When LT assistant swimming coach Erin Rodriguez’s sixth grade class at Congress Park School started to have problems bullying students with disabilities, she had a perfect idea.

“I was thinking of a new way to get the information across without us lecturing them again, and I got the idea to have the boys come in,” Rodriguez said.

The boys were the LT varsity swim captains that Rodriguez trains with on a daily basis. So, on Feb. 3, after the half day of classes, Weston Credit ‘16, Christopher Phillips ‘16, Benjamin Butikofer ‘16, and Patrick Schneider ‘16 went into the Brookfield classroom and gave a 10-minute speech on inclusion.

Schneider, who spoke for most of the time, has Downs Syndrome.

“My freshman year, I was really scared, because I did not know many people on the team,” Schneider said to the class. “These guys have been here for me, they have been nice to me, they help me with swimming and diving.”

But, according to varsity coach Scott Walker, Schneider has become an integral part of the team. He consistently gives pre-meet talks, and motivates the entire team.  Walker was also very impressed with the group as a whole, he said.

“[They took] the rest of the day, a free day, and the four of them got in their cars and went over there,” Walker said.

Credit was apprehensive before the meeting, but the results impressed him. Although Rodriguez had warned the captains that the kids previously had ignored anti-bullying lessons, the students in her class impressed the captains.

“It turned out to be really good,” Credit said. “The kids listened well. I feel like we made an impact.”

Phillips was also amazed with the results from the talk. The students listened attentively, and it made visible results, Phillips said.

“I think it meant a lot more to the kids coming from high schoolers than it did coming from teachers because kids at that age don’t think their teachers have gone through something like this,” Phillips said. “I feel like my role in it would be the liaison to a high school kid who actually knows what he’s talking about.”

Phillips also said that the four captains were able to answer questions about inclusion and other bullying issues raised by the students.

Rodriguez credits the swim captains with fixing the problems that the class was having.

“So far, we haven’t had the issues we were having before the boys came in,” Rodriguez said. “They’ve even been doing their homework more, so I have the captains to thank for that as well.”