CLINTON — In the six years Steve Hammer has been principal at West Clinton Elementary, he’s never encountered this phenomenon before.
Fifteen sets of twins are currently enrolled at the school. School secretary Lisa Leavitt has seen something similar on one other time — 14 years ago when the school had 11 sets of twins.
Leavitt was recently compiling the school’s annual list of students and their families when she noticed the number of twins. When she completed the list, she was shocked to find that 30 kids are a twin.
The twins are in various grade levels. While some twins are in the same classroom as their sibling, others are separated per their parents’ wish.
There are pros and cons to both situations, said fifth-grade teacher Tammi Neese, who has two sets of twins in her classroom.
Neese said some parents like the consistency of one teacher for both their kids, while others enjoy the separation to help combat twins’ natural tendencies to compete with one another.
Neese keeps her twin students on separate sides of the classroom. She tried sitting them next to each other once, just to see what would happen, but she quickly learned they work better apart.
First-grade teacher Jill Locke also separates the two sets of twins in her classroom.
“That way they each have to work individually, and they have a chance to meet other people and get to know other friends,” said Locke.
Sitting apart in class comes in handy for sixth-graders Chance and Gage Jones.
“We compete at everything we do and have competitions every day with school work, homework, video games, and computer games,” said Chance.
One of the hardest parts about being a twin, they said, is when people try to compare them.
Thankfully, they admitted, they are polar opposites of each other. Chance enjoys sports, while Gage excels at shooting guns. Gage would rather listen to hard-rock music than play sports. However, both enjoy wrestling with each other.
Neese said making sure the twins each have their own identity is critical. “They want to be individuals, so it is really important for me to make sure they feel treated like an individual,” said Neese.
Several of the twins agreed that they might not always enjoy being a twin, but the best part of being a pair is knowing they will always stick up for one another.
Several of the twin pairs had a story about when they were grateful for the help of their twin. Hannah Walker, a fifth-grader, remembered the time she was playing touch football and some boys decided to tackle her instead.
Her twin brother, Damion, immediately ran over to pull the boys off her and help her to the office. Hannah was surprised to see her brother doing such a brave thing for her, especially since they spend a lot of time teasing each other.
“I felt good inside helping her out,” said Damion.
Marissa and David Bowles, also fifth-grade twins had a similar instance when another student stole one of Marissa’s shoes and attempted to run away. David quickly stopped him and returned his sister’s shoe.
“It’s nice to feel like someone is there to help you,” said Marissa.
There are other benefits to having a large number of twins at the school, such as when Neese’s class recently learned about heredity in the fifth-grade curriculum. As they learned about certain physical features inherited from birth parents, it was nice for the students to investigate the twins to see how each set of twins had different earlobes.
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