Independent Living: Disabled But Not Unable

A Lesson In Understanding

Chair-bound Teacher Expands The Curriculum

June 14, 1991|By JILL KEECH Staff Writer

Maxine West-Bey's fourth-grade students at A.W.E. Bassette Elementary School learn a lesson outside the scheduled curriculum: using a wheelchair means you can't walk. It doesn't mean you can't be independent, do your job or have fun.

Since a 1974 spinal cord injury suffered when she was hit by a car, West-Bey has orchestrated life from a wheelchair.

"The students don't volunteer their help," says the 44-year-old teacher, who earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education at night from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and a master's degree from Hampton University, both after her accident. "They know I can do things. I have a disability, but I'm not disabled."

"She's like a teacher that stands," says Dawn Baker, one of West-Bey's students.

She is no-nonsense during creative writing and math periods at Bassette. But West-Bey is quick with a smile, pat on the shoulder, or kind word for a job well-done. She sits erectly in her chair, at eye-level with her students, rolling around the room. "I think they're much more comfortable - I'm a tall person. I'm right at their level. When I move to and from their desk, I'm looking them right in the eye."

Happiness Peterson, another student, thinks the eye contact is an asset. "It's nice to have a teacher in a wheelchair - it's not like we have to look up to her. She's even with us."

Although her students have mastered their math, social studies and English, they also have learned about people with disabilities. "They're a lot more understanding," says West-Bey, a Newport News native.

Today is the last day of the school year. West-Bey remembers the first day. She handled the top priority - fire drill instructions - then gathered the children close around her. She showed them how her wheelchair moved; she showed them which pieces came apart.

"I think once they know I'm comfortable being in a wheelchair, they're comfortable," she says.

Then came the questions.

"How do you get dressed?" the children wanted to know.

"Just like you get dressed," the teacher answered. "I sit on the side of the bed. Some of you sit on the side of your bed."

"I knew that I could do the job," says West-Bey, who substituted in Hampton city schools for two years before joining the Bassette faculty last year. "I can teach them to dance. I sing. I write on the board. There has been nothing at this school I had to do that I could not do. What I can't do with my feet, I can demonstrate with my hands."

That includes turning the rope for double-Dutch jump-rope outside and presiding over gym between visits from the physical education teacher.

"She asks for favors from no one," says Deborah Jewell-Jackson, Bassette principal.

"She doesn't allow you to look at her as a poor, disabled individual," Jewell-Jackson says. "She looks you right in the eye, regardless of whether you're standing over her or not. Her handshake is firm. When I interviewed her, I talked instruction. I wasn't hiring a cause. I wanted a good teacher for this school. Her ideas are so good - you stand up and listen. And the kids love her."

WEST-BEY'S PROWESS as a teacher, daughter, mother, friend and colleague doesn't depend on the use of her legs. Her abilities flow from her mind, heart and soul.

She says her zest for living came from her parents: Fannie Jones, who was a teacher's aide, and Bernard Jones, the first black policeman in what was then Warwick County.

"I can remember my mother saying, `We can't do anything about the past, but you hold the power for the future.' From my father, I think I got the it's-there-for-you-if-you-want-it-attitude, and it's up to you to reach your goal, West-Bey says. "It was a shock when I found out I would no longer walk. In a split second, my life changed. It was an adjustment, but I had a goal in life, and that goal was to become a teacher."

With the help and support of her husband, Fecil West-Bey, she gained independent living skills.

Her car was equipped with hand controls - today, it has a "wheelchair topper," a container on the roof that opens with the push of a button and fetches and stores her wheelchair.

Four years ago, after teaching in Chesterfield County public schools, the West-Beys and their son, Jon, moved back to the Peninsula, so she could care for her mother, who has Alzheimer's disease. West-Bey's father died more than a decade ago.

Another tragedy befell her two years ago when her husband died, leaving her to raise Jon, now 14 years old.

"I'm just so thankful for my health and inner strength, and being able to hold a full-time job and take care of a household," West-Bey says. "Two years ago, I wouldn't have believed that possible."

The West-Beys are members of Second Baptist Church East End in Newport News.

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