Freedom High special education students make academic and social gains via drama class

Ron Danyi has been Bradley Hagerty's teacher for four years.

During that time, first at Northeast Middle School and this school year at Freedom High, Danyi has come to see a transformation in the boy whose life was dominated by a seizure disorder and learning disability.

"He just didn't have the self-confidence," Danyi said.

Bradley's seizures have kept him from getting a permit like other teens approaching driving age. And Bradley's learning disability kept him from comprehending directions, so he'd rarely speak up in class except to apologize for not understanding.

"The self-esteem building is the hardest thing in teaching," Danyi said.

Especially when a student is wracked with fear.

"With his seizures, his fear is when he has them, kids may make fun of him if he falls," said Bradley's stepfather, Ken Haas.

The 15-year-old freshman has found confidence in an unlikely place: the stage.

"Theater is one of the great equalizers," said Freedom English teacher Jennifer Wescoe.

Drama I has been offered as an English elective for years at Freedom. And when the Bethlehem Area School District revamped high school special-education services by moving Danyi from Northeast to Freedom, Wescoe opened Drama I to Danyi's students. It's Freedom's first full-inclusion drama class, in which 17 special-education students are learning and performing plays and musicals alongside five regular-education students.

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Freedom High special education students make academic and social gains via drama class