Jillian Brown tells other students about life with disabilities

A Ridge teen who was paralyzed from the neck down nearly a decade ago wants her peers to know that, despite her disability, she is just like them.

Jillian Brown, an eighth grader at Longwood Junior High School in Middle Island, suffered an internal decapitation — the separation of the skull from the spinal column — when she was involved in a side-impact car crash at the age of 5 with her mother, Lindsey, and sister, Samantha. Jillian underwent multiple spinal fusion surgeries following the accident including the installation of a series of metal plates and rods to reattach her skull and provide stability and support for her spine, her family said.

Today, 13-year-old Jillian is delivering presentations to students and staff in her district about the challenges she has overcome since the life-altering crash. She also educates them on what it’s like to breathe with the assistance of a ventilator and a tracheostomy tube and how she uses a wheelchair that is moved using a joystick operated by her tongue.

“I want them to know I’m like them and I’m not different,” said Jillian. Of her first-ever presentation in early October, she said: “It felt really good. I was not nervous at all. Mostly because some of them are my friends.”

Jillian’s mother said the roughly 45-minute PowerPoint presentation has been in the works for the past few years with her daughter’s various speech therapists helping her add to the content over time. The purpose of the presentations, she said, is to give Jillian a chance to address her classmates' curiosity about her accident and answer questions they have.

Jillian delivered her second presentation last month to children at Ridge Elementary School as part of its Abilities Awareness Day.

“Part of the motivation for the presentations is that generally people look to her nurse instead of talking to Jillian,” Lindsey Brown  said. “She can speak for herself and she is still independent and capable.”

Jillian, who is a member of her school’s National Junior Honor Society, also plays the piano using eye tracking technology through an eye gaze-enabled device called a Tobii Dynavox. She staged her first performance in front of over 1,000 school district employees during a Superintendent’s Conference Day in June, performing Beethoven's "Für Elise."

Longwood School District Superintendent Lance Lohman called Jillian's performance "inspiring" and praised her strength.

“Jillian’s courage and resilience continue to serve as an inspiration to all of us,” Lohman said. “

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.