![MORE THAN A GAME. With two diving catches in the outfield, the Lions showed up defensively, aiding in their victory over the Pacers. One catch was made by Atwood, and the other by McGraw. Throughout the game, the Lions knew that it wasn’t just about their victory today. “I think [playing for cancer] makes it bigger than just a game,” McGraw said. “Knowing that you have a bigger impact in this world than just who you are as one person.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/I70A1454-1-1200x800.jpg)
![Students in the National Art Honor Society work on the Mount Hood mural on the window of SouthLake Church. The students brought a variety of paints and mixed their own custom colors. “Instead of brushstrokes, we’re doing more dabbing, because it gives [a] better impression of tree foliage, rather than looking like actual brush strokes, because if we’re painting trees, we need it to look like trees,” Crawford said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_2397-1200x900.jpg)
*WEB CONTINUATION: This article originally appeared in Volume 106 Issue 1 of our news magazine, Amplifier.
Inclusive education is an idea adopted by the West Linn-Wilsonville (WLWV) School District, where students with learning differences learn in the same classrooms as students without them. Some other districts in Oregon employ self-contained classrooms for students with learning challenges, while the WLWV district has moved away from that model.
Lauren Brigsby is the Student Services Director for the WLWV School District, where part of her role is to support special education services across the district.
“When we’re talking about inclusive education, we are thinking [about] how our schools are incorporating and creating spaces where all students, including those who are receiving special education services, have a space of belonging [and] have a presence in the classroom and the community,” Brigsby said.
Before moving to the WLWV School District after sophomore year, Ali Chaer, senior, spent his middle and high school years in an Academic Learning Center (ALC), a self-contained classroom where students who require learning support would go about their school day, isolated from general education students.
“I didn’t really like it as much,” Chaer said. “I wasn’t able to go out and be free and hang out with other people. I was always stuck with the same people in that same classroom all the time.”
On top of not being able to engage socially outside of that one classroom, Chaer cited a lack of independence.
“Being here and around this school, I thought [it] was a lot better, because I haven’t really been struggling at all,” Chaer said. “I actually have been learning a lot of new things. [I like] being more independent [and] doing stuff by myself, instead of relying on someone else to help me with it. I wasn’t able to really do stuff on my own because, [with] the way they were teaching, I just felt like I was in a kindergarten class. I feel like I wasn’t in a ninth-grade or 10th-grade class.”
A part of West Linn’s inclusive model is the Educational Resource Center (ERC), a room where students can check in and collaborate with paraeducators on what they need help with in their classes. John Page is one of these paraeducators, having taught at West Linn for over 20 years.
“It’s an individualized education plan that we have for each kid, so we want to personalize it and make it work for them,” Page said. “I think there [are] certain situations where [inclusion] can be challenging for kids, and you know, either sensory issues or challenges of being in a class for long periods of time with all the stimulation that you get [from] certain classes, but we’re able to kind of work around that when needed.”
Chaer is an example of a student who benefits from the individualized plans of the ERC rather than alternate options.
“I feel like the ERC is more helpful than an ALC class because the people that are [in the ERC], they sort of guide you into helping you do work and stuff like that,” Chaer said. “I feel like they do a good job of showing you how to be independent [and] do your own work instead of you relying on them.”
Jennifer Spencer-Iiams is the Deputy Superintendent for the WLWV School District, and is credited by many in the district as the starting point for the district’s current inclusive practices, with such practices beginning after her arrival in the school system.
“It is in our DNA as a school district to be inclusive,” Spencer-Iiams said. “That’s not going to change. Every staff member we interview, whether it’s for a parent educator, a custodian, or a principal, we ask them about their belief in inclusion. It’s not going to change, and it’s our job to help our school board understand the benefits and to keep working through the challenges.”
Barb Soisson is the assistant superintendent of middle schools for the WLWV School District and spoke at an Oregon State University course about the benefits of inclusive practices.
“I think the benefits are the amount of learning we do from each other, without even being aware of it, through school [and] from your peers in your classrooms, and the ways that you catch on to things, because that’s what the other kids do,” Soisson said. “Sometimes you might not even be thinking about the benefits of seeing that ‘this is how that person organizes for this project’ sort of thing. That’s something that we can take even more advantage of than we already are, and so that the benefits are around the interaction and the idea that learning is social.”
The school district has begun to see the benefits of this social learning on its students beyond high school.
“I know that that is going to change every student as they go into the world, in workplaces, in your neighborhood, in relationships,” Brigsby said. “I think it’s affecting all students in really deep, powerful ways. For me, it’s just an honor to be able to see all of our students and our staff, our teachers, being able to open doors in ways that not every district is doing.”
