Pal to the disabled

‘Our students different, but never less’: S.I. principal

A STATEN ISLAND principal is so dedicated to his students with disabilities he helped get one of them a prosthetic leg.

South Richmond High School Principal James McKeon encounters some of the city’s neediest students at his school for kids with severe disabilities. He goes the extra mile to improve their lives.

For his exceptional service to students with disabilities, McKeon is nominated for a Hometown Heroes in Education Award.

“Our students are different — but never less,” said McKeon. “They will get the same thing that every other student in New York City will get.”

McKeon, 53, has worked in city schools for 29 years.

One of his students is a 15-year-old boy, Joseph, who lives in foster care and lost his leg due to medical issues. He used a poor-fitting prosthetic leg that he’d had since he was 10.

“The leg was not fitting him right,” McKeon said. “The whole leg was attached to a strap around his waist. It was nothing nice for a teenage boy to have.”

But with donations from the Staten Island Marine Corps League and a local manufacturer of prosthetic limbs, McKeon was able to get Joseph a much better- fitting device in March. “We get to know each student on a personal level,” McKeon said. “We recognize what our kids need and go from there.” McKeon started his career as a science teacher at the school in 1988 and fell in love with the place. He taught there 14 years before leaving to work in other city schools. But he returned to South Richmond after four years and became principal in 2009. McKeon’s students hail from tough neighborhoods, with 100% of them qualifying for free lunches because their families meet federal poverty guidelines. The dedicated educator understands where his kids are coming from because he grew up in Staten Island’s South Beach Houses.

But McKeon said the South Shore is much tougher now than it was then. And as students with disabilities, his kids face a world of special challenges.

“Some have autism, some are emotionally disturbed, while others have fallen through the cracks at other schools,” he said.

But at McKeon’s school, the family feeling even extends to holidays.

It’s an annual tradition at South Richmond for school staffers to serve every student turkey dinners the day before Thanksgiving. The food for the dinners is donated each year by fellow Staten Islanders, said McKeon.

“For many students it’s not Thanksgiving, it’s just Thursday,” McKeon said. “In Staten Island people are always willing to help out.”