Darius Way’s size-16 shoes thumped into the office.
It’s easy to see he plays basketball. And football, baseball, soccer and karate. But, what the graduating high school senior is most proud of is his perfect attendance at school.
“I never liked to miss school,” Way said. “I like it. I don’t want to get behind. I don’t want make-up work.”
The Plant City resident graduated May 23, from Riverview Center Academy, with perfect attendance and honors. Not bad for someone who also has a learning disability. A disability so severe that doctors told his mother, Karen, to put him in a group home when he was diagnosed.
Karen first noticed something was different about her son when he was just an infant. He wasn’t making the right sounds when he was learning to speak. She took him to a speech therapist at 1. By 2, he was diagnosed with severe autism.
“It was hard, because I didn’t know a lot about autism,” Karen said. “When the doctor told me, he didn’t give me anything to look forward to. He told me basically to give up.”
The doctor told Karen that her son would never read. He would never write. He would never be able to function in a classroom setting. He would never play sports.
But, Karen wasn’t going to take that as his destiny.
She worked with Darius, pushing him to try new things.
“At that point I was going to do everything I could do,” Karen said. “It was hard, but we look back and say we did it. We didn’t give up on him.”
He learned to play guitar and keyboard. He took vocal lessons. When Darius started picking up on all types of things, his diagnosis changed from autism to Asperger’s syndrome. He was only 7.
Continuing to learn, Darius discovered sports. The hardest part became shuffling Darius around to his different extra-curriculars rather than his learning disability.
“I introduced him to different things so he could have confidence in himself,” Karen said. “He can have a happy, full life even with disabilities. There’s nothing holding him back.”
Karen also pushed Darius in school. He started at Wilson Elementary, but she later moved him to a school in Brandon that focused on students with learning disabilities. For high school, he went to Riverview. When he got B’s, she encouraged him. But, she always motivated him to get A’s.
With a 3.67 GPA, Darius has been accepted to Beacon College, in Leesburg, which focuses on students with learning disabilities. He wants to study human services and work in sports management, if he can afford the tuition.
“It’s such a beautiful campus,” Karen said. “It was really impressive when we went to visit. The only drawback is the tuition.”
Still, the mother-son team are celebrating their success in his graduation.
“It feels good,” Darius said. “I can have all the freedom.”
Every time Karen hears “Pomp and Circumstance,” she tears up.
“He told me on graduation day that I could cry,” Karen said. “It’s unbelievable. Where we started to now — it’s just amazing.”
Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com.
