Specialty Services

In December 2020, we said goodbye to Cheyenne, who graduated with a certificate of completion. Cheyenne joined us at Spectrum Center in 2018 and delighted us with the progress she made. Cheyenne loved to listen to music and was an expert at building puzzles. Everyone on campus looked forward to seeing her walking down the halls greeting others. During distance learning, Cheyenne had a lot of fun participating in virtual classes and even tried to help others out with their work. When Cheyenne started with us, she did not enjoy transitions to new locations. When she graduated, Cheyenne happily took walks down the halls and helped out with deliveries. We miss Cheyenne and wish her the best in her future.

Cheyenne’s parents have let us know that since her graduation she has not yet been able to join an adult program due to restrictions related to COVID-19, but they are hopeful that she can soon. They look forward to Cheyenne someday soon being able go to a program so she can socialize and be with others. Currently, she is at home with her grandmother during the day. She still enjoys doing puzzles, listening to Jack Johnson and watching videos on YouTube. Her favorite is a video of a student that gets on a bus via a lift and is in a wheelchair. She also enjoys finding trains and garbage truck videos. She likes to help around the house and assists with tasks. She helps make her meals with prompting but is always QUITE ready to pull it all out of the fridge/freezer when she is ready. Cheyenne still has pictures of fellow classmates on the fridge and the posters that were made for her graduation in her room so she can remember her friends from Spectrum Center. She gets excited whenever she has the opportunity to visit with someone from the school.

There was a student at the Jurupa campus in our Academic Program that I worked with a few years back who had an Emotionally Disturbed diagnosis and engaged in self-harm. He was becoming a senior and was losing hope in himself and for others around him because they would just give up on him. As he started to see the other seniors about mid-year getting ready to graduate, he went into a hole and stayed in the refocus room all day with his head down and had a few behaviors along the way.

One day I brought him into the office for a heart to heart, and I informed him that I would reach out to the district to see if we could work out a graduation plan. The district approved a graduation plan for him, and things went into motion. He literally stayed in my office as work came to him and completed an intense amount of work to obtain his goal of completing his high school diploma. Once the last packet was complete and we submitted the transcripts to the district, he finally graduated.

During our graduation ceremony, he got to speak, and in doing so, he thanked the staff for believing in him when others did not. When we spoke afterward, he told me that he used to get mad at me because he tried to get me to hate him, but I would come every day saying, “Hello, when you’re ready to talk I’ll be waiting.” So, he gave in eventually because I wouldn’t leave him alone. Crying, he gave me a hug and said that he would miss me and told me to keep helping people like him graduate and move on.

 -Adolph, Program Director Chino