Summer Camp Part 2

Here's Alex about 3 minutes after he got home this afternoon.

He plopped down in front of his laptop to chill out.

His expression is a little intense, but he can look like that a lot,

 even if happy.  What I noticed was that his fingers were crossed.

His little body language that there's a some anxiety going on.

A few minutes later he galloped through the house,

shrieking like a wild Indian.*  And then, after letting off that

steam, getting a snack and a cold drink, he was all smiles. :)

I wanted to share a little more about yesterday.

Back when we took our tours, we visited all the rooms.

Each is categorized according to disability and the severity of it.

There were three rooms for people with autism and one for

Downs Syndrome.  The three for autism looked incredibly boring for

our guys.  I didn't notice any people that were verbal and many of them

looked overly medicated...sleeping or laying their head down.

One room was for the more violet, with padded partitions surrounding

each person and they were corralled in their work stations with

an aide on the other side of the desk from them.  The talked in

extremely quiet voices, obviously not to upset anyone.

Some young men were big...several hundred pounds and over 6

feet tall.  You could just tell they were very cautious about us

even stepping into the room.  We made sure and requested that

out boys not be put into there! ha.  And actually the room with

mostly Downs Syndrome young adults looked like the most fun.

They sing, dance, play Wii, and all kinds of activities.

So, that is where they were placed.  There is much more

interaction there and I think it's a good fit.  Not all of them

are verbal.  And several are in wheel chairs.

I like the instructor in this room very much.  She's a lovely middle aged blond, 

very sweet and gentle and conscientious.  As we talked during the

day, she told me that she takes in stray animals and was almost 

embarrassed to admit that she had 10 cats, some birds, turtles and

a couple of pet cows. haha.  So, of course we had something in

common right off the bat.  :)  "Only 10 cats?", I asked her!  haha.

 The aides were great, too...one man

and one woman...probably 60ish and really good with the class.

But there was some ugly parts...one I'll share.  Mid morning I took

Spencer down the hall to show him where the bathroom was.

Since this isn't school and they are adults, they are allowed to go

when they want and alone.  He went into the men's room and I waited 

in the hall, a couple feet from the restroom door.  After a minute,

a loud, violet young man, probably the same age as my boys, came

bounding down the hall.  He gave the middle finger to all that were in the cafeteria

 through the windows across from us and slammed the men's restroom door

 open and went in.  Well, he looked like he was about to explode!

I hadn't had to confront an irrational and violent person 

since my repo girl days.  haha. But my boy was in there and I didn't

 care if it was the men's restroom or not! 

 I didn't hesitate one second and took two steps toward

the door as I heard him slam a stall door.  But he came back out, almost

running into me as I was going in!  He beat his fists on the

cafeteria windows and finally a teacher and aide came to get him.

Spencer came out and seemed completely oblivious to the whole

situation and we made our way back to his classroom, walking past

the two staff members and the angry kid.  I made sure they saw

that we were going to walk by, so we would be safe and I

put myself between them and Spencer. Geesh!

I told our instructor when we got back in to the room what had happened.

What's the point of requesting not to be in the room with the violent

ones if they are allowed to roam the halls and go into the bathrooms

without an escort?  She totally agreed and called the administration

right away and told them what had happened.

So, just for that reason alone, I was glad I had been there and

could call that to someone's attention!

Part 3 will have to wait....

I want to share with you about Caesar and his train stuff. 

I thought on Monday that this was the 'bad' of the

good, bad and ugly but we will just have to see 

what comes of it.  More tomorrow! :)

♥

*  Is it OK not to be PC if we are part Cherokee?  haha.