Saratoga News

Education

She's a guardian angel, and she's only 6 years old

By Michele Leung

Parents and teachers say the playground at Argonaut Elementary School has fostered a friendship between two students that is unlike any other they've seen.

All year, to the amazement of teachers, kindergartner Maya Gupta has been like a guardian angel for her friend Shawn Ellis, 7, a developmentally disabled boy.

Maya, 6, is well liked among her classmates, and Shawn has an infectious grin and smiles broadly. He, too, is pretty popular. His presence outside his classroom drew a chorus of "Hi, Shawns" from fifth-graders walking past. Because he has a chromosomal disorder that causes developmental delays, he and his teacher communicate with sign language.

Shawn is a special education student and attends a county education program that meets in a portable on the Argonaut campus. Sally Duprey, Shawn's teacher, said she sets up situations for the special education students to be integrated in campus activities with other students. Sometimes the mainstream students are helpers in her class, and often they're pretty shy, Duprey said.

Maya and Shawn met on the playground during recess last fall. Despite Shawn's inability to speak, there have been no language difficulties. On her own, Maya has sought to be with Shawn. She'll play with Shawn on the slide or help him with hand movements during music class. During assemblies, Maya has been known to move away from her friends to sit with Shawn so he is not by himself.

During a recent moment together, Shawn picked a flower and gave it to Maya.

"It's extraordinary," Duprey said. "It's like a magnet. They always come together."

Duprey is amazed by Maya's friendship to Shawn and tears up just thinking about it. Like a proud mom, she shows off the pictures she took of the two of them walking together just that morning. "Look at them hold hands together," she said, pointing at one. "This is Maya leading Shawn back to his class," she added, pointing to another.

Maya's protectiveness of Shawn has been going on since the fall, but her parents only got wind of it during a parent-teacher conference in May. Rajeev Gupta, Maya's father, said he was initially concerned, thinking that perhaps his daughter was running away from her class. But hearing more, he was blown away.

"She amazes me daily," Rajeev said. "I didn't expect her to do this on a sustained level. She doesn't tell me about it, so she doesn't view it as [something] above and beyond. It's something innate."

Shawn's mother, Jennifer Ellis, had been told about her son's friendship with Maya but saw the interactions between the two of them just last week. She, too, was surprised.

"Shawn is pretty happy with everybody," Ellis said. "He loves everybody, but it's the connection that they have. They're drawn to each other. I could see the difference. In the instant they were walking, he grabbed her hand."

Maya's kindergarten teacher, Annel Uthman, said Maya is a deep thinker and is conscious about the class work she does.

"She's helping her friends constantly," Uthman said. "She's an old soul in a [6]-year-old. She's not a child inside."

"She is a motherly person," said Maya's mother, Sushma Gupta.

The adults in Maya's and Shawn's lives have a hard time articulating what they see. Maya's father said Shawn has taught her about differences in the world, while Uthman called Maya a role model for students and adults.

"Everybody should be doing this without being taught this," she said.