He's autistic and was focused solely on what was happening inside his mind.

     By October, he'd developed a ritual he repeated every day during his years at Central.  He'd stop by the physical education office on his way to gym class to high five the department chairman.

     When I'd come out and high-five him, truly his face could light up," said Paul Zientarski, who heads Central's physical education department.  "For that 30-second time span, you could see we'd broken through."

     Part of the reason Hamilton could shift his attention to the people around him was the experience he had in gym class, Zientarski said.

     Hamilton was in a physical education program that modifies traditional gym activities for students who have special physical or mental needs.

     The classes include students with a range of abilities -- from those with multiple disabilities to students with Down syndrome, from students who are blind or in wheelchairs to those who aren't ready emotionally to be in mainstream classes, teacher Pat Adamatis said.

     "It's a chance for students to be successful who wouldn't normally be successful in gym class," she said.  "It's all geared toward the kids in the class and geared toward their abilities."

     The class plays floor hockey, practices miniature golf, swims, dances, tries gymnastics -- anything and everything that's offered in mainstream classes.

     Some of the activities develop skills students can use when they hang out with family or friends.  Some help students improve their fitness.  All activities help them develop confidence, Adamatis said.

     "There are things you can't even evaluate.  I'll watch them play floor hockey and think they're really good because they're able to play at their own level," she said.  "They're able to have some success at a physical activity and that's awesome."

     What makes it work is a legion of peer helpers who trade in their gym classes to join the adaptive class, Adamatis said.

     Matched one or two at a time with special needs students, the peer helpers tumble, dance and shoot alongside their buddies.  but while they're playing, it's their responsibility to make sure their buddies are involved, too.

     The peer helpers are instructors, but they have a different relationship with the special needs students than the teacher has, Adamatis said.

     "Usually they become friends with who they're paired up with.  You go into the cafeteria and see them eating lunch together," she said.  "It carries over way beyond P.E."

     Adamatis has seen a varsity football player paired with a boy who was teased in the hallways.  After the football player took the boy under his wing, the teasing stopped, she said.

     Hamilton, too, developed a strong bond with Neil Adams, who was his peer helper for two years, Zientarski said.  Hamilton would see Adams in the hall and smile when he recognized him, Zientarski said.

     Adams, now a freshman at the University of Illinois, intends to become a special education teacher because of his experience as a peer helper, Zientarski said.

     Student helpers are hand-picked from a pool of volunteers.  They have to be interested in helping, not just angling to get out of gym class, Adamatis said.

     Central started the adaptive gym classes about seven years ago when the district started including students with special needs in mainstream classes.  It started with about three or four students and now includes about 36 in three classes.

     From time to time, parents worry that grouping their children in adaptive classes defeats the purpose of inclusion, Adamatis said.

     "Once they see the interaction in the class, they change their minds," she said.

     "Every so often, you look at them and they have smiles on their faces," Zientarski said.  "When they (educators) talk about inclusion, this is what they mean."