruth Slay drove to the school three times a day--once to deliver Susanne, once to help her go to the cafeteria, finally to bring her home. The child made little progress.

To solve such problems, the state legislature approved the county's special district in 1957. By a 6-to-1 majority, the voters authorized an extra property tax to run it. Purpose: to gather all handicapped students in one public school system, give maximum attention to developing their strongest assets.

Shoes & College. Launched last fall, the new setup (budget: $1,400,000) is run by able, crew-cut Superintendent Morvin A. Wirtz, 40, a therapy expert with a doctorate in special education. His sprawling domain covers 496 square miles. It has 25 buses that cover 2,500 miles a day, 156 special teachers, and six small buildings. (A recent tax boost will raise three big buildings.) Wirtz is also responsible for speech training (6,000 students) in regular schools, but the handicapped are his chief concern. Says he: "We have the potential for developing the best special-education program in the country."

For the first time, 150 children with IQs from 25 to 48 have begun learning simple tasks under the guidance of patient teachers. "I've seen children eight years old who couldn't tie their shoes," says Wirtz. "Here they learn in two weeks." Normally intelligent aphasics, unable to speak because of brain damage, have mastered the gift of language. The deaf and the crippled, unable to get proper training before, now get it as a matter of course. For those with orthopedic ailments, such aids as electric typewriters free them to use their minds. Dozens of handicapped children are on the road to college at last.

Physically, Susanne Slay has so improved by lifting weights with her legs and practice stair climbing that now she uses crutches instead of a four-wheel walker. Her doctor is even planning corrective leg-muscle surgery, an impossibility last year. Academically, she has made such progress that she could easily step into a regular school again. But the camaraderie of her new one suits her better. "I feel like one of the gang now," says she. "This school is just for me."

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