I think any parent of an autistic child who's exploring the possibility of mainstream school for the first time, can relate to what I've been feeling. After a decade of charter school, Elliott has been mainstreamed. This really should have happened long ago but it's happening now and I wanted to share part of that journey.
His first full day was going well and honestly, did go well.
The new school is a huge change from what he's used to. The volume of students alone has increased from 60 to what I learned last night was actually over 2,000 students. That's a big adjustment. I'll be completely upfront and say that I have been a nervous wreck about these changes. I imagine that some of you out there can relate. It's tough for any kid to switch schools, let alone switch high schools 2/3 of the way through the school year, and have it be as dramatic as a shift to being mainstreamed.
I'm a grown man and mainstreaming can be fucking scary. I'm not even the one going to school and it's overwhelming. I can't even imagine how overwhelming it would be for our kids actually experiencing this first hand.
About noon I started getting texts messages from Elliott. He was stressing out and on the verge of a panic attack. He was in the lunch room, where it was really loud, and there were so many people. He was feeling sick, overwhelmed and overstimulated. I was ready to jump in the car and rescue him, especially after he asked me to come get him.
I knew that was the wrong thing to do so instead, I called the school. I spoke with his guidance counselor and explained what was going on. I asked if he would be willing to go check on Elliott and make sure he's okay. He said he would and he'd also call me back to let me know.
Keep in mind there's over 2,000 students in the building and tracking down one single person seems like it would be challenging. Even if you know he's in the lunch room, there's literally hundreds of kids in there.
Five minutes passed and I texted Elliott back to let him know to look for his guidance counselor because he was supposed to find Elliott and make sure he was okay.
He responded immediately and told me that he'd already spoken with him and he was feeling better.
I was blown away. This guy literally hung up the phone and tracked Elliott down, helped him, and made arrangements for Elliott to eat his lunch somewhere quiet for the time being. All this happened in five minutes. Telling you that I felt an overwhelming sense of relief would be an understatement. It took two weeks to hear back from the principal at Elliott's old high school, when I asked for help with the bullying. I was a squeaky wheel and it took almost fourteen days to get a phone call. There's only 60 kids in his old school.
I'm absolutely impressed, grateful, thankful, and feeling so much better about this new education journey. I wanted Elliott to see first hand that there are supports in place, within the building, to help him if he needs it.
It's taken me a few days to write all this because I'm a little more scattered than usual. I just dropped Elliott off at school and watching him run off to class was such a good feeling.
I'm feeling better and better about everything related to this change in schools. I'm grateful for the opportunity that Elliott has in this new environment and I'm thankful that he seems to have the supports available to him within the building.
So far so good. Color me impressed.
