The Short bus

1. The Short Bus
Sense of Community
By
Jill Biwer
Stacy Sedlacek
Collin Hollander

2. The
Jonathan Mooney spent $18,000 on a short bus to drive across the
country to meet with several current and former students who
participated in special education programs of one type or another.
Though their diagnoses are different, they have a lot in common: not
feeling “normal”, being made fun of, misunderstood by teachers, some
even tried changing who they are as an attempt to fit in. Most of them
now will proudly call themselves a “freak”. And if you don’t like them,
they have some swear words for ya!!!
On his “journey beyond normal”, old friends and acquaintances jump
at the chance to get their personal stories out there. Through every
story told, the reader is presented with the opportunity to be more
compassionate; it’s an opportunity, as educators, that we must take.

3. • In The Short Bus, Jonathan Mooney meets with Cookie
Davis in Cape Porpoise, Maine. Cape Porpoise has
traditionally been a small, close-knit community. Cookie
was different from many of the other members of the
community. Cookie lived by himself and dressed in
women’s clothes. Instead of ostracizing Cookie for his
differences, the community rallied around and
protected Cookie. Cookie would try his hand at making
handmade items and created various interesting
enterprises. Cookie’s friends and neighbors always
bought what he was selling. Cookie survived off state
aid and handouts, money from collecting returnables,
and income from his paintings. The town of
Kennebunkport does not collect taxes on Cookie’s
property. According to a town member, the official
Kennebunkport town government still holds to old-
fashioned Maine values, which include protecting the
underdog.
Cookie Davis’/Dominique London’s
Perspective

4. Leslie Cochran
• While Jonathan Mooney was in Austin, Texas, he ran into a man
named Leslie. Leslie was pushing a shopping cart wearing fishnets
and a pink thong. Jonathan was initially frightened of him and his
out of place appearance and behavior. Jonathan said, “Fear of the
other is a powerful thing.” One of the people in the coffee shop
with Jonathan told him about Leslie when they noticed him
staring at him. The people in the Austin neighborhood had one
written him in on the ballot for mayor. At one point, the Austin
police tried to remove all of the homeless from the neighborhood.
They had detained Leslie and had taken his shopping cart. That
angered a group called Keep Austin Weird, so they began a
campaign to write Leslie in for mayor. During that time period, a
young couple in an affluent neighborhood hired Leslie to housesit.
They had one condition and that was that he had to mow the
lawn, which he did…pink thong and all.

5. Leslie’s Perspective
• People like Leslie are protected by the community around
them. Leslie was a fixture in the community and the
community would not be the same without him. He was
allowed to live life on his own terms and how he wanted to
without being bothered by others. This is one reason that
community is so important. Without the sense of
community, no one is looking out for the people who are
“different.” In many places people like Leslie would be easy
targets for hatred or simple indifference. I remember
growing up in my small town and there was one
transgender man who started dressing like a woman.
People talked and whispered about him. People made
jokes at his expense and people did not want their kids
around him. It was not an open and accepting
environment for him, but no one tried to hurt him and
bring any harm to him.

6. Kent’s Perspective
• Jonathan Mooney made an interesting stop in Austin Texas
to see a college acquaintance Kent. Kent is an extremely
intelligent and corky guy that happens to have ADHD. Kent
got a 1600 on his SAT and attended Brown University; he is
also the coauthor of “A Portrait of Yo Mama as a Young
Man”. Kent has always had a hard time fitting in. In school
sitting at his desk he is disabled, outside in the world Kent
is “normal”. Kent had trouble with needing to move around
a lot in school leading to his troubles and having a hard
time fitting in. Due to Kent’s ADHD there are many places in
town such as the mall that Kent much avoids. The
distracting noises and visuals of the TV’s and radios are too
much for Kent. Kent’s differences have made it difficult for
him to find acceptance in his community and he feels as if
he is being screwed by his culture. (p106)

7. Ashley and Deborah
• Jonathan Mooney made a stop to the outskirts of
Richmond, Virginia to meet Ashley and her
adoptive mother Deborah and brother Chip.
Deborah and her daughter Ashley have a hard
time being accepted into their community.
Ashley is a very bright young lady who happens
to be blind and deaf. When Jon visits with
Deborah he learns that she has a hard time
finding a church in their community that is
accepting of Ashley and her disability; Deborah
has been asked to leave church before due to
sounds that Ashley is making.

8. • Ashley’s school gave up inclusive with ASL and moved Ashley
into a non-integrated special ed room. Deborah believes
many formative years were lost when this happened.
Deborah enrolled Ashley in a new school that embraces the
use of ASL and touch communication. This change has greatly
benefited Ashley. The deaf culture and ASL is being lost in this
community with a large push for deaf people to get cochlear
implants. Deborah has noticed that they are treated as if they
are contagious in the community. (p.111) Deborah and Chip
love Ashley and Chip would love for his mother to adopt
another child with disabilities.
Deborah and Ashley

9. Katie
• Jonathan Mooney travels to Seaman, Ohio to meet Katie
and her mother Candee at the Basford family farm. Katie
is a twenty-four year old lady with Down syndrome. Katie
had been recommended to Jonathan as someone who has
a “strong and important voice in the disability
community” (p. 182). Jonathan was inspired by how
“normal” (p.183) Katie appeared to be and the way in
which she fit in like any other young adult in her
community, despite her very unique difference with
having 47 chromosomes, an extra when compared to
most “normal” people. Katie discusses with Jonathan her
job at McDonalds, her interest in boy bands, her
engagement to her boyfriend, and her hopes to have a
wedding and kids of her own someday.

10. Katie’s family
• Candee, Katie’s mother, discusses with Jonathan the
challenges and pressures the family faced from society and
the community. Candee admits that she would have
preferred Katie have any type of physical disability over an
intellectual disability. Her mother talks about the pain of
teachers telling them how bothered they were at the
thought of having Katie be in their class and about how
many researchers talk about getting rid of Down syndrome,
through sterilization and abortions, preventing lives like
Katie’s from happening. Katie faces other challenges from
within her community. Katie does not collect SSI because
then she could not make more than $70/week at her job
but yet she is paid through a government funded workshop
that pays her under the minimum wage, essentially keeping
“‘a system set up to employ a whole bunch of people, and
then (we will) give people with disabilities just enough
money to make them poor.’” (p.199) Despite the many
community challenges that Katie faces, Katie maintains a
positive outlook on life. Her life is meaningful to her and
Katie chooses to keep on smiling and dancing.

11. Jeff Woodhead
• Near the end of Jonathan Mooney’s adventures, he spent some time with Jeff Woodhead in
Davis, California. Jeff Woodhead is a 46 year old man who has Asperger syndrome on the
autism spectrum, though if you ask Jeff he will tell you that is not the case though he does,
“know a guy like that” (p.245). Jonathan describes this disagreement as either Jeff is in denial
with his life or has decided to create his own self-image of his life, though Jonathan never
presses the issue further with him. Jeff has not had a job in over twenty years and lives on
disability and money from the state. Jeff has a special fascination with timing everything in his
daily schedule down to the exact minute and he sticks very strictly to his schedule. He likes to
time everything because it gives him comfort as well as information about situations.
• We are provided with limited information about how Jeff interacts with his community and yet
we know it is still an important part in his daily life. When Jonathan spoke to people about Jeff
and his personality, they described him as “difficult to understand,” (p.233). But yet, Davis was
home to Jeff and he seemed to feel very comfortable in his small town community. Perhaps it
was his sense of routine that made him feel so comfortable as his schedule was very predictable
and people were quite used to seeing Jeff about the community, but he expressed no concerns
and seemed very comforted by this sense of familiarity from within his town. Jonathan
discusses within his book the society confusions between what is autism and what is Asperger's
syndrome and states, “the danger, however, is that we, as a culture, never draw the line” (p.
241). Society tends to fear what we don’t know and so instead we often don’t ask questions
and keep quiet. Perhaps that is why people describe Jeff as odd, because they haven’t been fair
to him and given Jeff a chance to explain who he really is or the opportunity to really get to
know him, beyond a label or an assumption.

13. I believe that a sense of community is important for everyone. I grew up in a small
community that used to have a strong sense of community. Everyone knew
everyone else in town. Neighbors looked out for each other and helped each other.
People protected each other and the community in general. People with disabilities
were just another part of the community. They had been accepted into the
community. Since Charles City is a small town, there was not a lot of diversity within
the community.
In the last five years, the town has had a huge influx of people moving in from
Chicago. People used to be born here, grow up here, and turn around and raise their
children here. People had deep roots in the community and took pride in it. Now
people do not establish roots here. They live here for awhile and then move on to
the next place. People do not have the same sense of community. There are racial
issues between members of the community. Not everyone is accepting of the
people moving in. It has changed the make up of the town. There are organizations
that are finally realizing this lack of community and are starting to work toward
bridging the gap between our community members.

14. Cedar Rapids
Cedar Rapids is a place that I has always called my home, it is where I
was born, raised and where I plan to spend my life. Living in a big city,
community has always had a different meaning. There are multiple parts
of town each with their own sense of community. We have a big Czech
and Bohemia population that keep traditions alive along with other
great parts of town. My neighborhood has a great sense of community.
While we do not know everyone, everyone is friendly and willing to help
someone in need, which made it a great place to grow up. Getting
support from the neighborhood was always important to me growing
up.
In our city there are many organizations that cater to the different needs
of the different communities within our city. The New Wellington district
is helping to create a safer community in the Wellington Heights
community. The Czech and Slovak museum helps to keep the traditions
of eastern Europe alive in Czech Village. Living in Cedar Rapids I have
seen some great communities that truly care about the people in them
and support them.

15. IOWA CITY
Community plays a role in defining who we are as individuals and as a
group. I was born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa and received my education
as part of the Iowa City Community School District and still to this day
would say that those roots define part of who I am. I was fortunate
enough to be able to get a teaching job in my home district where I was
born and raised, so my roots continue here in the Iowa City District, but
even if I would have branched out elsewhere, this sense of community that
I developed at a young age would have followed me.
Though we are not a small community where everyone knows everyone,
we are certainly a close community. A strong sense of community support
was instilled in me at a young age through various club activities that I
participated in such as Girl Scouts, church youth group, and local sports
teams. That sense of a team that takes care of each other and looks out
for one another continued on and followed me into junior high and high
school where I found more community clubs to get involved with including
Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD), 1440 (volunteer group), student
council, and other groups.

16. Iowa City
In addition, I take pride in knowing that our community embraces individuals with
disabilities. Now, obviously I can not speak for the entire Iowa City population, but I can
speak for the general population and the impressions I have formed in my 26 years spent
living here. There are so many community support groups that promote acceptance and
advocacy of special needs. Understanding is the key! A few community organizations that I
particularly have been involved with included helping with Special Olympics and
volunteering for the Best Buddies mentoring program in both junior high and high
school. Best Buddies is a program which pairs students with and without special needs
together to help make the transition of junior high and high school a little smoother. I can
say first hand that I formed some great relationships with many students through both of
those programs that I volunteered with. During college, I became employed part time at
the Arc working with a variety of special needs and still am currently employed
there. During our community outings, we usually have very positive experiences! Iowa City
has a strong sense of community that embraces our large community with great diversity.

17. Additional Resources
• There are differing views on what actually
constitutes a community. A community used
to be the area that a group of people lived in.
Now a community can be a sense of
cohesiveness among a group of people. For
generations, an individual’s community served
a vital role in terms of offering camaraderie
and acting as a support system.

18. Resource #1
Community is changing because our society as a whole is changing. Our
society is moving at a faster and more detached manner due to technology,
busy schedules and the frequency at which we change jobs, homes, and
locations. All of these things make it harder to feel a sense of community.
When we lose that sense of community, we lose many other things along with
it. People can begin to feel isolated. This isolation can lead to loneliness and
depression. It can also lead to many other issues within communities due to
the feelings of detachment from others. There can be increased violence,
substance abuse, mental illness, and other issues.
Information from:
www.washington.edu/.../publications/carelink/tipsheets/community.pdf APS
Healthcare, Inc. Silver Springs, MD. July 7, 2016.

19. Resource #2
• For more than a hundred years, from the end of the 19th century
to the end of the 20th century, many people with disabilities were
sent away to institutions. In the 1970s and 1980s a movement
began to transition people back into the community. As this de-
institutionalization movement started, many noted that although
people with disabilities were now IN the community, they were
not OF the community. That is, although individuals with
disabilities may have been physically living in the community, they
had little sense of belonging to community life. Some community
programs were small institutions, and people still be- longed to
“the system” rather than to the community. They were still seen
as different, needing special places and services —and not seen as
contributing community citizens.

20. Resource #2 Cont.
• As services have changed in the last 20-30 years, most individuals with
disabilities do not face having to go to institutions. Yet, the current
disability services system design still results in people with a disability
label being socially isolated from ordinary community members. While
many schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and faith communities
experience the physical presence of individuals with disabilities, there
are still walls separating people socially. While people with disabilities
may experience physical integration, they often do not experience social
integration.
• From the perspective of community members themselves, individuals
with disabilities are often still seen as needing special help or are seen as
“other,” rather than as fully part of the whole community.
• Citation: Amado, A.N. (2013). Friends: Connecting people with disabilities
and community members. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota,
Institute on Community Integration, Research and Training Center on
Community Living.

21. Resource #3
What is a sense of community? In order to fully answer this question, I decided to
first do a little research to get some background knowledge on what a sense of
community might be defined as because it is possible that we have different ideas
in our own minds of what those words mean. According to Psychologist Dr. Jenny
Fremlin, a sense of community can be broken up into five main factors. The
following factors are listed based on Fremlin’s ranking of significance:
membership, shared emotional connection, integration and fulfillment of needs,
influence, and responsibility. Fremlin goes on to specify that this is in regards to a
general sense of community and not an online sense of community, which is
especially important to clarify in today’s technology-advanced society. Since
membership seems to be the most essential component here based on one
Psychologist’s view, membership can be, “a sense of belonging, acceptance, and
personal investment” (Fremlin). However, all of these are just general guidelines
to a sense of community and these boundaries may be different even within a
community depending on the members in it.
Fremlin, J. (May 06). Identifying Concepts That Build a Sense of Community. Retrieved July 09, 2016, from
http://www.senseofcommunityresearch.org/research/updates/identifying-concepts-that-build-a-sense-of-community

22. Resource #4
“It takes a village to raise a child”
This quote has a clear message, in order for a child to be successful in the world
it is up to the entire community in which the child lives in to take part in the
rearing of the child. Research has shown that community involvement in
education equates into higher academic performance. Students also attend
school more regularly and stay in school longer. This correlation also lowers the
dropout rate among students. Fostering a strong sense of community within a
community will increase social, emotional, and academic well-being of students.
There are 6 types of involvement including parenting, communicating,
volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the
community. There are a lot of ways one can get involved in a community and
one is not expected to partake in them all which is why “It takes a village to raise
a child”. If we can foster better communities we will see an increase in the
success of all our students with their vast array of abilities, by doing this we will
meet the needs of all our students.
NEA. (2008). Parent, family, community involvment in education. Retrieved July 25, 2016, from
http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/PB11_ParentInvolvement08.pdf

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