
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 17, 1993                   TAG: 9311190378
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

CATHOLIC BROADCASTERS HONOR 'EDUCATING PETER'

``Educating Peter,'' a documentary that chronicles the inclusion of a local child with Down syndrome into a regular classroom, has won three national honors recently and is in the running for three more.

The film, set at Gilbert Linkous Elementary School in Blacksburg during the 1991-92 school year, won an Oscar in March as best short documentary.

Earlier this month, Unda-USA, a national Catholic TV and radio broadcasters group, gave the film one of 41 Gabriel Awards.

Chosen from among 500 entries, ``Educating Peter'' was recognized as the outstanding nationally released information program for 1992-93. Home Box Office broadcast the film in May.

The Gabriel Awards recognize programs that ``serve viewers through the positive, creative treatment of issues of concern to humankind,'' according to Unda-USA.

The two other recent honors include:

Recognition as an outstanding achievement in media from the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps on Nov. 5.

``It was felt that this film shows that inclusion works in a very realistic manner,'' said Jered (cq) Gross, a TASHCQ official. ``It shows there are problems, but shows how they are overcome.''

A national media award in October from the Association for Retarded Citizens of the United States.

Washington filmmaker Gerardine Wurzburg (cq) and her company, State of the Art Inc., made ``Educating Peter'' to show what happens when disabled children are placed in their neighborhood schools with children their own age, as federal law now requires.

Peter Gwazdauskas (cq), the subject of the film, was in Martha Ann Stalling`s third-grade class at the time.

Wurzburg said Tuesday the film has been nominated for three CABLE-ACE Awards. The awards, to be presented Jan. 14 in Los Angeles, are the cable television industry's equivalent of the Emmys. The nominations are for the program itself, for the directing and for the editing, she said.

Peter's mother, Judy Gwazdauskas received the Gabriel Award for Wurzburg and gave an acceptance speech at a Nov. 5 ceremony in Virginia Beach.

The film ``proves that children learning together, no matter what the ability or disability, is an education for all and provides valuable lessons in human nature,'' Gwazdauskas said. ``The children in the film teach us that we are all capable of living in and should be moving toward an inclusive society, one that values all individuals.''

The film and the Academy Award have turned into a public-relations bonanza for Montgomery County schools. Since receiving national attention, Gilbert Linkous co-principal Ray Van Dyke (cq) and other Montgomery school officials have shown the film to educators across Virginia and the country.

Meanwhile, Peter, now 12, is in Guylene (cq) Wood's fifth-grade class at the school.

``He really is having a good year,'' Gwazdauskas said.

by CNB