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In Harm's Way

Continued from page 4

Jimmy Rodriguez graduated from Glendale High last spring. (His gold graduation tassel still dangles from his wheelchair.) He still visits Dale Whitney's classroom, where a drawing of three sunflowers still adorns the wall. It took Rodriguez months to draw the sunflowers with a pencil attached to his headband. Like everything else in his life, the drawing took uncommon perseverance.He had always hoped to find a job, to be a productive citizen. But it took him a year to find work. Finally, through a private agency, he secured two jobs. On weekends he is a companion to elderly people and does their shopping -- with the help of an attendant. As soon as the Liberator-assisted answering machine he has ordered arrives, he will begin work at a dentist's office, advising patients over the phone of upcoming appointments. The job is firm, he says.

Until the device arrives, on weekdays Rodriguez has been temporarily warehoused by the state in a day program with severely mentally retarded people.

Yes, it is depressing, he acknowledges, "but I am used to it." In the afternoons, he assists the manager with her daily tally of expenses.

He says he must go to the day-care program because the state does not want "to pay for an attendant" that would enable him to lead a more normal existence. Still, he consoles himself with the thought that in a few short weeks he will have his telephone connection and will be working full-time.

Once he gets his job routine nailed down, he hopes to volunteer to teach people with cerebral palsy -- people who "despair" because they cannot communicate with others -- to use Liberators.

He visits his mother practically every weekend. He is frequently distressed by her problems, frustrated that there is "not much" he can do to help her.

His own social life, however, is picking up.

He has a girlfriend, a former caregiver at his group home. He had often wondered if he would ever have consensual sex, and finally, he says, it happened. He enjoys sex "just like everybody else does, except the woman does all the work."

With his girlfriend and his jobs and weekends with his family, Jimmy Rodriguez finally seems to be getting what he wants, which is, simply, to be "like all the other 21-year-olds."

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