WEBVTT - I Wish Myself Luck 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:04.240 In nineteen fifty one, a hypnotist and mind reader named 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:07.360 Franz Polgar performed for a night at the Forest, Mississippi 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:11.440 High School auditorium. Polgar was sort of a famous personality 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:14.720 back then. He went by doctor Polgar. He had appeared 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:16.880 in Life magazine, and he claimed to have been Sigmund 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.760 Freud's medical hypnotist, which turned out not to be true. 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:22.400 He even had his own TV show on CBS in 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:27.000 New York. During his short stay in Forest, Polgar boarded 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.120 at the home of Mary and Beamon Triplet, one of 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:34.600 Forest's wealthiest and best educated couples. A few years back, 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:39.720 Donald Triplet's brother Oliver, we called Polgar's visit. Yes, I 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:44.440 was Dr Franz Polgar right down, and he was a mentalist, 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.879 and he was he was a real deal, he really was. 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:53.720 We really didn't have hotels back then. Motels were almost 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:57.880 non existent, and the ones that they did have were 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:03.040 not a bar, you know. And so mother and father, yes, 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.760 extended hospitality to him. He was a very pleasant fellow. 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.920 Pulgar's act was mesmerizing audiences across America in towns large 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:13.959 and small. He did this for years. He went to 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:16.840 universities and to resorts, and he put on a three 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:21.080 parts show that consisted of a hypnosis demonstration, a mind 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:29.400 reading stunt, and various feats of memory and litis hit 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:37.840 demon For my next demonstration, believe dividing but volunteers my 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:43.319 page when I ed, I shall use my mind reading 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:49.920 abilities to find the page. During the show he did 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:53.120 in Forest, Pulgar called seven high schoolers to the stage, 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.960 and Donald was one of them. He put them under 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.000 his spell and for an hour he entertained the audience 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:01.000 by having some light heart it fun at the expense 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:05.120 of all the kids on the stage. Karen asked Donald 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:09.320 about being part of this demonstration. He couldn't hypnotaze. He 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:14.560 knew he was failing that and he said, go down. 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.160 Huh you left to get off the stage, which I 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:24.679 can't use you. It turned out that Polgar's technique just 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.400 didn't work on Donald, and after his performance in Forest, 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:31.720 back at the Triplet Home, Polgar got a closer look 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.240 at Donald, who was then eighteen. Donald came off as 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:39.960 a distant, uninterested in conversation, and awkward in his movements, 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.600 and yet he nevertheless dazzled Polgar with an incredible routine 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:48.720 of mental gymnastics, an ability to name musical notes as 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:51.320 they were played on a piano, and a genius for 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:54.880 multiplying numbers in his head. Polgar tossed out something like 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.800 eighty seven times twenty three, and Donald, with his eyes 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:03.240 closed and not a hint of hesitation, correctly answered two 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:06.560 thou and one. Donald doing this was already something of 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.480 a local legend. People in neighboring towns had heard of 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.800 the team from Forest who was capable of incredible calculations. 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.560 Here's Oliver Triplet again. He was a native of Poland 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:22.480 and was involved in the war, and somehow another his 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:29.720 psychic abilities ah improved or came into being as a 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.680 result of the trauma that he underwent, and he came 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:39.320 over here and he'd make tours, community concert tours. Came 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:44.520 to Forest and quickly realized that Don would work out good, 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.280 you know, if he could get him to go with 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:49.480 if you could talk to my mother and to father. 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.640 Actually Pulgar was Hungarian. But if you didn't catch that 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:58.320 last part, Oliver said that Pulgar realized that Don could 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.160 help his act if only he could talk Mary and 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:03.880 Beamon Triplet into allowing him to go out on the Road. 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.480 Donald's parents were totally taken aback by this request. You know, 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.320 things were just starting to go well for Don. He 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.800 was in high school now, with his sights set on college. 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:17.600 And of course they put the thumb down all that dad. 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:25.000 Dear Mary Triplet, she was not going to let anyone 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.880 use her son as a sidekick for entertainment. No way, 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:37.159 not happening. From my Heart Radio, this is Autism's first child. 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.159 I'm John Don Benner and I'm Karen Zuker. This is 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:52.000 episode three. I Wish myself luck. A decade before he 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:57.160 amazed Franz Pulgar, Donald Triplet fascinated another doctor, Leo Connor. 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.920 Connor had better bonavides than Polgar. We talked about him 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:03.600 in our last episode. In his day, he was considered 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:08.480 the world's leading child psychiatrist. After Donald's visit to Dr 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:13.480 Connor in Baltimore, in Mary would outline in her letters 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:17.280 all of the ways that Donald was steadily changing, growing 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:21.400 and discovering how to connect. Nine. Mary Triplett used her 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.120 influence in Forest to get Donald enrolled in the first grade. 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.760 Getting Donald into the local public school was no small ask. 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.919 Mary would have known that schools all over the country 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.680 routinely rejected kids like Donald, and the law back them up, 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:40.400 but she pressed on. School took some getting used to. 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.839 Donald's behavior was occasionally disruptive in those early days, but 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.920 it wasn't too long before Donald was actually doing okay, 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.560 Better than okay, I think we can say he started 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:56.719 to show some really remarkable progress. Mary wrote to Dr Connor, 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.680 Dawn is much more independent. He wants to do many 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:06.560 things for himself. He marches in line nicely, answers when 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:10.960 called upon, and is more biddable and obedient. I visited 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.240 his classroom this morning and was amazed to see how 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:19.040 nicely he cooperated and responded. He was very quiet and 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.440 calm and listen to what the teacher was saying about 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.440 half the time. He does not squeal or run around, 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.320 but takes his place like the other children. His use 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.800 of language improved, He answered questions from time to time, 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:36.719 He became immersed in his work. He even played with 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:40.719 other children, something he'd never shown interest in before. For 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:44.120 a child who had a phobia for change, this was 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:50.240 real progress. So Donald survived the first grade, and then 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.960 the second grade, and then the third grade. And if 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:55.760 you think about it, that makes sense because the routine 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.920 of the classroom may have suited his need for sameness. 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:00.720 He went to the same building every day at the 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:03.559 same hour, and he stayed for the same length of time. 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:05.719 His seat was always where it was supposed to be. 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:08.000 A classroom Bell told him when it was time to 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.520 come and when it was time to go. But a 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.720 school became more demanding, it became clear that there was 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:16.680 a gap between what the school expected and what Donald 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.440 was capable of academically and socially. By the spring of 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:25.640 while Don's original first grade classmates were cruising through the 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.520 fourth grade, Donald was back at home with his mother, 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.160 helping her with routine chores while she engaged him on 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:37.080 numbers and dates, both obsessions for Donald. But she also 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.640 found it a little bit overwhelming being Donald's full time 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:43.760 teacher and playmates, perhaps more than she could handle. It 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.400 was Dr Connor's idea that maybe having Donald lived somewhere 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.920 else would work better for her and for Donald. So 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:53.200 for the second time, Donald went to live somewhere else. 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.280 This time, though Marian Beaman did not drop him at 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:01.360 an institution, just the opposite. Really, they sent him to 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.040 live part time on a farm twenty minutes outside of town. 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.800 It was owned by a poor, childless couple named Ernest 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:12.480 and Josephine Lewis. Ernest and Josephine didn't have much education, 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:17.800 but they had reputations as honest, hard working people. Here's 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:23.200 Oliver Triplet, Don's brother. Part part of the recommended therapy 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.960 by Dr Connor was that he felt like Don with 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:33.800 fair better in a more idyllic environment out in the country, uh, 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:39.600 preferably to live with a childish couple. My father knew 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:44.080 the chantry clerk here in Scott County and his name 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.239 was Taylor Tadlock, and Taylor is the one who recommended 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:52.880 to my father Ernest and Josephine Lewis. And so sure enough, 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:58.400 my father, you know, uh introduced himself to the Lewis 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:01.880 as he didn't know them, and they immediately, you know, 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.480 said yo, yes, we'll we'd love to have done. The 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.640 living conditions at the Lewis's house were rustic, to say 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:13.120 the least, no electricity, no running water, the toilet was 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:15.920 an outhouse. Years later we we got more details on 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.160 all of this from Donald and from his brother Oliver, 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.440 who spent the occasional night out at the Lewis house. 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:27.319 No electricity and no no water except for well water 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.599 that had to be pumped. Don't you done? Don't you 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.280 remember that old pomp? I remember pumping water. You're not joking. 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:35.960 You do wood burning, stove and all of that. I 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.920 mean it was it was pretty primitive. What was it 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:43.640 like to live without any electricity? Well, I kind of 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:48.600 got used to it. Huh krochene lamps and all that 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:53.240 good stuff, and put colin round the hearth and getting 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:57.360 in front of the fire. That's that's try. I got 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.880 the heat and stuff like that, and cooking. What point 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.720 of George did you do there? Uh? Oh, I'd bring 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:09.000 stove wood from the from the outside and bring it 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:16.520 in and get out of where the chickens were and 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:20.120 putting grange of corn out there for the chicken street 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:25.839 were you were in the mule also in the field. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:30.880 I tried plowing, plowering a move and say and gee 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:37.120 and hall. You're like a little boy. Yah. Yeah. I 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:41.840 was only about nine years old the first time I 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:48.040 try to plow. Yeah, it went great. I enjoyed getting 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:54.400 out there. When Donald was eleven, Dr Connor showed up 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:56.400 in forest to take a look at how things were going. 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.200 He wanted to see how is most intriguing patient was 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:04.559 holding up, so Marian beaman. They brought Connor out to 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.199 the farm and Ernest and Josephine showed the psychiatrists around 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:13.079 the place. They walked him through Donald's chores. Donald ran 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.959 into a cornfield, took up the reins of a heavy 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.120 plow horse, and put the animal to work, blowing one 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:23.760 long row, then turning around to begin another. Mr. Lewis 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.160 explained this all began when Donald started walking the cornfields 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:31.720 obsessively counting the rose. Ernest showed Donald how to control 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:35.520 the horse and maneuver the plowshare. Donald was able to 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:39.320 count the rose while working them. After Connor watched Donald 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:44.040 happily plow, Ernest explained to Dr Connor that Donald obsessed 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:46.640 over the process of measurement and took a yardstick to 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.920 whatever he could find. The farm needed a new well, 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:53.240 and so Ernest recruited Donald to help dig it, presenting 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.520 the task as a measuring project. They actually, by accident, 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.840 kind of devised a therapeutic solution to do different kinds 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:03.400 of deficits. On the one hand, there was this rigid 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.920 structure to life on the farm, the same pattern every morning, 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.920 every night, every season. Donald had no choice but to 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.480 abide by the schedule, and by the way, this was 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.120 not full time life out on the farm. Every other 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.360 weekend his parents came out and picked him up and 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.559 took him home for a night or two. The family 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:25.200 was staying together. Don made huge strides. After a while, 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.000 the lewis Has brought him to a nearby school, a 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.520 one room schoolhouse attended with kids of all grade levels. 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:34.960 This setting allowed Donald to progress at his own pace. 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:40.320 He began writing letters home, using complete sentences and concrete 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.800 details about his days on the farm, and at the 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:47.760 same time he was becoming more verbal, more creative, more 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.880 accomplished in completing complex tasks. He had the structure he needed, 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:56.440 but he also had the freedom to explore. Donald stayed 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.959 with the Lewis's for four years. In Dr Connor's estimation, 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.839 living on the farm was the best thing that ever 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.120 happened to Donald. His growth there was a leap across 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:10.080 an abyss and proof then and now that many kids 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:14.320 with autism grow past the most difficult challenges they faced 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:19.760 in early childhood. After the break the Fight of Donald 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:24.640 Triplett's life and high school glory in the winter of 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:30.280 when Don was fourteen, he got really sick. He had 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.040 fevers as high as a hundred four degrees. He had chills, 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.439 he was delirious, he had searing pain in his joints. 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:40.800 He was bedridden, and he regretted becoming a little bit 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:45.000 more like his toddler self, exceedingly nervous, which was the 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.400 word his brother Oliver used. And that would have been 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:50.920 in the winter of four to seven one at Don 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.560 when you were still living at the Lewis place, and 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.080 they brought down in because he had a high fever 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:03.880 and read it. They weren't able to diagnose what its 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:08.320 proper problem was, and I know they took him to 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:12.280 the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, could not come up 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:15.400 with a diagnosis. And Don was in really rough shape. 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:20.960 And my father happened to be down in Rawley, Mississippi, 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.880 which is about thirty five twenty five miles south of 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:28.760 where we are here, you know, Smith County, and this doctor, 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.280 doctor Corsey, down there, without even having seemed one, said 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:36.000 beam and that's what they referred to. My thought, as 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.480 it seems to me that what your son is suffering 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:44.120 from maybe a rare case of juva juvenile rheumatori arthritis. 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:48.760 Today it's known as juvenile ideopathic arthritis for reasons we 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:52.520 still don't understand. The body's immune system turns on itself 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:56.440 and attacks the tissues and the joints. Children who survived 0:14:56.440 --> 0:15:00.600 the fevers often suffer lasting damage as the joints confused 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:06.320 together permanently. Still trying to address Donald's medical emergency, his 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:08.840 dad brought him to a clinic in Memphis that was 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:13.000 having some success with an experimental treatment that combined gold 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.360 salts and a steroid known as a c t H. 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:18.200 It's not clear if that's what did the trick, but 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:22.160 finally Donald started to get better there and he came 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:26.480 back from the brink. Joseph Hamilton at the Campbell's Clinic 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:32.480 in Memphis, who is dealing with with these disorders, that 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.960 if you want me to, I'll I'll book a room 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:41.040 for him. So they immediately took him up there and 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:45.080 after and Don had a very favorable response to the treatment. 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:50.280 But after after his release from the hospital, I don't 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:52.520 know whether this is the high fever that he that 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:57.840 he had for several months really wanted Don Donald stayed 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:01.640 in Memphis for two months before being charged and permanently 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:04.600 going home to his parents house. Being released from the 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.800 clinic didn't mean he was yet fully recovered. It took 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.000 Donald a year and a half to be up and 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:14.680 walking again. But as time passed in the pain also passed, 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:17.720 Donald began again to show the personality that had been 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.640 developing during his time on the farm. His improvement in 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.160 language resumed, and his ability to learn came back, and 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.840 if anything, had picked up pace. By the time he 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:31.440 fully recovered, Donald was sixteen years old, a young man, 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:34.800 and instead of sending Donald back to the lowest farm, 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:38.800 Mary Triplet decided to send Donald to high school. Now, 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.600 it's important to keep in mind that by nine fifty, 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.240 when Donald enrolled in Forest High, the Triplet and mc 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:49.000 cravey families carried more clout than ever. Beaman was the 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:53.080 town's best lawyer and served as a town dignitary. He 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:55.880 was chairman of the Boy Scouts and the Lions Club. 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:58.520 He also knew the Forest Chief of Police and the 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:02.600 editor of the Scott County Times, the town prosecutor, judges, 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:05.840 and even the governor of the state of Mississippi. And 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.000 Mary Triplet was no wallflower either. She was a mainstay 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.840 on the luncheon and garden party circuit. She made their 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:14.600 home a social hub for the whole community. She hosted 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.879 arts club meetings and choir practices for the Presbyterian Church. 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.200 A few visitors to the Triplet home had ever laid 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.320 eyes on Donald before this, who had been living out 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.160 on the farm for all those years. But suddenly Donald 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:29.040 was there all the time. The Triplets were done wavering. 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.800 They weren't going to hide Donald. They refused to be 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:37.280 ashamed of him. Their message was clear. If he interrupted 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:39.840 a choir practice at the house, or a poetry reading there, 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.080 or he talked too long about the calendar or Time 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.080 magazine or his comic book collection, people were just going 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:47.560 to have to live with it. That's who Donald was, 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:52.120 and his family expected him to be treated as an equal. 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:57.960 In Forest was a really small town, not even three 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:01.720 thousand citizens. Eman in Mary's message, the rest of the 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:05.760 community traveled quickly. It's not hard to imagine townspeople telling 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.760 their kids to leave the Triplet boy alone, to just 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:11.959 be nice to him. And Donald would have been an 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:16.439 easy target, both easy to mock and unaware of the mocking. 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:21.240 He was awkward, He could hardly hold a conversation, and 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.600 he walked stiffly with his arms apart at his side, 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:28.360 like a big letter a. He was small and somewhat defenseless, 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:32.200 but most everybody in Forest High School showed Donald kindness, 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:34.600 or at the very least they kept the wide birth 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:40.200 you're not a cruel can be particularly young, right, that's 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.400 John Rushing. He grew up just down the road from Donald. 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.720 Years earlier. John had often played on the swing set 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:51.480 in the Triplet's backyard under the new occasions were and 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.119 you know not to harm him, Lady, if you're not 0:18:55.160 --> 0:19:00.160 a kid, draw or you're difference and so um. There 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:06.080 was a period of time where people, some of them 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:10.680 were really mean and insulting at times. In his days 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.320 at Forest High School, Donald found protectors. There were the 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.360 Rio Sisters, three tough girls who moved to Forest from 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:22.639 Louisiana's Cajun Country. The sisters had their own hard story 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:26.280 and John Rushing. He was too, grays ahead of Donald's 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.440 and a star on the Forest Bearcats football team. He 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:32.000 was a big, strong kid. I would want a big 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:37.960 board on a man three pounder. Was a big football player. Oh, 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:42.480 I've played tackle and and you to play defense Shavillion. 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:46.639 John just couldn't have other kids picking on Donald. So 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.800 with the Rio sisters and John Rushing covering Donald's flank, 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.639 the other kids at Forest High School learned Donald's ways. 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:55.840 And this is one of the ways in which Donald 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:59.520 Triplett was an extremely lucky young man. Because during our 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.440 years of reporting on autism, we have heard so many 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.360 stories about people on the spectrum being bullied in school 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.880 and the trauma that can come from that. My name 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.840 is Amy Gravino. I was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:15.640 the age of eleven. My diagnosis now would be autism 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:18.359 spectrum disorder under the guidelines of the new ds M five. 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.360 Amy is the first person who comes to mind when 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:26.120 we talk about bullying in the spectrum. She's a speaker, writer, activist, 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.920 and mentor for people on the spectrum. Amy is known 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:32.880 for going really deep on some of the most difficult 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:36.639 issues facing people on the spectrum and their families, issues 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.440 like bullying and sexuality. We want you to hear about 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:45.000 Amy's experiences in her own words. I remember the boy 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:48.760 who himself had some bullying going on because his sister 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:51.439 died from HIV at a time when that was not 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.280 something that was really talking about all blood transfusion, and 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:56.359 he stood up for me when I was being bullied 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.480 in sixth grade, and unfortunately he moved away right after. 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:01.680 That very person who, by the way, ever apologized to 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.280 me or for me, moved away right after I should say, 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.760 just coincidentally, I'm sure, but uh, it wasn't the greatest 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:10.600 thing in the world. You know. Amy's expertise on this 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:13.080 topic came to her the hard way. As a kid, 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:17.040 she had a really, really tough time at school. Even 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:19.880 though I was diagnosed at the age of eleven, word 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.399 autism didn't really mean anything at that point. Um, I 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.520 only knew that I was different and the different was bad. Right, 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:29.080 So when when I talk about this time in my life, 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:31.800 I do become emotional because that's what I remember is 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:34.959 how it felt. It's it's essentially a form of trauma 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:38.400 that I experienced at that young age, in those formative years. 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:41.120 When and when you experience this kind of trauma as 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:44.000 a child, I think, especially for children the autism spectrum, 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:46.320 we carry this with us for the rest of our lives. 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:48.879 We may be able to put it in a compartment somewhere, 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:50.879 we may be able to obviously move on and be happy, 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:54.240 have good lives. But that kind of trauma, when it 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.800 happens at that age, it never goes away, and it 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:00.200 informs how you view the world, how you interap act 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:03.840 with the world. The trouble started when Amy was young, 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:07.720 before I was diagnosed with autism. I remember looking around 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:10.360 at my peers and thinking, why don't they see things 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:13.040 the way that I do? What's wrong with them? And 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:16.200 following the diagnosis, which I think we also have coincided 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:19.040 with the onset of puberty and that very difficult time 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:21.119 in life when you're starting to become an adolescent and 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:24.280 discover your identity. Why can't I see things the way 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:26.600 that other kids do? What's wrong with me? You know, 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.640 in elementary school it's more overt and obvious how kids 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:32.800 treat other kids. In middle school becomes very subtle, which 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:35.680 is much harder um the way that kids bully, the 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:39.680 way that kids treat other kids. The clicks form, and 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:42.520 you're excluded for reasons that you don't even understand, or 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:44.199 they're they're pretending to be your friend one day and 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:46.199 they treat you like dirt the next day. And I 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:48.439 just kept throwing myself on the proverbial fire because I 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:51.240 didn't understand what they were doing. The girls were worse, 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:53.600 I would say, than the boys. The boys were more overt. Again, 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:56.480 there was one instance where a boy followed me literally 0:22:56.480 --> 0:22:58.480 onto the school bus, calling me ugly amy over and 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:01.800 over again. You know, boys, to their credit, at least 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:06.120 are clearer about what they're doing. When I walked through 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:08.560 the halls at school, it was a combination of either 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:11.000 being made fun of her being ignored, And it was 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:14.800 hard to know some days which one was worse. Um 0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:17.120 because if I was being made fun of and bullied, 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:18.960 they were at least taking the time to acknowledge that 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:22.200 I existed. You're here. We don't like you, you're weird 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:24.760 and you're not cool in any sense of the word, 0:23:24.800 --> 0:23:28.240 but you're here. But if you're being ignored, it's as 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:30.359 though you just simply don't exist. Became very difficult for 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:33.159 me to distinguish between positive and negative attention. I was 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:36.879 so desperate I craved any kind of attention so badly 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:41.040 that I just didn't distinguish. So for example, once in 0:23:41.040 --> 0:23:43.359 in home met class, we had to sew and this 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:45.040 may be why I don't sew it to this day. 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:47.400 But I had much longer hair than and my hair 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:50.600 got caught in the sewing machine and I was screaming, 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:53.600 and the kids just stood there and they either said 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:56.840 nothing or they were laughing at me. And you know, 0:23:56.840 --> 0:23:59.240 what does that mean when someone can just regard someone 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:02.199 else's pain that readily? You know, when when when you're 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:05.320 someone who's different, it's as though your painting exists on 0:24:05.359 --> 0:24:07.640 a different scale. And we've seen this all through history, 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:10.399 the way that people have been experimented on in different ways, 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:13.600 the way people believe that things about the pain threshold 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:17.240 of people who are not like them. But also most 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:21.040 days the hazing wasn't subtle at all. You're weird, you're 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:23.680 a freak, you're a retard, you're a loser, you're ugly. 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:26.520 These were the things that I heard on a daily basis. 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:29.679 And what ended up happening was that the voices of 0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:32.359 my peers became the voice in my own head because 0:24:32.359 --> 0:24:35.719 those voices stayed with me and affected my perception of myself, 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:38.800 affected how I felt about myself, how I interacted with 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:41.640 the world. It's very hard to interact with the world 0:24:41.640 --> 0:24:44.560 when you are shrinking and when you are constantly feeling 0:24:44.600 --> 0:24:46.800