It took me one year.
But, I did it!
I arranged to have an employee from Autism Speaks (a good
friend of mine) speak at my son’s school to the upper grade kids and the
facility.
Why did this take a
year?
I began to talk to the principal one year ago. I asked her
about the procedure getting something like this done. “What did I want?” she
asked.
I wanted a representative from Autism Speaks to come to my
son’s school and discuss…autism.
They had never had someone discuss autism.
That had had firemen, policemen, dinosaur guys. Just never
autism.
What did I do?
The principal told me that I had to put in a request with
the school district. The principal assisted me with the request and I submitted
it a couple of weeks later.
Then, I waited.
That was last spring.
This fall, I approached the principal again and asked her
about the request. She said she’d look into it.
She tracked it down and found out it was still pending
approval from the school district.
I asked who in the school district was responsible for this
type of approval and she told me the head of the special needs department. She
said she’d check on the progress personally. She was very much on board my
mission and really wanted it to happen.
By November, the approval had come in.
What came next?
The principal and I had to sit down and discuss the
logistics. We made sure to include the representative from Autism Speaks that I
had in mind. (He had already accepted my invitation to speak).
The three of us met after the Christmas break. The
representative from Autism Speaks had sent over his power point before the
meeting. We discussed the power point, how to break up the classes for the
talk, how to talk to the facility, and the date for all of this to happen.
And then?
The day came.
The representative from Autism Speaks did four total classes
on autism which included all of the upper grades (fourth grade through sixth
grade) and the facility. He was very received.
The feedback I got was incredible. I was told the talk was
well worth it. It was long overdue.
My only side note is that I had to miss it! I was sick on that
day! I had worked hard to make it happen…But, was gratified that it happened at
all—with or without me.
