by Susanne Banks, Director, Volunteer Services

Alex Jackson and his sixth grade teacher, Rhonda Hills, at Drayton Hall Middle School.

Just mention Alex Jackson to anyone at Drayton Hall Middle School and you’ll hear descriptive adjectives such as solution-seeker, sociable, vivacious, undaunted, smart, outgoing and friendly.

One adjective you will not hear is “disabled.”

Like most pre-teens, Alex is going a mile a minute. In his case, however, it’s not on two feet but on two wheels; for the past eight years Alex has been transporting himself with a “V-8" motorized wheelchair.

Although this soon-to-be 12-year-old should be a textbook quadriplegic due to a spinal cord injury similar to Christopher Reeve’s, something told his right hand to move. And when Alex was injured, he wasn’t riding or jumping a horse, he was a 9-month-old innocently riding in his car-seat on a return trip from Augusta.

“It was a vicious wreck; we were hit head-on by a drunk driver,” said Alex’s mother, Sherron Jackson, M.D., recounting the decade-old accident as if it were yesterday. “I was in a coma for one month. I had a broken pelvis and hip and of course had no idea what had happened to Alex. You might say we were in the palm of God’s hand.”

Jackson, a pediatric doctor specializing in sickle cell disease at the MUSC Children’s Hospital, describes her son with a great deal of admiration. She and his father, Carlton Jackson, continuously marvel at his amazing progress and are filled with joy. Alex has been mainstreamed in a regular kindergarten, and he has been an advocate for children who are different, but who are able to learn despite so-called impediments. She looks at her son’s situation not with pity, but with spiritual meaning.

“When I was in the coma, I had the most powerful vision,” she recalls. “A dogwood blossom petal was on the floor of the forest and intuitively a message from God came to me that there is hope for all things.” When she became conscious and alert again, Jackson remembered having the most serene, peaceful feeling.

“Since then I have never worried about my son; he has never been a burden, and I’ve never worried about what he would or would not be able to do.”

Rhonda Hills, Alex’s homeroom teacher at Drayton Hall Middle School, agrees that his disability has not slowed him down for a minute. “Alex is very mobile and can accomplish remarkable feats with only the use of one hand. He is able to write cursive with his right hand and types 30 words per minute. He has impacted his classmates in a dramatic way. He doesn’t give anyone a chance to have a pity party. No whining, and he is a master at trying to find a solution,” she explains.

Take, for instance, the first day of school. While his mother was paying the customary fees in the cafeteria, Alex took off in his power chair to investigate the music wing at Drayton. He found the band teacher and had just about convinced her that he could play the trombone if she could rig up a contraption that he had in mind, when the chorus teacher decided that his voice was needed in her school chorus instead.

Alex has a variety of extracurricular activities to keep him from leading a sedentary life. When he isn’t collecting his sports trading cards, key chains and Braves baseball hats, he’s bowling, reading and working on the computer. Church activities and Boy Scouts also are a big part of hs life. He always makes the school dances and can be seen on the dance floor with his wheel chair “rocking” to the latest music. Having a power chair has enabled Alex to matriculate with his peers since the age of three.

At the Children’s Hospital, Alex helps his mother make her rounds. His dimpled smile is an encouragement to the sick children in the hospital, and he has charmed his way into the hearts of medical students, residents and staff. Last March, he was awarded the “Mayor’s Choice Award” for children with disabilities. Not considering himself disabled, he still wonders why he received the award, but was overwhelmed by this honor.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) defines a person with a handicap as anyone who has a mental or physical impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities, including caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. School districts are obligated under this act to afford access to appropriate educational services.

Section 504 is an act which prohibits discrimination against handicapped persons in any program receiving federal financial assistance. For families who want their child to matriculate in a normal school setting, public schools are the best choice. Generally speaking, private schools have less accommodation for special needs children.

Some people are born to run the Boston marathon, drive 18 wheelers, or walk a tightrope. Others, like Alex Jackson, are “born to drive a power wheel chair” and provide encouragement and hope to what one determined young man calls “the less fortunate.”