In many other countries, special education students are kept out of the public eye. You won’t see them on the street, you won’t meet them in school, and nobody would even think of attempting to befriend them.

Here, things are different. A grassroots organization called Circle of Friends has been leading a statewide movement to, in the words of teacher Aaron Estrada, “increase awareness and promote interaction between general ed and special ed students.”

Estrada is the director of Stagg’s chapter. He organizes social events where general and special ed students have “the opportunity to have positive interactions.” Student volunteers gather in Estrada’s room every Wednesday during third period to socialize with special ed students. They act like old friends, mingling irrespective of cognitive ability.

“Our target group is the kids that are severely disabled, the kids that have lower cognitive abilities,” Estrada said. “They don’t have as much interaction as their general ed peers.”

The students seem to be close to the general ed volunteers s. “Our students tend to want to use more appropriate social interactions,” Estrada said. “They’ve become more confident in talking to their general ed peers.”

Two volunteers, senior Usman Rehman and junior Andrea Martinez, agreed. Speaking of David Montellano, Rehman said that after he met senior Guadalupe Morales, “he started coming outside, he started playing football with some other students.”

They aren’t doing it because it “looks good on a college application,” either. They truly believe in what they do at Circle of Friends. “It’s very exciting,” Martinez said. “I’ve always wanted to work with special needs children.”

“I used to struggle with learning, too,” Rehman said. “I help them out to make them feel better about themselves.”

The special ed students feel the same. Freshman Gloria Hernandez said that “it feels awesome to be in there helping them to talk more.” Others reported that it has made them feel better and eliminated their fear of sharing their feelings with others. Circle of Friends has evidently fulfilled its mission at Stagg.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” Estrada said.