Dan Gets a Haircut

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Dan Drinker and Terri Lynn Mckenzie were students in Mrs. Overcash's 4th grade class together.  Dan was part of an inclusion classroom where he was the only student in the class with special needs.  My mother kept a communication book with all of Dan's teachers.  Dan would carry the book back and forth between home and school.  Below are excerpts from the daily conversations my mother had with Dan's teacher and Aide.

Dan first met Terri in the first week of September.  The first week of school:

9/4/96

Today I spoke to the class about Dan. Everyone was very receptive. His classmates at his table are: Terri Mckenzie, Shannon Kearns, and Fred Chang. Terri was commended today for being so wonderful and helpful to Dan.

9/5/96

Terri mentioned that Dan kissed her at lunchtime. She was very understanding as we spoke to her.

9/6/96

Dan’s friend that sits next to him is Terri. Apparently, he was following her around and not allowing her time to play with other friends. She appears to be a very nice and fair friend. She isn’t truly complaining about him – she’s just suggesting that she be able to play with other kids, too. I talked to him. Could you, too? Some other boys also came up and said they want to play with him for tomorrow. So I felt good about this because they all worked this out on their own.

Those accounts were from Mrs. Overcash and Mrs. Haegel.  The following year, in fifth grade, my mom was corresponding with two other teachers, Mrs. Meyer and Mrs. Kozeniewski.  Terri was no longer in Dan's class but the first week of school was all about her:

9/3/97

He didn’t want to come in for recess. I went out to get him and asked him if everything was okay. He said, “no” and asked for Terri. He asks for her a lot. I told him he could see her during recess. He seems to accept his friends being in other classrooms, but not Terri.

9/5/97

If you could talk to him about how important it is for him to come in from recess in the class line it would be very helpful. He stays outside to wait for Terri. We haven’t given in on his requests for Terri. I’ve been telling him that she is in another class where she is learning, like he is. Overall, we had a great first week. I think Dan and I will have a wonderful year. Looking forward to Monday.

9/11/97

We think that Dominique is replacing Terri. Dan taps her on the head when he walks by her. She seems to be understanding, so far.