I ran across an article yesterday that, as a lawyer, I found particularly compelling. A young woman with autism is about to graduate from the highly ranked Marshall–Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary.
Perhaps most of our special needs kids aren’t going to graduate school. For many, getting through an ordinary day is a major accomplishment. So of course Hallie (the law student) is not a “typical” autistic person, any more than some of the characters in TV shows such as “Speechless” (cerebral palsy) or “The Good Doctor” (autism) are “typical”.
But Hallie Hovey-Murray’s story is a great one we can all relate to in one way or another. She was smart, but “couldn’t follow rules, couldn’t sit and color and went running out of the classroom when she got overwhelmed. She acted out. She misbehaved. She was expelled from two schools.”
She was repeatedly misdiagnosed (who hasn’t experience that frustration!). Finally diagnosed with autism at age 10, she was told she wouldn’t graduate high school until age 21.
But now at 23, she’s about to graduate law school. And there’s a lot more to Hallie than that. You can learn more about her where I did, here.
Learn more about Special Needs Law Group of Massachusetts here.
This blog post does not constitute legal or tax advice, even if you are presently a client of Special Needs Law Group of Massachusetts, PC, nor is an attorney-client relationship created by reading it. If you want legal or tax advice, you should retain a licensed attorney or tax advisor for that purpose.
[Key Words: Autistic Woman in Law School, Autistic Woman Miss Virginia Pageant]