POV

-I'm not like other teenagers. I'm autistic. When I'm swimming, I feel normal. It feels amazing from when I swim. -If you want gold medals, you have to work hard and train hard. Well, that's my dream. So I want to become faster than Michael Phelps, and I want to be the second one that people will crowd and want to cheer me. -It made me feel tough to do that freestyle breaststroke. The correct way is, like, 100 percent. The front stroke may be a little bit tough, but the breaststroke maybe really hard. That's going to make me feel tired if I do any competing, what makes me tired when I'm doing competing at the swim meet. -All right, boys. Listen up. We want to make Mike -- We want him proud. So, you have to give -- Do it fast as you can. Mike, he's doing back, and him doing a breast. For me, I'll do fly, and the last is freestyle. So, guys, give it the best as you got. -Okay. -All right. -Who's with me? -All right. -Hammerheads! -Hammerheads! -Whoo! -Inside a bomb is a type of -- It has diamonds. I should not say that in public. -Right? We're going to swim until we win. Right? -Yup. -You know it. -Yup. -Right? We're going for gold? Check it out, Robert. -They're amateur. -We are what? What are we called? -The Jersey Hammer shark heads. -The Hammerheads. Hammerheads is a word -- -Hammershead. -Hammerhead. -It's a shark. We are the sharks. You know it. -Also, here comes the jersey. -And I love your leather jacket. You earned it. Right, buddy? -A hundred dollars. -

Laughs

But I'm saying you earned your jacket. Look at that. That is awesome, Robert. -It's beautiful. -Isn't that beautiful? -Yes. -That is awesome. Our team, they're all autistic. They all have some type of autism spectrum disorder, which is not very common for a swim team. I'm going to introduce you to my husband, who's the head coach. -Okay. -Okay? Mike, this is Marisol. -Hi. -Hey. How are you doing, Marisol? -Mike, this is Jay. -Jay, how are you? You going to swim with us this year? -Yes. -Yes? One time or other, all of our kids have been ostracized, and for them to be a part of the team is unbelievable. Let's spread out just a little bit, just a little bit, just a little bit, just a little bit, just a little bit, just a little bit, little bit. Everybody, touch the sky. Touch the sky, high as you can go. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. -Hold it! -Ugh! Okay. Good guys. -Welcome. Thank you guys for coming today. So we are now called the Jersey Hammerheads. -Whoo! -Whoo-hoo! Right? So we're sharks now. -It's easy. -Yeah, son. -And there's a float. And there's a float. -You're going to swim if it kills me. -Yeah. Don't you worry. -Listen to me. Listen to me. -Our kids, they love the water. God forbid they happen to go to the water, and they jump in the pool if they didn't know how to swim. They couldn't help themselves. They'd drown. -Give me your hand. Do not touch those ropes. Are you ready? I'm going to give you a push. Ready? -One, two, three. Push. -Go. You better swim. -Ah! -You better swim! I can't save you! You better swim! Arms over the top, over the top! -What are you saying? -As a mom with an autistic child, we always knew, because we had a pool, that Michael had to learn to swim, had to. -Mikey, now good kick. You got to kick hard off the wall. Ready? Swimmers on your mark. Go! The doctors told us that Michael would never talk. He would never be able to change his own pants, that he would never be self-sufficient, and I think it just took trail and error for me and my wife not giving up so that he would do more. We said, "We're not going to give up on him. He can do something. We just have to spend time with him." Look at me. Do the backstroke going down at one arm. One-arm catch-up, one-arm catch-up. Swimmers on your mark. Go! -His swimming has improved tremendously. He loves it, and we wanted the opportunity for him to continue swimming. -This hand comes across and over top, okay? Go. Push off the wall. Push! -So my husband and I got our own Special Olympics swim team. -No slap, no slap, push. Over the top, face in the water! Breathe! Breathe! There you go! Swim! Coaching a special-needs team versus a regular swim team, it's night and day. -Ah! -Every kid in the pool is different. Getting with kids that have never swam or are afraid of the water, they have sensory issues as far as touch, sound. You have to have patience. Four-laps freestyle. -Not so fun. -I want you to try it for me, okay? -I'm still your friend. -You're always my friend. Try it for me, please? -No. I don't want to do it. -Hey, listen. -Hey, two laps. -Let's do 50 free and 50 breaststroke. You like the breast. -No. No, I don't. -Fifty-fifty? Let's try it. -No. -What are you going to do for me then? I need you to swim. -I want to try one time because I won't like that much. -Okay. Let's do two laps then. -Yeah. -Two laps. Swimmers on your mark. -Hate that one. -You love the breaststroke. Come on. -I'm still -- -You ready? You ready? Here we go. Swimmers on your mark. Go! Go! Just have to work with him a little bit. He's good, though. -We have zero money. Okay? So we're going to have to fund raise, fund raise, fund raise. All right? Everybody here needs new swim gear. We got to get that. We want everybody to get a bag like that. Okay? You know, that's my goal. I want everybody to look uniform. I want everybody to have the same of everything. There's three competitions that we do. The first is called the Area. Then the Sectional is bigger, and then you have the big daddy, which is the summer games. That's the entire state of New Jersey. -You're giving kids an opportunity. I mean, I see the... Michael wouldn't have had the opportunity if it wasn't for my wife and any other people that got involved. There would be no opportunity. -Underwater, I sound like a fish, like, really fast and all. And I come up like a dolphin or a seal. And I go fast like a whale. -See you! -Wow, Robert. -So I have a timeline up here. So you can go over the millions, and you can name four lines with your ruler, in green, and each represents 200,000 years. Okay. So let's take a look at 2.4. Where would that be located if we're looking at a million years ago? -It's right here. -Well, here's your 2. -Yeah. -So we're going back in time, so 2 million. And each one is how much? -Four. -Well, 2, right? -Well, yeah. -So this is 2.2. -Two-point -- Yeah. -Two, right? -Yeah. -Then 2-point... -Three? -No. Each one is 2. -2.4? -We have to fight every step of the way to get the services that we needed for Michael -- speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, a trained aide. We had to hire an advocate. Everything has a cost, and it's a big cost, but, you know, we do what we have to do. You know, we borrowed money. You know, I even told my husband, "If we have to sell the house, we'll sell the house." -Do we even need to go over that far? -No. -Mm, no. So you can put a line pretty close to that tick mark there. -He's a senior now. He's graduating from high school in a few months, but he's not ready for college. -Right? -And we don't know if he can get a job. -He was about 2 1/2, 2, 2 1/2 years old. He just stopped talking. He went from trying to say, "Mom" and "Dad," not to saying anything, and then loved to be alone after that, always liked to be alone. Just started lining toys up, animals up, cars, but the main thing was animals. He would line everything up, and if you moved it, he would know exactly that something was missing. -When I was a little kid, my favorite animals were elephants. Now my favorite animals now are apes. I got this elephant from Puerto Rico when I was little and this little Chihuahua named Cookie. I used to play with my little sister. This little Dalmatian with a green shirt. This Dalmatian was my cousin's, and his name was Poochie because, you know, dog, pooch. My Rottweiler, bull terrier, black Lab, a little capuchin monkey. He's also a capuchin, vervet monkey, blue macaw. This is my orangutan. This is my duck, my zebra. This is my teddy bear. It has my name on it, Michael. -Be the flying squirrel. Swimmers on your mark. Go! Jump out. Better. That's better. Come on. Listen. You got to be the squirrel. You got to get some air, okay? Be the squirrel, flying squirrel. Out you go. And there's not a day goes by that me and my wife don't go through something with him. The most recent thing that happened to us is, come home at night. Michael got through swimming. He's up in his room, go knock on the door and walk in. He's crying. I go, "What are you crying for?" And he said -- He looked at me and said, "Why did God make me different?" And you look at him. He said, "Why did God make me different?" He goes, "Why did God make me different, Dad? Why am I autistic? What did I do wrong?" Oh, my God. What are you supposed to say to your kid? And Michael knows he's autistic. He knows he's different, you know. Me and my wife looked at each other and tears in our eyes, and we said, "Because you're special. God made you special, and that's why you're different. Not every kid can be special." And...

Voice breaking

And he was good with that, and that was the truth. You know, he is special. Aw, you guys can't do this, killing me.

Sniffles

But that's one of the most recent things, and I told him that, "You keep swimming the way you're swimming, a lot of normal boys can't do what you do." -For me, it's not about fun time. It's about training. You need to work hard for it. -No intervals. Just do it right. Three, two, hit it! -Our mission statement is, "Success at the national and international levels." We've had kids at Olympic trials. We've had Olympic medalists. My proudest thing about Robbie is that if I said, "Pick out the kid that was also competing in the Special Olympics," you couldn't look over there and pick him out. He just blends right in. -Robbie is swimming 2 hours a day, 6 days a week. He's swimming for three teams. Scarlet, he swims for the high school, and he also swims for the Hammerheads. Robbie was first diagnosed with autism around 18 months. He was close to 2 years old. -Aw! -What I heard was very frightening. They spoke about mental retardation, how he was not going to be able to speak or function like typical kids. -I was in school, and I decided to drop college to raise him. -Everybody, count your strokes! -He has showed improvement, but we have a long journey to go. He's in the 11th grade, and, for example, reading, he's at a fourth-grade level. So what classes you have today, Robbie, in school? -Um... Um... Just drawing, printing, health class, math, English, and history. -Yeah? -Yep. -How was your printing class? Because I know you like that class, right? -Just I work hard in printing. -You worked really hard? What you did today? -Just picked a comic characters to print the characters. -You have to draw them? -Yep. -Which one did you pick? -Batman. -Okay. In health, what did they talk about? -It's about the sex movie. -The sex movie? -They sent to a web site, and they also talk about the HIV. -The HIV. Okay. Okay. What is... What did they tell you about HIV? -It's about doctors, so they tell about doctors and tell you about sex. -Sex? -Yeah, like, drunk stuff. -Okay. Did you understand what they meant? -Just I don't know. -You don't know? It was a lot of information? -Too much information. -Too much information, okay. -Just I don't like health class. -You don't like health class? -Nope. -Well, I didn't know they were going to teach you about sex, Robert. Did they talk to you about that? -They told me. -Okay. -They told us. -Wow. -I don't feel like talking. -Okay. I didn't know that they were going to... Sit over here with me, honey. Okay. I mean, if you're not ready to talk about it, it's fine. I understand. The reason why I chose Robert to join the Hammerheads is because Robert doesn't know, right now, that he has autism. Robbie feels that he's a typical kid, and he has never asked me, is there something different about him? I don't want to break his heart, but he needs to know. -Kelvin is autistic. He also have Tourette Syndrome. -Oh, bitch! -I know! -No...bitch! -No, no. Stop. Stop. Right. In the water, stay in the water. I need you in the water. -Ass! -No. -He has body tics and vocal tics. -Swimmers on your mark. Go! In! -But he cannot control that. He's not doing those on purpose. -No. No, no. No. -That's very dangerous. -That's very dang-- Going to hurt yourself. I know. I know the tics bother you, but you're okay. Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Hey. You guys are getting timed on this today. -He has two disability, so he's kind of balancing each other on and off. Sometimes, he's getting more tics. Maybe he has more tics, then he doesn't have the time to do the autism thing. -... -Oh. You say the F word? -I'm sorry. I curse a lot. -Let's go, in the water. Vincent, in the water. -Don't you ever say the F word. -Kelvin! Twenty-five-meter breaststroke, 25-meter free coming back. -Okay. -Swimmers on your mark. Go! -Last night, I was feeling stress. I'm not telling you I hate you. -Yeah. Are you supposed to do that? -No. -No. You're not supposed to say that. -No. No. Sometimes, say, "I want to kill you," but it wouldn't be very nice. I might get in trouble. -Yeah. -So what do you do when you get angry, Kel? -Just do right thing. -What is the right thing to do? -Right thing you have to do is some -- do right choice. You have to do something -- If I tell someone I feel angry, we should use anger management. -Anger management! Yes. -Sometime, when you guys were not home, sometimes, I was home by myself. Sometimes, I yell around the whole house. Sometimes, I feel frustrated. -Yeah. -Some day when you're not home. -Yeah? -That's why I got it out of my system. When I feel angry, I just don't feel -- I don't like stuff. I don't like -- Or maybe want to shout, yelling around when I feel pissed off when I'm yelling around the whole house. That's how they make me crazy. -If you remind him to wash his hands, he gets mad. If you remind him, "Oh, it's time to go to bed," he gets mad. If you remind him, say, "Oh, the bus, school bus, is here." And he just say, "You don't tell me what to do!" -Like this, over here, okay. You got to see right here. There's a hole behind it. And the holes behind this and that and this. He's got a really powerful arm and a big strength, and that's one of the holes that he make. And see this? This, like, very solid, solid wood, and he just kicked the door and these holes, and like this, a punch. This is a kick, and it's broken. I don't really have a strategy. Sometimes, we just try to scare him, say, "Kelvin, we're going to call the policeman. If we call 911, and police found you hurt us, hurt anybody, you're going to be in jail. You cannot come back home." And Kelvin likes... He likes the policemen, but he also understand, you know, that jail life is not that pleasant. So he will say, "Please, don't call police." He say, "No. Don't call police."

Chuckles

Kelvin was typical-developed baby. I still remember Grandpa hold his little, tiny hand and walk up the stairs, and he was counting. He was learning counting in Chinese with Grandpa. After he turns 2, the world changed. He lost his vocabulary. He didn't talk. He needs to pull me and scream and cry, and I couldn't understand him, what his needs. And when he frustrated, he'd bump his head on the wall. Um... I didn't know what happened, and... We went to different doctors. We've tried different kinds of medicines and different combination of the medicine, different dosage of the medicine. -The medication has no impact. We seen his reduction of tics and anger through swimming. -All right. Here we go! Here we go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! You guys practicing for second place or first place? -First! -All right. Let's go. Here we go. Swimmers on your mark. -Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. -Go! -Now it's crunch time. We got Areas next week, so that's our first swim meet is on the 23rd, so Sunday, so everybody has got to come next week. We got a couple kids that are going to be missing today, so everybody has got to be onboard next week because it's crunch time.

Laughs

No, I'm not competitive, but I am. -Kelvin, let's go! Matthew, let's go! -I am. -All right. Turn around. Turn around. Listen. Listen. I said, "Swimmers on your mark." When the gun goes off, bang, you got to jump out. You got to jump out. Lock that hand like this. Show me. Show me your hands locked. You got to tuck. You got to jump out. You don't jump down. We're jumping out. Look out. Don't look down. -Look out! -Look out! Here we go! -These are the swim pants everyone is getting. -Hey! -Hammerheads! -Cool! -Ah! -All right? Cool? -Yeah. You cannot wear this for practice. All right? You got it? -Got it. -Jersey Hammerheads. Yes? -No practice. You can't wear that for practice. -You cannot wear that for practice. But you can bring the bag, okay? -Sure. -You can bring the bag. -That's like a schoolbag. -Well, yeah. It's something like -- But it's a swim bag. It's like a backpack. You're right. All right? So now I'm going to start giving them out, okay? I want you to take care of these. -Okay. -And do not lose it? -Don't lose it. -The goals are to get these kids in the water, let the parents know that these kids can do something. I mean, the kids are going to have a good time whether they're good, they're bad, they come in first, they come in last. It's the parents seeing that their kids can do something and socializing with other kids that are special needs. That's a big thing for us, because a lot of these kids don't have friends. They're all isolated at home. -What? -Jersey Hammers. -Jersey Hammers?

Laughter

-One, zero... -Nine! -See? Awesome. -Yeah. That was fun. -Zane, good job. Hey, man. High five. Good job. -These are for you. Nice, right? -Think about swimming. You're ticing. You keep ticing. What are you thinking about? -... -Think about swimming. -...! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. -Kelvin, take your shirt off. -So has been 10 years. We cannot go to a restaurant, to the stores, to the public area. He didn't want to go with us. -Do this. Okay? -Can I see that one more time what you're doing? -We really want him to enjoy the swim team. We parents can get together. We can share our experience and laugh and cry together.

Laughs

-Meeting these other moms has been a learning lesson for me, and it has taught me that I am not alone. -Everybody okay? Smile. -Number one!

Applause

-Now declare the 2014 Area Five Swim Meet Open!

Cheers and applause

-All right. Let's smoke them. All right? Let's go with it. Are you ready? -Yeah. But I almost kissed a guy. -No. That's okay. I want you to swim fast. All right? Go! Go! Go! -Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. -Come on! Arms! Arms! So many people don't give our kids a chance to do anything. To be in this arena, and they're actually competing with one another and actually accomplishing something that they couldn't do, swim 25 meters, swim 50 meters, swim 100, 200 meters. This is what our kids are doing.

Applause

-Way to go! Yay! -Thank you, I just won the race. -Yes! -Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Give me some. Give me some. All right. Let's go. Hey, listen. Come here, guys. -Listen, listen. -Brad Pitt. -Listen. -Kelvin, you're first. -Yep. -Hayden, you're second. Michael, you're third. Robert, you're going to bring it home. You're first. You got to turn it loose now, okay? -Not give up. -As fast as you can go. Don't give up. -Don't give up. -Try not to give up. -No. I want you to swim fast now, fast. -Yeah. -When you get down there, flip and come back hard to me, okay? -All right. Let's go. -On your marks. -Let's go now. Let's go now. -All right? -Ready? Everybody, let's go. -Right. Hey. Here you go. -Take your marks. -Go, go, go! -Go. -Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go! -Pull, Kelvin! Pull! Come on! Pull! Pull! Go, go, go, go, go! -Let's go, Hayden! -Go, Hayden! -All right, Mike! Go as fast as you can go. -Go, go, go, go. -Whoo-hoo! -You got it. You got it! -Come on, up and down! Pull! Yeah, pull! -Move! -Come on, Mike! Swim! You got to pull! Pull! Go! Go! Go! -Whoo! -Stroke, stroke! Come on, Robbie! Go! Come on, Rob! Pull! -Come on, Robert! -All right. That way. That way. Switching time. Come on, Rob. Come on, Rob.

Cheers and applause

-Put your hands up here. Hammerheads on three. One, two, three. -Hammerheads! -Whoo! -Good job. Good job. Good job. -What was your time? -Good job. Go over and get your medal. -What was the time? -Three minutes. -Let's go. The fab four. -Ah...! -Ah! -Did you say the F word? -I'm sorry. -F word! F word! -It's okay. It's okay. It's bound to erupt. -Congratulations, guys. Good job. Nice. -Whoo! -Officer, what are you doing here? I'm giving you awards. -It's okay. You can -- It's all right. -Whoo! -Guys, look over here, get your hands up. Kelvin, hands up. -Congratulations. -All right. -You guys are great. -Nicely done, guys. -That means we don't need to do the theater anymore? -Not today. Someone else is going to do the theater today. -Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah, right. -All right. -Brian, I'm about to be finished up for sweeping You did a good job sweeping. -Did a good job? -I need you to go back here, clean behind the snack counter for me now. -Okay. Sure. -All right. Needs to be filled already? -Yep. I got a refill for you. -It's good for you. Thank you, Brian. Job security. Job security. There's no issue. I'm sorry. Thank you, Brian. Good job, yeah. -Looking good. Don't forget to clean the grates, right? -There? -Clean these off. -You're right. -And clean these off, okay? -This one here? -Yep. Here, let me see. -You can check it out. It's okay. -You can actually lift it up. -You're right. -Clean it like that. -Okay. Oh, shoot. Forgot. Not yet. Boom. -Okay? -

Singsong

Uh-huh, huh. I'm 32. No. I'm just joking. Not 32. I'm pregnant! No, just joking. I'm not pregnant. -He's 22 now. He's an adult, but he cannot just go out and live on his own. -So that glass on the other side. -Yeah, sorry, sorry, sorry. -Okay. -We apply to group home through our state. The total is, it's like 8,000-something. Even priority list, that's like 4,000-something, and our first year, they just placed, like, 20 of them. So I figure, when Kelvin turns 220 years old, he may get the spot, you know, in a state group home. -Oh, oh, no, no, no, n-no, no. I can't do that. If I do that like that, get in trouble. Don't get in trouble. -Three 100s, freestyle. Work on flip turns. -No. I don't like that. -You have to try it. -No! -I know we don't like it, but remember what we told you. What we don't like, we have to do. -No. -Work on flip turns. -I still love you. -Go, go. I love you, too. -Do we need to do freestyle four times? -After the swim team meet, Kelvin had problem with it. He didn't want to go swimming. -Come on! I hate this. -Go, Kelvin! Go! -I'm really tired. Oh. I don't want... -The coach, I mean, asks us whether he wanted to swim, and I talked to him. He said he doesn't want to swim. -And we asked him why. He mentioned about, 'cause swim team, they need to participate in the Special Olympic game. He complained it's always a long wait. He didn't know how to occupy himself. He was concerned about his tics. In that situation, he couldn't get his personal distance. -I pretty much get him one step at a time. I asked him whether, if he go to, just go swimming practice instead of going to the meet. Don't think about the meet, and just go practice. And he's like, "Okay, go practice." -He just wanted to come and practice with the team but not participate in competition, so we told him that's not how it works. You know, we told him in layman's terms, "If you want to be part of the team, Jersey Hammerheads, you have to come to practices, and you have to compete." -Coach gave us an ultimatum and said, "Okay. If you don't want to go to meet, you cannot join a team." -He didn't want to go. We tried very hard to persuade him once, you know, so the third time charm, and we picked the battle. We gave up sending him for the swim team practice. -See? I got it. See? I got it off here. See? I will do that. -I don't feel the school is doing their job with him. There's no resources for these children. They talk to us about, "We will send him to Walmart so he can learn how to stock." That's not what we want. Hey! -Design games, that's what I'd love to do. If you want to make characters, first, you need to use one of those papers. So you need to... Example. I'm drawing, like, maybe Mario. So you have to copy it and copy it, so you have to make movements, like, my hands moving and moving. So you need to flip it over, like, flip it. That's how you do it. So that's what I do. Arts and animation, computer, that's my skills. -Robbie is in a system. They're just going to pass him through a system where you took math, reading, and all these courses, and here you go. You graduate with a diploma, but they're not really giving him what he needs. Where is he going to work? What is he going to do for a living? They're not giving him the skills, and they're not targeting where it will help him maybe get a job in something that he has a passion for. -Mike turns 18 in July, correct? -Correct. -I'll just shut this off? Sorry about that. So once a person turns 18 in New Jersey, they're an adult, and they have the right to make the decisions in their lives that the parents had the rights to make up until the age of 18, so things like whether he goes to school, where he goes to school, what medical treatment he gets, where he lives. You know, all these things become his decisions... -Okay. -...at the age of 18. A typical 18-year-old, we're going to expect it's going to lean on mom and dad to some extent. There are certainly plenty that can make those decisions on their own, but when you throw in the fact that somebody has a disability, then we have to think about whether they have the capacity to make decisions and to protect their self-interests by making good decisions. The guardianship takes his decision-making abilities and transfers it to the guardianship. Once the judge appoints you as guardians, then, as I said, you have all those rights to make the decisions for Mike. Tell me a little bit about Mike before we dive into it. -You can ask him a question. -It'll take a while for him to answer you, or he won't know how to answer you. -So Mike can read. -Yeah. -He can do math. -Yeah. -Is he around grade-level in those areas, would you say? -No, no. He's below. -He's below. He's been below his whole life. -Okay. So, Mike, do you think he has an understanding of the value of money? If we asked him how much a CD costs... -No, no. -No, I don't think he'd know. -...would he have an idea that it's $15, $20 or that -- -Oh, if you told him $15 or $20, he'd count it out for you. -No, but he won't know, like, how much would that cup of coffee be? -Right. Like, does he know that a car costs, you know, tens of thousands of dollars? -No. No. -No. You know, especially, like, if he went to the store to get money, he would give somebody, if it's $5, Mike will give them $20, and he'll sit there and wait. We're teaching him how to count his money back, make sure that he gets the right receipt, that nobody is taking advantage of him. -Can he do the math to figure out if he's got the -- -He's been doing pretty good lately. -He's been trying. -But he's not there. -Right. -You know, and our whole thing is somebody taking advantage of him. That's why we're here. He's autistic. -Right. -That's what he is. I'm not ashamed of it. You know, if he was different, fine, but he's autistic. That's what he is, and then we accept that. -Right. -And that's why we're here. People always ask us, "Well, do you think Special Olympics might..." Listen. That's what he is. -Right. -I'm proud of who he is. -So, you know, whatever it is, it doesn't matter. -And... -Don't cry. -Oh, I'm sorry. -Why do you do this? -It's just hard. -This is hard, and this is the hard part, also, but... -That's who he is, so we're not here to sugarcoat it or hide it or hide who he is, so... -Ah. Nope. -He doesn't really go outside shopping with us because his tics. -

Gasps

Sorry, sorry. -Can we go to... -

Shouting

-...another store? -Aah! Sure. -Do you want to go to another store to buy... -I don't know about another store. -If lots of people stare at him, that makes him nervous, and he tics more. -Aah! Shut up! -I know he likes our local Goodwill shop. The staff know him already. If he tics, he can hide between the clothes, so I guess he feels comfortable for shopping that store. So I think about some reward system. -Mm. I got a bloody nose. Shh! No, no. I can't joke around. I'll get in trouble.

Shouts

My nose is bleeding. Shh. No, no, no, no. No. We don't want to do that, okay? Might get in trouble. -I told him, if he goes to swim practice on Fridays, I can bring him to shop at Goodwill on Sunday morning. Somehow, this worked. He was willing to join the team again. -No, we don't play games like that. No. -Good morning. The first session for warm-up is right now, B first entry only. -Where is Robert at? -Robert is not here. -Rosa, where you at? Well, if he's not here in the next 5 minutes, he's going to be scratched. If he's not here in the next 5 minutes, they're going to scratch him. But what that means is, he's not going to be able to race. As soon as you can get here, right, because you guys are the first race up. I don't get it. -You know, we told people to be here for a reason. -I don't get it. I don't get it. -I don't get it. I don't understand. She said, "We're on the parkway." What's that mean? You had 2 hours to get here. Then she goes, "Oh, I don't think we'll make it." You don't think you'll make it, then you just messed up the whole team. I bumped everybody up just specifically for that race. Now they can't race in the summer games in the relay. We lose two relays. -Wow. -They're going to start swimming. -They start on time. These kids don't get to swim, I'm not going to be happy. No. -Please stand to sing the national anthem. - Oh, say can you see By the dawn's early light -

Sighs

Nine o'clock. Nine o'clock. I don't...know. I don't know. -They're about to scratch him if he's not here yet. -No, I know. I just... If they don't show up, they can't swim in the summer games either. -There he is. There's Robert. He's running. -Robert, run. -Come on! Come on! -Let's go! Come on! -Come on! Come on! -I'm sorry, Coach. -Let's go. Let's go. It's not your fault, buddy. -Come on. Go, go! -Make sure they go up there. So after this one, they go up. -So we're going to line them up right now. -All right. First, second, third. You're bringing it home. Okay?

Event two

the medley relay. Swimmers, take your mark.

Buzzer

Event two

-Go! -Come on, Rob! -Come on, Rob. Pull! Go, go, go, go! Pull, pull, pull! Come on, Mike. Come on, Mike. -Let's go! Keep going! -Soon as Mike touches, breaststroke, two strokes, two strokes hard, okay? Get ready. Get ready. Soon as he touches. Soon as he touches. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. -Go! Go, go, go! -Let's go! Go, go, go! -What are you doing! -He was doing wrong. He was supposed to do breast. He did free. -Let's go! Go, go, go! -Go, Hayden! -Go, Hayden! -Go, Hayden! Go, Hayden, go! -Go, go, go! Good job, buddy. Good job. -Go, Robert! -Go, Robert! Whoo! -Good job! -Go, Robert! Come on! Finish strong! -Go, go, go, go! -All right. Here we go, now. -Go, Robert! -Soon as he comes back. Soon as he comes back. -Swim! -Go, Robert! Whoo! Go, Robert! Come on. Finish strong! -Go, Kelvin! -Come on, Kelvin! -Come on, Kelvin! -Come on! Come on! Come on! -Pull! -Go, go, go! -Go, Kelvin! Go, Kel! Go, Kelvin! Touch the pad. Touch the pad. Touch the pad! Good job. Good job!

Applause

Cheering

Event two

That's it, baby. That's it. Give me some love up here. Give me some love up here. -Whoo! Robert! -Ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention to the awards area. It is my pleasure to announce the results of the 4 x 50 Medley Relay. Winning the participation medal is the Jersey Hammerheads one. -I'm sorry. -Thank you. Thank you. -Ladies and gentleman, please recognize these outstanding athletes. -No, no, no, no! They got gold. They got gold. Who do I talk to? -The table down there. -They got gold. Right now, that's what they have. That's what's on the sheet. -Where's the sheet? -The sheet needs to stay with us. You need to go down there. -Oh, let me just see. -They have the results. -All I have is -- That's what I have. I don't have the reason. -No. They got gold. -All right, guys. Come on down. -Mike, they gave our kids a participation medal. -Who? -Our number one team. -There may have been a disqualification. -No. They weren't disqualified. -For what? -What team? -No. Hammerheads. No. I just said that they told me to come here to talk to them. It's Jersey Hammerheads, event... Whatever event they... -Sure. -Who got disqualified? -No. -I don't know what happened. Talk to her. -They went to get the medal. They gave them a participation medal. -Okay. -This relay team, they won first place. -Okay. -So they told me to come here to tell them to get... -So there was an issue with the results? -Exactly. -Okay. -So that's all it is.

The time was 2

20. Nobody beat them. They won the race. -Right, so... -Can I see the results from the first half? -Listen up. -You're event two. Okay. -Where? -Don't worry about that. This is another one. This is something that they gave us that was wrong. -Oh, that would be a stroke infraction. So they started doing freestyle before they were doing breaststroke. -They what? -They started to do freestyle before they started to do breaststroke. -Hayden. -Hayden started to do freestyle? -Unreal. -Two, twofold. Lane three. -He's disqualified. I saw him do it. Disqualified. -Why? -Because Hayden started to do freestyle. -Just keeps getting better and better. -The relay team got disqualified. -What? -Because, Hayden, you swam freestyle when you weren't supposed to. You were supposed to do whatever your stroke was. -The stroke? -That's why you have to pay attention, guys. -Well, it's not my fault. -No, no, no, no, no. It's just you have to pay attention. So when you go back and swim, make sure you swim the proper stroke, okay? -Yeah. -That's all. No big deal. No big deal. -What does this mean? -That's for participation. Participation. -What is that? -I know. -For what? What? Is it third, fourth, or what? -Participation. -What does that mean? -That you participated swimming. That's all it is. All right? All right, guys. Go back. You got to go back, okay? -Robbie... do you see yourself different from other children, from -- -They're different. -No. Do you see yourself different from the regular kids in school? -No, I act different. -You do act differently? -Yes. -How do you act different? -Just the way I do it. -The way you talk? -Yeah. -The way you walk? -Yeah. -How do you see the other kids different? -They're not that quiet. -They're not that quiet? -Yeah. -I see. Do you know why you're different? -No. -No, you don't know? -I don't feel like it. -You don't feel like what? -Talking about the school. -You don't want to talk about why you're different? -Yeah. -Okay. But one day, you want to know the truth, right, why you're different? -Because I don't want to know. -

Sighs

The time was 2

Okay. Robbie, do you know what autism is? -No. -No? Do you know why you are in the Special Olympics? Okay. Everyone in the Special Olympics are children with disability. So you're in there because you have a disability, and it's called autism. You have speech delay. You have trouble speaking and trouble focusing, right? -Yes. -You know? You know, how sometimes we have to help you do things? This is the reason it's going to be hard finding a job because there are some kids that don't have that disability. They can read a book and follow the instructions. With you, we have to teach you how to do certain things, and that's why you are all in the Special Olympics because there's a lot of different kids who have disability. Are you okay with that? -Yes, I'm fine. -You're fine? Okay. Every time I tell you something, it's because I love you, and it's because I want the best for you. -I can handle it. -You can what? -Handle it. -Handle it. I know. You listen. -I'm older now. -Yeah. You are older. What is it that you can handle? -A lot of things that you ever told me a lot. -You're doing very well. You know I love you, right? -I know that. I will always be here for you, always. Remember. -Everyone get to come. -Your shoulder in. Come out and stroke. -Switch. Switch. -Come out and stroke. -One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. -You show your shoulder. You show your hips. -Look, guys. We need a meeting. We need a meeting. Look, guys. If you want to get medals, you have to do what we do, so you have to follow what me and Mike does. So you have to follow the captain, but we're not boss. We're teaching you how to be faster than other kids. So you want gold medals? Not bronze. You want gold? You have to work hard for this. -Yes, and you got to learn breath -- -What's the silver? -Silver is second place. -Silver is second place, Matthew. The goal is first. -You see, Michael -- -What kind of medal is fourth? -Don't know. -You see Michael Phelps? Michael Phelps on the show, he got 23 gold medals. So you want to be him? You have to work harder than us. -Want to be like Michael Phelps, want to be Ryan Lochte? Then you work like we do and listen like we do. Okay? -Yes. -Michael, first swimmer up. Jump out. Toes on your mark. Go! Jump out! Go. Ready? Go! Jump out. Don't jump down. Jump out. Toes on your mark. Go! Aaron, let's go. Toes on your mark. Go! Jump out. Let's go. Let's go. Reach and pull. A little faster. Pick it up. We've got 3 weeks, 3 weeks until summer games, okay? -We got this one. -I want you to flip! The summer games coming up the end of May is New Jersey Summer Games. We'll be competing against every other athlete in the state of New Jersey. This is the big finale for all the athletes throughout the whole state. It's not just one county versus another county. It's throughout the whole state. It's going to be the best of the best. This is what they've been working for. I mean, they're ready. I'm pushing hard at them, but they're getting it. You got to touch the wall like this. -Yep. -Not on top, like this. -I'm trying! -Next three swimmers, fast. Swimmers, take your mark. Go! Kick off the wall. Kick! -He's doing it wrong, but he's... -He's trying, though. -But we'll teach him. -You guys will teach him. He's trying. -That's why we keep going to practice all the time. -It's not -- It's not who's the best in this, right? -No. -It's who tries and how much will you have, right? -Yeah. We're teaching him how to be strong. -That's right. Will makes what? Skill. -Skill. -Right. That's it. Let's go. That's it, 10! Good job. Good job. -Make sure you get the phone numbers for your friends. -Mama, I know everything. Okay. -What do you mean, you know everything? You don't know everything. -Mama, you're driving me crazy about everything. -What do you mean? Is that appropriate to say that? Yes or no? -Mama, I said everything. You drive me crazy all the time. -Give me a break because I know you're going to forget. -I am not going to forget. -All right. And then you're going to take pictures. Make sure you take a picture with you and Sarab. Sarab is going to be there. -Oh, Mama. -What? -I said, "This happens every day when I hear some crazy stuff again from you." -What crazy stuff am I saying to you? -People, pictures, everything. -Oh, are you annoyed because you didn't get to watch the show? All right. Well, okay. We'll let it go. -No, I am not. I am not. I am not annoyed because -- -Okay. Shh, that's enough. -Mili. -What? -Elizabeth is here. -Okay. We're getting Mikey dressed. He's graduating from high school. You know, I don't know what's going to happen to him. That's a scary thought. There's no game plan. There's nothing. Get closer. Senior prom! Go touch him. -Come on, Michael. -Michael. -It's okay, Michael. -Drop your shoulders, bubby. -Drop your shoulders, sweetie. -There you go. -That's it. Relax. -Relax. -I talked to other parents, and they'll be talking about, "Oh, yeah. We had this, you know, the transition meeting," and they found these schools, you know, these private schools for their kids, and they're in, and they got the district to pay for them and, you know, these schools are, like, $60,000. I don't have $60,000, you know, to put Michael in these, you know, special schools that are geared for kids like him. You know, it's not fair. I didn't know about it. The district could have provided for Michael some type of education or program. Okay. That will look real cute, okay? -There we go. Yeah! -It's called, like, transitioning school. They could have paid for him to go there, but because it costs money, everything was hush-hush. They didn't say anything to us about it. -All right. Give me a kiss. See you later. -Bye, guys! -Have a good time. -Yeah. -All right. -Bye-bye. -If somebody can learn from my mistakes, then that's a blessing because I didn't know. I didn't know that, once you accept that diploma, you're done.

Bagpipes and drums playing

The time was 2

-We're so delighted to have all of you here as we celebrate the athletes of Special Olympics who train and compete year-round throughout New Jersey. Over 2,500 of these athletes will be participating at these summer games.

Applause

The time was 2

-To walk into the stadium and see all these special-needs kids in there, to see the families and the support all these kids have, it is unreal. It's all about people with special-needs kids going involved with each other. -As the last of our athletes file into the stadium,

we're reminded of the words of Winston Churchill

"You never run away from anything, and you never give up."

Cheering

we're reminded of the words of Winston Churchill

-Mikey! Come here! Turn it loose now. I'll see you at the other end. All right? Go! Mike!

Whistles

we're reminded of the words of Winston Churchill

Jump out! Jump out, okay? Come on, now! Come on, now! -Oh, no! -Let's go, big guy! -Take your mark. -Go, Mikey! Go, Mikey! Go, baby! Turn it loose! Turn it loose! Turn it loose! Turn it loose! Now go! Flip and go! Flip and go! Go, Mikey! Go, Mikey! Go, Mikey! Go, Mikey! Go, Mikey! Turn it loose, baby! Yeah!

Cheers and applause

we're reminded of the words of Winston Churchill

Hey! That was a race! That was a race! Good job, baby! Hey, 29.29! You broke 30! What did I tell you? Give me some love. Good job! Good job. -Take a picture. -Look at. Look at. Come on. Smile, Scotty! -Gold medalist Michael McQuay!

Cheering

we're reminded of the words of Winston Churchill

-Mike was born. The expectations I had were very high. I knew I had something here if I had a son, that he was going to be something special, and then, when we found out he was autistic, it just... It was hard, but then learning about his moods and trying to learn, I think I became a better teacher and a better father by having an autistic son... I don't get no love?...by spending more time and being around more, always wondering and caring about what he's doing and how he's performing. -Okay, we got one more, buddy, one more. -He's funny. -Oh, damn! -Kelvin, Kelvin, Kelvin, come on, buddy! -Just calm down. -

Shouting

we're reminded of the words of Winston Churchill

-Hey, hey, hey. Shh. You're good. You're good. Come on. Calm down. Kelvin! Kelvin! Kelvin! Kelvin! Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. You're okay. Right here. You're good. Good. You're good. -It's not good. -You are good. You're ready to go, okay? Ready? -But it wasn't all right. -He's spitting on me! -But it's okay now. -It's not all right. -We let it go, okay? -Like, fix the problem. -We fixed the problem. We let it go, right? So let it go. -You fixed the problem means it's all good. -It's all good. -After fixed, all good. -We're all good, okay? We're all good. All right. One more, and we're going to check in, okay? -Hey, what the hell are you guys doing? -Listen, you got little kids here. You got little kids. You got to calm down, okay? -Something happened last time -- -I know, but you got to calm down just a little bit, okay? -Sometimes we have bad day, something that cannot happen at home. -But you're having a good day right now. You're doing really good today. -It's good to have good day. Sometimes, we have bad day. Something might happen, but it can't happen at my house. If one thing happens, I might go to jail. -But then so don't let it happen here, okay? -If jail happens to me, that's why I never come back to my real home never again. -We're not going to jail. No way, right? -That's not going to happen. -No, it's not going to happen. -Because we're special people here. -That's right. You're right. We're right. -Hey, I'm sorry. It wasn't my Tourette's. Something was really coming out from my lungs. -Okay. Kelvin? -Yeah, what's up? -He said take a deep breath. Count to 10. -He said... -Just going to give it a count to 10. -Yeah, sometimes that helps. -And just think. -Exactly. Sometimes that happens, right? -All right. Let's go, guys! We got to check in. -Go. Go, go check in, guys. -All right. We got it. We got it. We're good. Let's see what stage are you guys? -You guys check in? -Yep. -Kelvin, you might want to count to 10, take a deep breath. -What are you swimming? -Freestyle. -Very good. -Right. How many laps? -Two laps. -Two laps. What are you swimming? -Two laps. -What are you swimming? -Fifty breaststroke, two laps. -How many laps? -Two. -Guys, this is our last relay. -Last relay. All right. -Last relay. You got to do fast as you can. -Yeah, we'll try as hard as we can! -Do it fast as you can. -Last one of the year. Let's do it. All right? -Go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! -Go, Robert! -Going to turn it loose, right? -Got you, Coach. -What's that? -Got you, Coach. -Oh, you got it? All right. All right. -I wish I will make your face. -We're going to make a happy face, right? -Happy face. -Make me a happy face. -Hayden, stay in your group. You're third. Robert, you're ahead of him. Get in front of him. -Medley relay, backstrokers, take your mark. -Go! Get up, get up. Hayden, get up. Hayden, get up. -I can do it. I can do it! I can do it! -Go, Robert, go! Stay in the middle! -Let's go! Let's go, Robert! Let's go! -All right! Pull! Pull! Pull, one, two, three, four, five! Go, go, go! We got to catch him! We got to catch him! We got to catch him now! All right! You got this! You got to go and catch him! Go! Come on! -Go, Robert! -Go, Rob! Go, Rob! Go, Robbie! Go, Robbie! Go, Robert! Pull! Go, Robbie! Go, go, go, go, go! Yeah! -Go, Robert!

Cheers and applause

we're reminded of the words of Winston Churchill

-What'd you do? What'd you do? Give me some love. Give me some love. Good job. Good job. -I showed you! -You showed me! Go get in your line over there! Good job! -Go, Robert!

Applause

we're reminded of the words of Winston Churchill

-Go, Robert! -Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to present to you gold medalists the Jersey Hammerheads!

Applause

we're reminded of the words of Winston Churchill

-Gold medal is $20. Silver is $15. Bronze is $10. -And this is the $5 one I get for that one. -What you going to buy? -We don't know. We'll find out what happens. -We'll find out what happens. Oh, okay. -We're pretty happy. He decided to change his mind and join the team and compete. -I was just jumping for joy! Did you just see me? You didn't see me because you were swimming. You were just going so fast. I need to give you a hug. I'm so proud of you. -You don't want joke about that. I might get in trouble.

Grunts

we're reminded of the words of Winston Churchill

I'm okay. I'm all right. I shouldn't play games like that. I might get in trouble. -Yes, okay. Your total is $27.23. -You want me to get for you, Mommy? -Yeah. -Nothing has prepared me for, I mean, dealing with Kelvin. There are several stages, I guess, mental stages. The first time we discovered that his disability is kind of still asking, "Why me? Why?" Okay, but I think I got over it pretty quick. I mean, and then the next stage, "What can we do?" So we try to do something, and we're still doing it right now. What can we do to get him better, I mean, better cope with his disability and better, I mean, to be an independent person? We just have to move forward. -Bye-bye! Oh! -Bye. -Bye. Thank you, Mom! -Bye. You're welcome.

Cheering

we're reminded of the words of Winston Churchill

-We encourage the world

to view our children as we do

strong, accomplished individuals who have the potential to change the world one perception at a time.

Cheers and applause

to view our children as we do

-Look at him signing autographs over there! Oh, my gosh. -Come on, big guy! Come on, man! Come on!

Whistle blows

to view our children as we do

-Take your mark.

Buzzer

to view our children as we do

-Go, Michael! -Go, go! Go, Michael! Go, Michael!

Buzzer

to view our children as we do

-He was never supposed to talk, write his name, swim. Here it is 11 years later, and look what he's doing! -Go!

Cheering

to view our children as we do

-Go, go, go, go, go! The whole thing is, you can't give up on your child. I mean, it's an old cliche. Everybody says it, but I've lived it. I mean, I live it every day. -I always have visions of him always staying with me. But seeing him progress and doing what he's doing, now I'm second thinking this. Second thoughts are like, "Wait a second! This kid has a future!" -He did it, huh? He did it! -Gold medal Michael McQuay. -He is going to do what he wants. He can do it. You know, in our house, we never said "can't," never. You know, you always have to at least try. -Unbelievable. Now I can cry. Now I can cry. You did great. -All right. Sit down here because you're too tall. I can't reach you anymore. -I like to work with animals at a zoo and see if they'll hire me at a zoo. I talked to zoo keepers and see if I could do what they do. -All right, my handsome devil. You're ready. Let's go downstairs. -All right. -Go ahead. V. -It's a lot of paperwork to get a job, isn't it? -Did you finish your application? -Yeah. I just finished it. -May I see that, please? -Okay. -Thanks. So what do you know about the zoo? -What I know about it? I know... Well, I've been coming here ever since I was a little kid, and, you know, seeing all the animals are really amazing and I'm very interested in them. -Do you have a group of animals in particular that you're interested in? -Well, I'm interested in primates. -How did you get interested in primates? -Well, it's just that primates are like very intelligent animals because they're like us, like human beings, and some are related to them. -It's one of those groups of animals that people either really love or really hate. -Well, people do love primates, of course. -We're all primates. -Yeah. -The zoo is a 7-day-a-week operation. Are there any days that you would be unable to work? -Can you repeat that again? -Are there any days that you would not be able to work during the summer? Do you have obligations? -No, I don't have anything in the summer. -Okay. -Robert is a captain in just about every sense that you would expect. This year is definitely the full bloom. You know, this year, he's come into a full bloom as a leader, as a captain. -It's nice. -Hey, my mom's going to get a picture. -Oh. -He leads practices. He encourages the other swimmers. He teaches some of the younger swimmers. He gives the team pep talks. Here we've got a captain who does what the rest of the people should aspire to do. The first swimmer I'm going to recognize is Robert Justino. Robert is receiving the coach's award. It's one of the highest awards that we have. Robert Justino, to me, is a real success story. He has the story of overcoming adversity and doing really what other people thought that he couldn't do, including on this team. He's made such a huge impact on this team. You guys look to him as a captain, so this is for Robert Justino.

Applause

to view our children as we do

-Smile, Robert. -Give me a hug. -I took, like, three.

Rooster crows

Bleating

to view our children as we do

-All right. There you go. All right, guys. Come on. -I'm impressed. I enjoy swimming, and it's always fun to watch people who can excel in the things that they do. -Two bites. Come on. Two bites. Come on. Come on, girl. -In terms of what we are looking for here at the zoo, we need somebody who could do the zoo job, and he was hired for that purpose. We thought that he would be a good fit. He's got a passion, but he's got a calm demeanor. That's what you want working with not only the animals but also with the people that come here. This is somebody who loves animals but also somebody who really cared about what they were doing and I thought would do a good job. -This one right here is Gizmo. That one over there with the shorter ears is Ducky. The black one right here is a male. His name is Diablo. That one right over there is Loch Ness. The floppy-ear one is Kirra. White one is Lizzy. -No, no, not up there, not up there. There you go. -Yeah, don't feed them on that. All right? They know just down. -Down here. -Oh, they're fighting! They're fighting!