Angela Barbuti
Reading, ‘Riting, ‘Rithmetic and The Rock.
The students at P373R on Staten Island got a big surprise when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson sent a personalized video — and even serenaded them with a song his character Maui sings in the beloved Disney animated film “Moana.”
Students at the school had voted to put the musical on as their annual school play — and The Rock delivered the election results to the shocked students by video.
Christie Byrnes, a special education teacher at the West Brighton middle school for children with developmental, emotional and cognitive delays, decided to DM Johnson to let him know the Disney film had won “by a landslide.”
“I was like, ‘I’m just going to message him, you know, to see what happens,’ but never thinking that it would transpire into what it did,” Byrnes told The Post.
A couple of days later, the actor and WWE star’s team replied to say that not only would he be providing a video message, but wanted to film the students’ reactions to the news.
“He wanted to see the kids’ live reactions,” said Lauren Zdanowicz, a speech therapist at P373R. “It was very important to him. He loved the story. He loved the school.”
While they were at the school, Johnson’s team also spent time interviewing staff and students and compiled a video, which the star shared with his nearly 400 million Instagram followers.
In the clip, Johnson addresses the 75 students gathered in the auditorium as they erupt in cheers.
“This message goes out to all the amazing students at P373R out in Staten Island,” he begins.
“Your awesome teachers told me that every year, you guys love choosing a musical because you’re so talented and you’re so excited . . . I hear that you guys are incredible . . . I love you guys, have the best time. I cannot wait to see it.”
He even sings verses of the song “You’re Welcome.”
The crowd was “blown away.”
“We were not expecting him to be singing in it, it was like two minutes long,” Zdanowicz said.
“It was specific to our kids and then for him to even tell our students that he’s they’re number one fan, that was just really, really, really sweet,” added Byrnes.
The children — who are fans of Johnson not only from movies like “Moana” and “Jumanji,” but also from professional wrestling and Fortnite, where he is one of the game’s original characters — couldn’t believe their eyes.
“One student asked, ‘Is this AI? I don’t believe it. This isn’t real,’” said Jamie Forlenza, a special education teacher.
The students’ parents were as excited as the kids.
“A lot of them grew up with The Rock also,” said Zdanowicz. “It’s multigenerational. Everyone loves him.”
Johnson’s Instagram post received more than 161,000 likes and close to 2,000 comments, which “brings awareness to the abilities and disabilities of our children,” said Antonio Vastano, assistant principal.
“We have students with emotional disabilities, on the autism spectrum, students with speech and language delays, students with cognitive delays. And a lot of times our children are overlooked, and having a platform like that to bring awareness is tremendous to our kids.”
Forlenza added, “We know how special our population is, and we see that every day, pushing boundaries, fighting those stereotypes. And now the world got to see it too.”
The school’s musical takes place on June 12, and the teachers are hoping for a second surprise from The Rock.
“We want to meet him for sure,” said Forlenza.
This post was originally posted by NYPost
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