Morehouse Elementary hosts World Duchenne Awareness Day celebration

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - September 7 is World Duchenne Awareness Day.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a rare disorder that affects the muscles in a person, primarily affecting boys around the age of 4.

Morehouse Elementary student De’Marion Quinn was diagnosed with Duchenne as a toddler.

“Sometimes, it be hard for me to walk, get up, and sometimes to keep up with other kids and stuff, and to run,” said Quinn.

In celebration of World Duchenne Awareness Day, Quinn was embraced by his peers Thursday morning, but that wasn’t always the case. Quinn mentioned being bullied in the past because he was different, but that never stopped him from pushing forward.

Administrators at Morehouse Elementary hoped to make Quinn feel included with this event. Quinn was able to showcase his wheelchair which he calls “Cadillac” to his peers. Students and faculty also participated in a group exercise to give students an idea of how Quinn lives every day.

“Some days it gets me down, I guess knowing what science and research says about how it’s supposed to affect him later on is kind of what gets me down,” said De’Marion’s mother, Shanqueshia. “But other days I look at him and I’m just like, he’s perfect, he’s gonna be fine, he’s gonna live a long, healthy life.”

One faculty member and an occupational therapist organized this event to bring awareness to Quinn’s condition.

“We knew that he had had some struggles in the class along with his peers, amongst his peers, and we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to bring awareness,” said assistant principal Lashonda Jones.

“There’s power in awareness because we knew that a lot of times kids do not… sometimes they might make fun of someone because they don’t understand the situation,” said occupational therapist Leslie Barnes.

For more information on World Duchenne Awareness Day, visit their website.

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