A weekend to see things differently - Parents weekend at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired

By Melissa Ludwig

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Sunday, February 1, 2004

Natasha Kashmerick likes to taste her world.

"She knows she can't rely on her eyes and ears so she uses her other senses," said her mother, Teresa Kashmerick.

Born with a disorder that caused constant brain seizures until the age of 4, 9-year-old Natasha can see and hear, but the part of the brain that interprets the information is damaged.

"She memorizes her environment," Kashmerick said. "If you move something, it completely throws her. She responds to the sound of her daddy's voice . . . but if you clap your hands by her ears, she won't flinch or startle."

The Kashmericks are among about 80 families attending the annual parents weekend at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The Kashmericks moved to Austin from Seattle so Natasha could attend the highly regarded school.

Most weekends, the students go home, but this weekend the parents came to them.

"Our parents are so far away, we don't get to have PTA meetings," said Gloria Bennett, the school's community development coordinator.

The weekend gives parents a chance to spend time with their children's teachers, she said.

On Saturday, parents, staff members and students rode around the 45th Street campus on tandem bicycles, scaled a 24-foot climbing wall, played board games and took dance lessons in the spirit of this year's recreational theme. Many of the parents put on blindfolds while bowling to simulate their children's experience.

"People don't understand that for many visually impaired, recreational and leisure skills don't come automatically," Bennett said. "When you learned how to play kickball or go fishing, you learned by observing. They can't do that."

The school also provided mobility classes for students to help navigate environments from their own living room to the expanse of the city. Like the 150 students themselves, the classes are all over the map in ability levels. Natasha will learn how to tell the difference between near and far while older students will learn how to take the bus across town.

Parents also conducted more serious business with the school's board of directors. State budget cuts have forced the school to close programs and put off maintenance, so parents such as Kashmerick helped prioritize the school's needs in case the Legislature gives some of that money back.

"The first thing that gets cut is programs for low-income or special-needs people," said Kashmerick, who is on a number of seven- to eight-year waiting lists for services for Natasha.

Outside, Bob Richter admires the tandem bikes as he and his 17-year-old son, Peter, watch others fly past.

Peter looks apprehensive when his father suggests a ride.

"I'll think about it," says Peter, a shy boy with thick glasses.

The school's tandem bike club takes students out during the week on six- to 10-mile jaunts. On the weekends, they go for 25 miles or more. The Junior League provides the bikes and volunteer riders.

"Nothing like a little wind in your face," staff member J.C. Hernandez said as he and a flustered and blindfolded parent hopped off a bike. Peter decides to take the ride, and father and son come back all smiles.

"What's neat is that these kids are different," Richter said. "But here they are all the same."

mludwig@statesman.com; 912-2947