Impressed By Some Young Group Leaders

Earlier today, I saw several young people—they appeared to be teenagers—who were working with a small group of special needs students.

They brought the special needs group on an outing to a restaurant.  It looked challenging.  As I watched them interact and watched the young group leaders attempt to maintain order among the special needs students I thought, “Bringing this group to a restaurant and trying make it an enjoyable experience is a pretty bold move.”

At one point I walked past the group and three of the student group leaders—again I’m guessing they were teenagers—were calmly holding one of the special needs students on the floor.  Are you picturing this?  There were four people literally lying on the floor.  In fact, they initially caught my eye because I thought, “Wait a minute!?!  Are there people lying on the floor over there?”

The answer was:  Yes, what you see are people lying on the floor.  And they appeared to be waiting out some type of episode.  My eyes met with the eyes of one of the young people and she smiled as if to say, “Don’t worry.  We’ve got it under control.”

After a few moments they were all able to get back on their feet.  There was no yelling or screaming.  No panicked behaviors.  It seems they were just doing what they had been trained to do.

There was an older adult who was with the group, as well.  I’m guessing he was probably in charge of the teen group leaders.  I was impressed by what I saw.

After they left, I looked again at the area where they were sitting and I don’t think I can put into words exactly why this is the case but my heart felt warmed, encouraged and lifted.