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Who was that girl at the Massapequa HS graduation?
by Jessica Scarpati Mary Farrell remembers watching her daughter struggling as a child to open a Band-Aid box. She worked laboriously at it for 25 minutes before succeeding, no small task for the child who had suffered from seizures and was diagnosed with spastic quad cerebral palsy with athetosis, a movement disorder. "When she finally pushed (the lid) open, I said to myself, ‘This kid is motivated," said Farrell. This June, Jaclyn Marie Farrell, now 21, was among those receiving diplomas at the Massapequa High School graduation ceremony, a mark of her personal commitment to be all that she can be. After completing the required course, she received an Individual Education Plan (IEP) diploma and her mother believes her daughter’s latest accomplishment is another testament to her ambition and success. When Jackie’s formal education ended in June, Farrell’s lawyer Deborah Rebore, asked her if she wanted to graduate with Massapequa High School. She gave Rebore an enthusiastic go ahead. During the ceremony, administrators stepped down from the stage to hand Jackie, who walks with crutches, her diploma. And, even though many of them did not know Jackie, parents, residents and students at the graduation ceremony stood up and applauded. "I didn’t know her, but like everyone else, I could see that she had struggled to overcome some great obstacles," said one parent at the ceremony. "She’s going to be president in my eyes," said Farrell."She has made fantastic progress and she’s going to continue to make it." Jackie attended four special education schools in Nassau and Suffolk County, transferring, Farrell said, because of her specialized needs. Farrell attributes Jackie’s recent success to the team of individuals, funded by the Massapequa School District until her twenty-first birthday and now covered under her father’s insurance, to teach Jackie everything from money management to music studies. "Here’s an individual who is so motivated and does not get frustrated, and she keeps going," said Able Health Care occupational therapist Maria DiFalco. "My first impressions of Jackie were, ‘Wow, look at this person who wants to do her best in spite of the challenges she faces.’ Obviously, she has limitations in different things, but she is a person who has so much potential and doesn’t get hindered by these limitations." Currently, Jackie and DiFalco are at work on helping Jackie acquire money management skills, including the ability to balance a checkbook. DiFalco also combines lessons in language skills with computer training by having Jackie send e-mails. "She’s making a lot of small steps," said DiFalco. "Her overall motivation is really key, and she is able to do so much more than people might think." Whether Jackie’s ‘small steps’ are on the computer or around Sunrise Mall for three hours while she practices walking without a walker, Farrell said it’s been a difficult, but rewarding, road to achievement. The first special education school Jackie attended for 13 years, which Farrell declined to name for legal reasons, put her in a classroom with students who, said Farrell, did not share Jackie’s enthusiasm. "One kid would fall asleep during class and another student would walk around the classroom; that drove my daughter nuts," said Farrell. "They showed her Barney movies when she was 15 or 16 years old and that drove her up the wall." Jackie, her mother explained, was getting bored in class and wanted to learn about the subjects she enjoyed, like math, spelling and music. The family found it challenging to find a school that would teach Jackie on the level she demanded. Teachers in her next school introduced her to addition and subtraction, and Farrell said at first things looked promising. However, she added, the school could not meet her needs in other areas. "They put her on a computer and let her type letters, and they told me she had no skills," said Farrell. In fact, it was a modified keyboard that she needed but that the school did not provide. Instead, she learned to use the computer by pushing the keys with a pencil. After testing Jackie, experts told her parents that, contrary to what the second school had told them, she was capable of learning and needed to be in a program that stimulated her. Farrell transferred her daughter again, this time to a school that promised to teach her daughter academics. Instead, she was introduced to a simple elementary lesson, one which was about bats. Exasperated, Farrell took to home-schooling her daughter in 1999 with the help of specialists. Jackie, who reads on a fourth grade level, meets with a tutor and a speech therapist at the Central Avenue Library in addition to receiving occupational and physical therapy at home. Farrell said she owes much of Jackie’s progress to the dedication and creativity to this team. One tutor, she recounted, brought a guitar to their lessons and taught Jackie multiplication by playing music and singing the times tables. Her physical therapist, Connie Dunlop, helps her with sitting, standing and loosening her legs. After months of therapy, Dunlop also managed to open up Jackie’s hands which, like most people with cerebral palsy, were clenched. Even while Jackie received help, Farrell looked outside of New York for better programs. She searched eight states, including North Carolina, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, but said she sometimes found less than what was offered here. Connie Russo, Director of Special Education for the Massapequa schools, said that Jackie’s case was a good example of the district’s willingness to meet every child’s individual needs. "I’ve worked with the Massapequa district for 18 years, and they have never said ‘no’ to any of the needs of any of the kids, especially the special education children," said Russo. "We turn ourselves inside-out for all of the kids; every child is a star." "I thought it (graduation) was a beautiful ceremony and the most wonderful thing, and that’s what I wanted for her," said her mother. "She worked hard for it and I think she can go even further." "Jackie doesn’t like to sit around," said Farrell. "She’s like a typical teenager in that she loves Britney Spears and N’Sync, but she wants to be out doing something. She doesn’t want to waste her time." Farrell has searched out adult groups but most are for older people with disabilities. "There isn’t really that much out there, but my next step is to start one myself," said Farrell. In the meantime, Jackie is now doing volunteer work at the Double-R Ranch in Suffolk, working with the abused and unwanted farm animals. And, according to her mother, she wants to do even more and hopes one day to get a job. Despite her disability Jackie has experienced the triumph of achievement and high aspirations for the future. Anyone interested in joining a social group for teenagers and young adults with disabilities should contact Mary Farrell at 516-795-7263.
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