A small gesture of ki. The story below is an example of how they are ignored, but for a few Good Samaritans who save the day with kindness.
Advertisement
“Everyone was super welcoming him”. The photo made it all the way back to Rudolph, who admitted to choking up when he read Paski’s open letter.
For Bo Paske, eating lunch alone at school is an every day occurrence, but when Travis visited the school with his team, he decided he wouldn’t leave Bo sitting by himself.
Rudolph went over and sat down with the boy and talked with him as the two ate.
“As soon as I sat down he introduced himself to me and said ‘Hey my name is Bo, what’s your name, ‘ and the conversation went from there”. “And I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ And just like that we were eating lunch together, and he even signed my lunch box”. You would never think anything is wrong with him. He had a nice smile on his face. In her moving Facebook post, she expresses her fears of how her autistic son might deal with school. I do remember middle school being scary, and hard. While other kids sat in groups, this little boy was on his own. “Sometimes I’m grateful for his autism”, Paske wrote on Facebook. “I hope he stays focused, stays locked in, just being the person he is, because I feel like he is a great person and I would love to hang out with him anytime”. And will people “stare at him when he flaps his hands”?
She added: “He doesn’t seem to notice that he doesn’t get invited to birthday parties anymore”.
Posting to Facebook, she couldn’t hide her happiness that he wasn’t left to eat alone.
“Who did you eat lunch with today?” She said most days his answer is “nobody”.
The photo was taken by Mike Halligan, the middle school’s resource officer and a friend of the family. However, when Randolph saw Paske he chose to make a new friend. She and her son are now both fans of the football program for what they did.
Bo Paske has autism.
“The picture speaks way more than a thousand words”. Everyone else in the picture is sitting far away. “He’s looking at him while he’s eating”, she said. “And for the mom, if he needs my (cell) number, he can get it”, Mr Rudolph told CBS affiliate, WCTV.
Jimbo Fisher, the head coach at the university stated that he was “extremely proud” of his player and ‘he made some young man’s day’.
Advertisement
Rudolph said his phone hasn’t stopped ringing. He told me he read the mother’s post before practice and that it almost brought tears to his eyes.
