Best Kept Secret Page #2

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bad shape.

And I went in and I took Robert.

Robert was weighing like

86 pounds when I got him.

Um...

He had a very, very peculiar

smell on him.

He was eating...

eating his flesh.

[Linda sniffles]

And now Robert no longer

eats his skin...

[Laughter]

He eats his food.

And he weighs 125 pounds,

I believe now.

Yeah, and he's doing

wonderful.

My concern is

what's going to happen

after he gets out

of school.

You know, he just needs

some outlet

so he can and so he can be

around

the peoples that he can

relate to.

His case manager hasn't

called me once

and say, "We have a program

for Robert.

You know, go and see if you can

get him in there

or take these steps

to get in there."

Nothing.

Nothing.

And I gave up.

It's like

I'm not reaching out anymore.

I just stopped reaching out.

WOMAN:
They don't call this

a foster home,

but they call it a, um...

therapeutic home.

If you don't have

a special need,

then you wouldn't be part of

the program that we're in.

MAN:
How many kids

have been here? 10?

Out of all of the children

that we mentor,

he's really

the best of all.

He's a blessing to us.

Right, Erik?

Yes, Dad.

See, I can always get a "yes"

out of him, so that's good.

ALYCE:
Yeah, when he first

came here,

he was very...

I guess, shy.

This is the first time he's

been in a program like this

because he came

from his mother's home.

So he was kind of shy.

He would not interact

much with us.

He would stay in his room

mostly, you know.

In the book, it said that

he was living with his mother

and brother.

And that his mother was ill

and unable to take care of him.

I think she was concerned

with her son

and wanted to make sure that he

was being taken care of

because she couldn't.

I commend her for that.

But he does have visits

with his mother once a week.

Which he enjoys.

He looks forward to that.

-Tremendously.

-Right.

ALYCE:
As far as him living

on his own,

I don't know.

During school,

he has job training.

Like they have a job cleaning

the church pews,

that kind of stuff.

Okay. When you finish that,

come back up, Robert.

Matthew.

Keep working, please.

Thank you.

Come on.

You can do it.

You touched it yesterday.

Come on.

You can do it.

You went through the other one.

Right.

Are you going

to walk through this?

-Yeah.

-Okay.

Good.

Yay! Yay!

Very good!

Yay!

Excellent!

You did it!

Very good, very good.

Now, look...

Look at Ms. Mino.

Very good.

Somebody has to hire you

after graduation.

If you lose your ticket,

what's happening?

You walk.

That was what

was holding him up,

but she's been in constant

contact with him.

This is Janet Mino.

She's a teacher at our school.

She was Tesean's teacher.

-Ohh!

-Is he here?

-He's here.

-Yeah, he's upstairs.

Oh, I would love to see him.

You want to start downstairs?

-That's fine.

-Okay.

This way, please.

That's our

arts and crafts area.

Marlene, maybe you can...

We make this

with the consumers.

Wherever we sell,

we pay.

Okay, this way.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you, Marlene.

One more floor.

A computer room?

No, this is our production room.

Where we do subcontract work,

sorting cable wires

for Cable Vision.

WOMAN:
Some of the people

are doing data

and some of them wires.

We just finished with the paint.

The paint is outside.

-Right.

-And we also do

mulch work.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, thanks.

[Laughter]

Hi!

[Laughter]

Tesean, show them your world.

Tesean, give me a hug!

Stand up.

Give me a hug!

Yoga stand. Up.

Bring your feet up.

Yeaaaah!

[Laughter]

[Chuckling]

I told you he would

remember you.

At first he was like,

"What are you doing here?"

[Chuckles]

I remember you.

You do that nicely.

Ooh-ooh!

Thank you.

It's so good to see you.

It's good to see you.

It's good

to see you.

Talk. Good...

No, good...

No, pfft.

Good, good.

Talk.

Stop.

Stop.

Stop.

Yeah.

Nice!

Nice!

You better put that fist down.

Yeah.

Bye.

Bye.

So all day,

all he do is piecework?

He does piecework on...

Yeah, basically,

because it's a work-oriented

program.

WOMAN:
That's why Tesean's mom

wanted this program.

WOMAN:
And we're constantly

looking for additional work.

Right. We don't like to sit and

do the same thing all the time.

WOMAN, LAUGHING:
Yeah.

I know the feeling.

MINO:
There is so much more

in Tesean.

Tesean was verbal.

Um...

It's like...

factory work.

And that's what they do

in the works program.

I understand that.

Unless they have skills,

and you have to remember,

the work program is

a government program,

and the emphasis

is on working.

That's it.

Exactly, but, to me,

the children with autism,

we understand,

are special need children,

so we're going to give them

a work program

but we're also

going to give them...

We're going to mix that up

because we're going

to give them...

Oh, what word

am I looking for?

THOMPSON:
Uh, their social

recreation?

MINO:
We've got to give them

a light.

-It's up to us...

-No, but...

To me --

this is just my...

THOMPSON:

I hear what you're saying.

It's up to us to find them

activities within

so they can have a full day,

so when they go home,

they had a full day

of different activities,

work where they got paid.

-That is not life after school.

-It could be.

I find my own

recreational activities.

Right, but these are

special need!

Then you're treating them as if

they're so different,

and that's not right,

I don't agree.

MINO:

I don't agree with you, either,

'cause all you want to do

is make them little robots

working and then go home.

-No.

-That's what you're saying.

THOMPSON:
That is a family and

an individual responsibility.

-But we know --

-And the place that you work

is not necessarily

going to provide that for you.

You know what, it's not going

to be drastically different

and they're not going

to lend themselves,

and that's why it's important

that when they are with us

and in the school system, that

we do that as much as possible.

MINO:
We do, but with children

with autism,

if you stop doing it,

they're going to stop.

They're going to withdraw

within themself.

THOMPSON:
They're only telling

you the reality of life.

MINO:
No, that's your reality.

THOMPSON:
As much as we'd like

it nice and sweet and fluffy,,

that's not real life

for anybody.

What's happening this month?

Black history.

Very good. Quran.

What are we celebrating?

Black history.

Black history.

And how we're going to do our

writing today is make a timeline

like we did

for Martin Luther King.

We're going to do one

for Oprah, too.

Okay.

We're waiting for you, Robert.

Hmm.

Robert could read,

Robert could talk.

But then something happened.

I don't know what happened.

Everything he did,

he started to decline.

He just shut off totally.

Robert, I don't want to go

backwards,

but you're having

a little trouble.

Okay, everybody catch up

to Erik.

I need a break.

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