Students design Madera Unified Autism Acceptance Month t-shirt

MADERA, Calif. (KFSN) -- Madera Unified is preparing now for Autism Acceptance Month, which takes place in April.

Program Administrator for Autism Programs, Adriana Ghalamkarpour, said that part of that acceptance comes with understanding.

"All of our students communicate differently, and so it's important for our students and our community to understand what that looks like so that we can help support all individuals on the spectrum, as well as other disabilities," Ghalamkarpour said.

Each year, the district designs a shirt to sell.

The money goes to support the autism program districtwide.

This year, Coordinator of Special Services Amber Kalustian said that the Autism Committee decided to design it differently.

"We really wanted to have a student focus, and so we just discussed, 'Wouldn't it be fun if our students created some artwork?'" Kalustian said.

So that's what they did.

They tasked each of the TK through 6th-grade classes in the Autism Program across the district to come up with a design.

The only requirement was that students create artwork that represented the theme of "Inclusion starts with understanding."

"There's so much variety in the designs, so every classroom design looks a little bit different," Ghalamkarpour said. "The level of support that was needed looks a little bit different."

Once all designs were submitted, they framed the artwork and invited administrators, department directors and staff members to vote on their favorite design, which turned out to be a tough decision.

"Everybody was very concerned about only voting once," Kalustian said. "They were like, 'Can we have a couple of votes?' and we were like 'No.'"

The artwork with the most votes was a kindergarten and first-grade class.

Their design will be featured on the short sleeve, long sleeve and sweatshirts that are for sale online now until March 30.

All funds will support the Autism Programs across the district with end of the year activities.

Ghalamkarpour hopes that when the shirts are worn in April, others see the deeper message beneath the art.

"We want them to take away that inclusion starts with learning, accepting and making sure that all students and individuals feel seen and heard regardless of differences," Ghalamkarpour said.

While only one design will be feature the winning design, the district plans to create postcards with designs from all the classes.

You can purchase one of the shirts through April 30 by clicking here.

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