LOST
BOY
Max is happiest on the swing,
spinning like a dancer. Apparently, this regulates his brain.
But he’s trying to work on his
social behavior, and his parents
are trying to encourage him. He
walks into the kitchen and immediately reaches for the Teddy
Grahams. Before he can have
them, Maya tries to get him to
say cracker. “Ah ah” comes out.
Maya and Greg fear for the future. While they believe a school
HUFFINGTON
01.12.14
like Trellis could potentially help
Max, they’re loath to consider
the alternative: Max languishing
in lesser schools and winding up
later in a group home.
So in March, they filed another claim for private education
against the district, hoping for a
different outcome. Between the
hearing and its resolution, however, the situation worsened.
One afternoon in May, a day after the second hearing, Max came
home from school with a handshaped bruise. Doctors confirmed
it was a handprint. “Bruising on
A family
portrait taken
in Ocean City,
N.J., last
August.