At the Varsity football game against North Star on Aug. 30 at Seacrest Field, sophomore Dathin Cooper made his debut as the first Unified photographer in all of Lincoln Public Schools. He was taking pictures with junior Piper Petersen, his partner in and out of the classroom for unified mass media, which is new at Lincoln Southwest in the 2024-2025 school year.
“I enjoy taking pictures, it’s so fun because you’re down on the field,” Dathin said. “I would take this class again.”
Southwest upholds an inclusive environment where students have equal opportunity no matter their abilities. Cooper’s achievement can inspire all students to step out of their comfort zone and join new activities.
“I enjoy working with Dathin so much. This is my first year of unified ,mass media as it is the first year, but I did mass media before, and it is just so much fun,” Petersen said. “I was a little nervous going into it, but Dathin is really easy to work with, he’s really fun to be around, so it makes it really enjoyable.”
Unified activities bring students of all abilities together and allow them to meet like-minded people. unified mass media is a new activity that can allow students to be in an inclusive space and be part of the news.
“I think that we have such a cool and unique environment at Southwest where we have so many opportunities for students of all abilities to do things,” Mrs. Brandi Benson said. “This is just another example of something that hasn’t been done before that we did because every student deserves to do what everyone else is doing.”
So far Lincoln Southwest has 10 unified activities that are open to students. These activities include Unified Club, Unified Council, unified bowling, unified track & field, unified choir, unified P.E., Unified Book Club, unified yearbook, and unified mass media.
“It (unified mass media) definitely will continue. This is our first year piloting it and I think that all four members would say that it’s going so well and I don’t see it going anywhere,” Benson said. “It’s very easy to create spaces in spaces that already exist.”
