Dear phys ed teachers,
Please trust your disabled students when they say they can't do an activity in phys ed.
"I can't do this" doesn't always mean "I'm physically incapable of doing it." Often, if not most of the time, it means "I shouldn't do this because it might hurt me."
I guarantee you that your student knows exactly what they can and can't do based on what their doctor(s) and parents have told them.
Every single one of my phys ed teachers pressured me to do stuff my doctor said I shouldn't do because it had the potential to paralyze me.
And the teachers all knew that, they just either didn't care or didn't believe me and/or my mom.
Every year at the start of the year, my mom would meet with my phys ed teacher and explain that there were some things I couldn't do because it might paralyze me or cause severe back pain (or both). She'd explain that I knew exactly what I could and couldn't do based on the doctor's orders and that I would never ever use it as an excuse to get out of doing work, so to please listen when I said I couldn't do something.
Never once did my phys ed teachers ever listen to me and take me at my word.
It was by sheer luck that I didn't end up paralyzed and needing back surgery to put in pins to keep my vertebrae in place.
PLEASE believe your disabled students when they tell you they can't do something in the phys ed curriculum.
