Cid goes School Hunting
Cid in a song number during the NDPR Week celebration's opening.Third installment of the story about Cid Tampo, a child with autism who has come a long way
MY wife was busy reading all she can about autism. She read Donna Williams’ “Nobody Nowhere” and “Somebody Somewhere”, anything. She went to seminars, parent meetings, everything.
To this day, we thank God we went to Emmanuel where he was assigned different teachers which helped break the usual ‘routine’ problem of autistics.
We saw the gradual improvement in Cidboy. He can do crayons, he can draw, and do a little water color painting.
He had the memory of an elephant. He memorized all the NBA teams, coaches, players, their jersey numbers, and sneaker brands! He memorized who was traded from one team to another!
He attended Faith Learning Center in the morning, his regular school, and Emmanuel, his special school, in the afternoon. He gradually became comfortable with school activities and we made him join what he can.
One day I passed by his regular school. By regular school we mean a school for normal children. As I walked past, I noticed an ‘Announcement’ written on the blackboard:
‘Seattle Supersonics vs. Utah Jazz, Game 2, March 20,1996.’
I’m not sure if I got the details right. But as I came closer, something struck me like whiplash. “Goodness gracious”, I said, “those are Cid’s handwriting!”
Cid learned a little socialization, he learned to answer questions even in the ‘one question, one worded answer’ basis. But it was obvious he was well-loved by almost everybody including his schoolmates.
One day I had the chance to conduct him to his regular school in the morning and he was coming in a bit late. When we arrived, his schoolmates were already in formation to get inside. When they saw him, somebody shouted, “Cid!” Then the other kids joined in the chanting of “Cid! Cid! Cid!”
And they all ran to the gate to greet and escort him inside. I felt goose bumps all over.
When he learned to speak, he would go on a monologue of everything said on TV, what the host said, what the guest sang, including the commercials. Word for word. In sequence. All in English.
His vocabulary pick up was English, and that means whatever English he can pick up listening to the TV. Only later did he learn to pick up a few Ilonggo words.
One afternoon, my boss who came from Manila to visit the Iloilo Plant went with me to our house. Cid was home at the time. While we were talking, all of a sudden Cid ran almost in panic to the windows, closed them one by one, threw himself to the sofa and covered, no, wrapped himself with a blanket.
My boss asked, “what’s happening?”
We answered, “it’s going to rain in 30 minutes”.
It rained in thirty minutes.
He graduated from Kinder 2 in Faith Learning Center with honors. Amazing for an autistic child.
In Emmanuel he endeared himself to his teachers that they wrote the following piece for him:
EL CID
“Amidst the throng of faces is one which is angelic, showing a heart that plays good music. He is of sober intellect, though it is only in his world that he exists.”
The face is Cid. He has mastered the basic concepts – letters, numbers, colors and shapes. He has gone over all the books, handled all the manipulatives and identified whatever picture card is presented.
Despite being autistic, Cid knows how to embrace. He cries to others’ sadness and smiles to people he meets. And how he enjoys music!
Much more has to come out of Cid. Anybody wants to play good music?”
No description of Cid has been as eloquent as this one single piece. Admirable piece of literature from an admirable group of young people.
At the age of 9, Emmanuel School for Special Children released him, telling us that Cid was already ripe for mainstreaming and we can already enroll him in a regular Grade School. So we looked for a school near our residence to enroll him.
Our first choice was La Paz Elementary School. There, outside the principal’s office, we asked him, “do you want this school?”. He replied, “yes?”. He always answered with a question mark intonation. But we saw the excitement in his face. The Asst. Principal told us that Cid’s admission depended on the Grade 1 Teacher.
We talked to the teacher but she told us she cannot admit Cidboy to her class because he might cause trouble. But Cidboy is a well behaved boy we told her. Which was true. The boy was and still is gentle. He was never violent. But she would hear none of it and there was nothing we could do to make her accept our son.
We saw the downcast countenance of Cid that day as if he understood what was going on.
For all of society’s claim of equality and justice before God and man, it is still not ready for an autistic boy. It was not ready for our son.
That pain cut and it cut deeply.
