"She's very friendly, if she saw you at Walmart she'd walk up to you, ask you what your name is, where you're from ... she wants to know everything about you."
That's how Dr. Virginia "Ginnie" West, a special education professor at the University of the Cumberlands, describes her daughter Emma, 17, who has special needs. When she was pregnant with Emma, Ginnie and her husband, Larry, were told that Emma would have a 1 percent chance of making it and were told to terminate the pregnancy, but they didn’t.
Emma’s diagnosis leaves her with heart defects, moderate to severe deafness, cognitive disabilities, anxiety and depression. This can manifest itself often in moments where Emma will begin to exhibit behaviors that are agitated and even on occasion self-harming. In these moments, Ginnie and Larry will do something to redirect her attention, whether it be playing with a stress toy or getting on her tablet. Another way this care takes place is Ginnie will pick Emma up from school every day to take her home. They also go shopping, Emma’s favorite thing to do.
However, the care for Emma not only comes at home, but in other places too, like her school and social functions.
“People love her so well,” Ginnie says.
At school, her teacher and teacher’s aides work with Emma in a self-contained classroom to teach her functional life skills like writing her name, counting and taking medications on time. They make sure she is doing okay and attend to her needs. At a place like youth group, both the leaders and fellow students show Emma love by engaging with her in whatever way they can.
"There's some misconception that when you have a child that's low cognitively functioning, that maybe they don't have feelings, or they won't ever know the difference," Ginny says. "They definitely know, they definitely wanna be a part."
Emma is like any other high school student her age: she has goals and aspirations, like running track at the State Championships; she has friends and gets excited to see them; she has a boyfriend that she likes to talk about. Also, she likes going to social functions and she looks forward to the future, telling people on many occasions, “I’m going to Plato’s Closet during Christmas Break.”
Her birthday is in April, but she is already letting people know, “I’m gonna be 18.”
The worship room at The Creek Church in Williamsburg, Ky. is filled with laughs and yells of competition as Emma West, 17, and other youth group members race to see who can wrap their group leader like a mummy the fastest on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. "She's very loving, she's a very spiritual being, she has a strong faith," Emma's mom, Ginnie, 51, says of Emma.
The lights of Whitley County High School in. Williamsburg, Ky. illuminate Ginnie and Emma West as they embrace during a school drop-off on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. Emma goes from the hand of her parent to the hand of a teacher or teacher's aide so she has someone by her side during the entire drop-off process.
Ginnie and Emma West walk through the halls of Whitley County High School in Williamsburg, Ky. as Ginnie takes Emma to her classroom on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. Emma learns functional life skills with other students with special needs in a classroom with four different adults to help the students.
Emma West counts as she and teacher's aide Felicia Bates work to finish a packet containing various exercises during class at Whitley County High School in Williamsburg, Ky. on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. "In the state of Kentucky, when you have disabilities, you can stay in the school system until you're 21 to receive services," Ginnie West, Emma's mom says.
Emma West stops and talks with Daryl Bowman while out and about in the hallways of Whitley County High School in Williamsburg, Ky. on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. Emma and a teacher's aide will often walk the halls of the school as a way for Emma to get out of the classroom.
The West family prepares for Halloween by making goodie bags for daughter Emma to take to school at their house in Williamsburg, Ky. on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. Many times, Emma will ask when her class and youth group's Halloween parties will be, always liking to be prepared and planning for the future.
A variety of medicines taken by Emma West to help deal with her disabilities sit on the West family counter in Williamsburg, Ky. on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024.
Conversation and fun are had at the Indian Mountain State Park campground in Jellico, TN, as the West family visits friends staying there on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. "She just wants to be a part of things," Ginnie says about Emma.
With the looming threat of strep going around at Whitley County High School in Williamsburg, Ky., including one student in her own classroom, Emma West has a teacher's aide check her throat after saying it hurts during school on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. Emma will often speak up when either her heart or another part of her body doesn't feel good, but her mother says she has a high pain tolerance and they may not know she is sick for a little bit.
A sleepless night makes Emma West tired, so she takes a break from her studies to lie down during class at Whitley County High School in Williamsburg, Ky. on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. Emma had drunk a cup of coffee the night before, waking her up multiple times throughout the night