Drama for the disabled

By Greg Zeman
STAFF WRITER

The students in Judy Cohen's Drama for the Disabled course have experienced success at City College's Mission Campus. The drama class provides students with a safe, supportive and accessible environment for artistic expression and exercise, something many were lacking before finding the class.

“Many of them had few opportunities for personal expression and creative growth,” Cohen said.

However, there is a serious possibility that Cohen’s students will have no place to express themselves by spring semester.

“The class is very likely to be cut,” Cohen said. “It's a non-credit class for disabled students and there's going to be huge cuts to our budget. Anywhere between 30 and 60 percent.”

Cohen feels like cutting the course would have a devastating effect on the lives of her students.

“I'm not sure they would have many options. Most of them are low income and they have mobility issues, so they'd sit at home. They’d sit at home more and watch more TV,” she said.

Paul Johnson, department head of Disabled Students Programs and Services, has spoken with Cohen about the possibility of her class being cut.

“I personally don't know. I haven’t been told details about the budget and which classes are going to be cut,” said Cohen. “Johnson just said to me that there was a chance that the class would be cut, but it isn’t clear to me who makes that decision.”

According to Dr. Carlota del Portillo, dean of the Mission campus, it is largely Johnson who will be making that decision.

“The department chairs look at the course offerings they would like to offer,” del Portillo said. “They consider pending cuts this year, in terms of reduction of courses, and make the decisions on what’s going to stay in our schedule and what's going to change.”

Johnson said his department faces unique challenges when it comes to scheduling on a strained budget.

“We are set up in the state for a particular purpose, to carry out the federal laws under section 504, 508 and the Americans with Disabilities Act,” Johnson said. “In other words, those things have to be our top priority for any money that DSPS has. So having a class in drama is not an ADA priority. It’s not something that is needed for persons with disabilities to be successful in college.”

“Some of these programs have work programs, like bagging groceries or doing that kind of thing,” Cohen said. “But if the class is cut, students won’t have as much time for personal development, personal growth and personal expression.”

For the time being, there is no clear answer about the fate of the class.

“Decisions on final location of a class are part of the scheduling process, and we haven’t even finalized our first draft of the schedule,” Portillo said. “We’re weeks away from a final schedule.”

Cohen’s class is in that first draft, but there is no guarantee it will be in the final schedule for the spring semester. “Many, many classes, depending upon what the financial situation is, may be cut,” Johnson said. “We are trying not to cut it, but DSPS is working on a budget that is 55 percent of what we had last year. So that’s a huge drop.”

Both Johnson and Portillo said students will not know the fate of the class until the course catalog for spring semester is published.

Even if Cohen’s class survives the wave of budget cuts sweeping City College, there is no chance of it remaining in room 109 at Mission campus.

“We tried to get it in there,” Johnson said, “but it looks like we are moving it.”

Two locations mentioned as possibilities by Johnson were the Wellness Center at Ocean campus and an unspecified site at the John Adams campus, which is currently under renovation.

Cohen said that many of her students have seizures, personal space issues and other disabilities that are exacerbated by confined spaces, making the large space in room 109 ideal for the class.

Dakota Phoenix has been helping Cohen with her class since it first began at the Arc of San Francisco in 2007. He is now enrolled as a student in the class, but still plays an active role in assisting Cohen.

“Over the course of the years, it’s just been rewarding to help Judy and people with disabilities,” Phoenix said.

Room 109 is the most accessible and reliable location the class had been in so far, according to Phoenix. “We have worked in the past in smaller space,” Phoenix said. “For the class you've got to have that space.”

Previous locations had wheelchair access issues and unreliable sound and lighting, none of which are problems in room 109, according to Phoenix.

Sharon Jones, an usher at Giants Stadium, is a long-time student of Cohen’s class. She has seen the various locations the class has occupied and experienced some of the downfalls of those sites.

Once, when the class was still meeting at the Mama Kalizo's Voice Factory, Jones was trapped in the elevator and was unable to attend class. The unreliable elevator is something everyone in Cohen's class remembers, especially Jones.

“I got stuck in it,” Jones said. “I don’t like that place.”

“That elevator was pretty scary,” Phoenix said. “If you remember the ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ it looked like that, like it was from the 1800’s. And it banged down hard when it hit the bottom.”

Over his roughly seven years helping Cohen, Phoenix has seen the positive changes the program has had on both students and those who come to class to help them; people like One-to-One Paraprofessional San San Wong.

“When San San first got here, she was so quiet and didn’t want to participate,” said Phoenix. “Now she’s been in two musicals. She is involved in every class.”

“I came from Hong Kong,” said Wong. “My first time in drama class, wow. I was so shy and didn’t know what was going on but Judy made me comfortable. And we love the space.”

Wong has seen the boost of self esteem the program has provided for more than one student in her care.

“My current student has never been in a classroom structure, this is her first time,” Wong said. “She got right into it. She was shy, now she acts like Charlie Chaplin. She watches it and then she does it.”

Like most acting classes, Cohen’s class begins with a warm up. Students gather in a circle and dance to energetic music played on Cohen’s MP3 player. Every student takes a turn at the center of the circle, leading the other students in a dance.

Paul Pulizzano showcased his dancing ability to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” spinning and stepping in a mimicry of Jackson’s trademark dance moves. The rest of the class cheered Pulizzano on as he got down in the middle of the circle.

“I can’t dance,” said Jones, who uses a motorized wheelchair for transportation.

“Yes you can, I’ve seen you,” Cohen said.

“You can spin side to side,” a deaf student signed rapidly to an interpreter who relayed the message to Jones, who smiled broadly. The whole class became a chorus of support and motivation, spoken and signed. The students re-assured Jones that she could dance, and then she did, laughing loudly as she swayed side to side and drove big figure eights with her chair.

It remains to be seen whether or not Cohen’s class will still be offered in the spring, but at the end of this semester, Cohen and her students will be saying goodbye to room 109.