Although she didn’t lose her left arm until age 18, Kasey Galik knows what it’s like to grow up with a disability. “In second grade I was diagnosed with dyslexia,” she explains. “All through elementary and middle school, I tested in a separate room. I had an IEP (individualized education program). And I really feel like that has made me stronger at my profession and connecting with kids who have disabilities.”
There’s no doubt Galik is good at her chosen profession, adapted physical education (or APE). She’s a regular “teacher of the year” honoree, including recognition from the governor of California and from Disney’s American Teacher Awards. And while she has an undeniable gift for connecting with kids who have disabilities, Galik’s greatest talent lies in showing nondisabled kids how to relate to their disabled peers.
That makes her an ideal ambassador for “D1$@B1L*tY Is Not a Dirty Word,” a new public awareness campaign launched by Easterseals of Southern California in conjunction with Disability Pride Month. The initiative, which will run throughout the rest of 2024, seeks to promote honest, unfiltered dialogue that takes the stigma out of disability. As the organization noted in a press release announcing the campaign: “We often fear what we don’t understand, and conversations around disability are avoided. The fear of not knowing what to say, how to act or how to behave divides us, not unites us.”
Galik has been uniting disabled and nondisabled kids throughout her 25-year teaching career. And she’s far from done. We spoke with her last week about her ongoing work at La Costa Canyon High School in San Diego, her philosophy as an educator, and how it aligns with the goals and methods of D1$@B1L*tY Is Not a Dirty Word. You can learn more about the campaign at disabilitypride.com. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Adapted PE seems like a pretty specialized niche. How did you find your way into it?
I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, and initially I wanted to be a special education teacher. But I met a parent—this was even before I lost my arm—who told me, “You be great adaptive PE teacher.” And I thought, What is that? I’d never heard of it. But movement was always my strength. I majored in dance in college, and then I got my master’s in dance movement therapy, and that helped me deal with the loss of my arm [in a boating accident during her freshman year of college.] And then I got my adapted PE credential. So it was sort of like my whole journey led me to where I’m supposed to be.
How does adapted PE programming work?
I have this team of 43 kids. Half have a disability, and half do not. We call ourselves the Stampede Squad. We compete in cross country and track, and the varsity kids are paired up with each of my students and support them during the race. Some of my kids might only run 100 yards, or some can do a whole 5k. It’s based on their disability and their capability. We play basketball against our rival high schools. I co-teach a dance class and co-teach a yoga class [pairing disabled and nondisabled students]. We have a cheer team that cheers at home football games. We have a dance team.
My whole thing is for kids to just be accepted and seen as everyone wants to be seen—as an equal. Everyone wants to be respected and included and engaged. Because if they are, then their whole demeanor changes. Their academics do better, they do better socially. Basically, the kids with disabilities are the cool kids on my campus. Everyone knows them. One of my students even became prom king—he got more votes than anyone else. My whole mission in life is to change perceptions and change the culture. That’s been my passion for 25 years.
Tell me about the changes you’ve observed since you started teaching in the late 1990s. Do you feel like there’s greater recognition for why inclusive, adaptive education matters?
It has been a huge turnaround. When I first started teaching, I was on the ground floor of having inclusive sporting activities. We weren’t allowed to use wheelchairs in the gym, because one of the coaches didn’t want them ruining the floor. We couldn’t use the locker rooms. I only knew one other adapted PE teacher, and we had our kids play each other in basketball during halftime of the varsity game. Then Arnold Schwarzenegger [California’s governor from 2003 to 2011] started this program called PEOPEL, Physical Education Opportunity Program for Exceptional Learners. I started recruiting kids into my class and modeling that theory, and other districts started reaching out and asking, “How did you do this? Can we be involved?” Now adapted PE has just exploded. It’s just so embraced and accepted. It’s the best it’s ever been.
I can see how this lines up with D1$@B1L*tY Is Not a Dirty Word. How did you get connected to Easterseals of Southern California?
I lost my arm in 1994, and that’s when I got connected. Because now I had not only a learning disability, but a physical disability too. They helped guide me when I finished my masters degree and my adapted PE credential. They even helped me with job interview skills and how to apply to jobs when I was first getting started.
So I feel so blessed to have this opportunity. It’s just a full circle from when I lost my arm to today, to being a voice for people to be proud of who they are. You don’t have to hide your disability. It’s not a label that you want to avoid. You’re just understanding who you are and empowering yourself to advocate for yourself. If you can be proud of who you are, then other people will be proud. Because everyone has issues. Everyone has challenges.
I’m assuming that most of the kids you work with have congenital disabilities. Their disability has always been part of their identity. How does the work you do translate to someone who loses a limb later in life and has to adapt their identity to accommodate limb loss?
I went through that. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was still capable with one arm. I wanted to be a badass—I want to go mountain rock climbing, water skiing, all these crazy things. I was trying to prove myself to people when what I really needed to do was to love myself and see myself as fully whole. When you go through that loss of a limb, you go through all the stages of grief and anger. When I first lost my arm, I felt like I was walking around naked and people were just staring, and I’d have anxiety about going out. Now I’m proud of who I am. I feel whole and I’m not ashamed, I’m not embarrassed. I love this part of myself.
When I teach disability awareness, I have my students trying different disabilities. I have them all trying to tie their shoe with one hand, or put their hair up in a ponytail. I have them try to come up to the stage without using their legs. I have them embrace it—not to feel sorry for kids with disabilities, but to understand it. Because not every life is perfect. We all have challenges. So I just love this mission of D1$@B1L*tY Is Not a Dirty Word, because it’s empowering others and changing the culture.
What hurdles do you think we still need to clear so that we can have an even more understanding, inclusive culture when it comes to disability?
I want all schools to be like my school, because they’re not. Even within the district where I teach, there are other schools that aren’t doing disability education, and parents get upset about it. I want it to spread not just across my district or across California, but across the United States. I want anyone with a disability to be proud of who they are and embrace it and be confident.