There is a chill in the air; leaves are changing colors and pumpkins of all shapes, sizes and shades of orange are littering storefronts and front porches.  This can only mean one thing…it’s high school football season.  Students all around the country are gathering in the bleachers to use Friday nights as a time to demonstrate their school pride and reinforce their place within the social hierarchy of the microcosm of society we call high school. 

Announcement of the Homecoming King and Queen, in most schools, is that moment when the most popular boy and girl in school take their place at the top of that social hierarchy.  Movies depict this moment by crowning the star football player and the cheer captain.  Traditionally, reality is not that far from fiction.  But, what happens when a student body defies this tradition and these social norms and votes for two students with cognitive impairments to don the homecoming crowns?

Tayler Reichelt and Harley Wittstruck stood before the Mitchell High School student body, teachers and community members in the MHS auditorium as they were crowned 2016 Homecoming King and Queen.  Now, this is not a story about Tayler and Harley, though they deserve their very own story.  This is a story about a high school flipping the traditional social hierarchy upside down and creating their own ideology of what their high school can and should look like.

Mitchell High School is located in Mitchell, South Dakota.  Principal Joe Childs explains, “I really feel like the students at MHS view one another as equal.”  This mentality is developed as students are a part of an inclusive environment from the moment they enter the Mitchell School District.  Childs feels that, “An environment of inclusion not only helps minimize misconceptions about special needs students, but it also provides an opportunity for students to develop a bond with their classmates and school community.”  Nothing could have illustrated this belief as much as the nomination of Tayler and Harley as Homecoming King and Queen by their peers.

Tayler Reichelt isn’t just the 2016 Homecoming King.  He is also a member of the MHS basketball and football teams.  Harley Wittstruck, while honored as the 2016 Homecoming Queen, is better known as the “Official” School Greeter as well as a member of the Eagles Club, Chorus, and Project Skills Club.  When asked how MHS balances the desire to be inclusive and the societal pressures to win, MHS Activities Director, Cory Aadland states, “Like anybody involved in athletics, I like to win. But I’m more interested in the experience our student athletes have than wins and losses. Years from now few people will remember the outcome of individual games or seasons. The relationships and life lessons that we’re teaching however, those will have an impact on student’s lives for years.”

See, this is not just a nice gesture on behalf of the MHS student body, this is inclusion at its best.  Tayler and Harley’s Homecoming court victories are just two examples of the amazing goodness that can come out of coaches, teachers and administrators opening their doors to all students regardless of physical or cognitive impairment; a community supporting the integration and inclusion of all individuals; and students defying the traditional cultural norms and creating their own social structure of equality and inclusion. 

Mitchell High School created an environment which allowed Tayler to make his move from the sidelines to game time and Harley from her seat to the stage--and on this fall day--from street clothes to golden robes reserved for high school royalty.  

Sarah Barclay/Mitchell Daily Republic