Identical, fraternal siblings fit in at Jamestown Elementary

Posted 9:13AM on Monday 25th February 2002 ( 23 years ago )

AUGUSTA - Students at Jamestown Elementary School have a lot in common a number of them are twins. Twenty-one sets, to be exact. School officials noticed the distinction while trying to make two newcomers' transition easier at the south Augusta school. Derrick and Donovan Butcher were worried they wouldn't fit in at Jamestown Elementary. The identical twins, now 8, recently moved to Georgia from Ohio and were afraid their classmates would stare at them or tease them. ``I was nervous,'' Derrick said. That wouldn't last for long. School administrators introduced the new twins to other twins there. ``We see double around here all the time,'' said Carolyn Fuller, the school's assistant principal. ``I told them, 'It's really not that unusual.''' As the schools' twins came to the front office to greet the Butchers, officials were astounded to learn they had 21 sets of twins among 800 pupils. ``I knew we had several sets of twins, but 21 I've never heard of so many twins attending one school,'' Principal Marion Furr said. ``It's like a twin convention around here.'' According to statistics in Twins magazine, 114,307 sets of twins were born in the United States in 1999. The special relationship between twins causes parents to struggle with whether to place them in different classrooms when they begin school. While many schools recommend separation, Furr allows parents to make that decision. ``Some parents ask that we separate the kids, allowing them to make their own friends and become an individual. Others want them to be in the same class,'' Furr said. The majority of Jamestown's twins are identical only eight sets are fraternal. Sometimes it can be confusing for school officials. ``We have to come up with ways to tell them apart,'' Fuller admits.

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