She won't have to leave her car idling in the parking lot at Northridge High to drag her 15-year-old son, kicking and screaming, to his classroom. She won't get a tight feeling in her chest whenever the phone rings, wondering if the principal is calling to say the boy, who has autism, is missing again. She won't panic as she rushes from work to her home in South Weber, worried the teenager won't be safe in his usual hideout under the back porch.
Because, pretty soon, Utah will have a public high school specifically designed to address the educational and social needs of children with autism and Asperger syndrome.
'I was so elated when I heard the news, I literally jumped up and down,' Hartog said. 'The difference between specialized and mainstream education is night and day for my kid.'
Spectrum Academy, a three-year-old charter school that"
