Growing up in the seventies and eighties, Christopher knew he was odd because the activities kids liked were not always the same as he wanted to do. He was bullied and teased constantly, and he never understood why. The bullying lasted up to about his sophomore year in high school. Trying to have a girlfriend was impossible. he was always a romantic, but trying to share that with the opposite gender didn't happen. His mother knew there was something different about him, but she didn't know (and neither did the doctors) what his deal was. She tried to put him in smaller classes, and high school, He attended a country school even though he lived in the city. He got accepted to the California and Colorado Art Institutes because of his early work in video art from the Macintosh II computer. (Remember, we're talking 1988 at the time.) But Mom said no, so he was forced to attend a community college. Little did his mother know he would meet a beautiful woman in the Spring of 1989. His mother was not thrilled he met this woman; worse, he proposed and married her in November that year. His wife had a daughter, a son, and a set of twin daughters.
When his twin daughters started to grow, one daughter suddenly started to regress to the point of not communicating with Christopher or his wife or her sister. The doctors told the couple that she has low-functioning autism and that they should expect to take care of her for the rest of her life. Fortunately, Children's Mercy Hospital was experimenting with an Alzheimer's medication called Nemenda. Something extraordinary happened; the medication started to work! Their daughter's brain developed from low functioning to higher-functioning autism. Not only this revelation but her twin sister was also diagnosed with high-functioning autism. (Higher than her sister.) It’s mentioned this because they learned that autism is hereditary, so together as husband and wife decided to have Christopher tested for autism, and guess what..... He has a disability as well. Christop knows this sounds horrible, but he was so relieved that he finally found out what was wrong was him. He was 35 when he finally found out, but not knowing for all those years was maddening.
Weirdo 2.0 is a story about the horrific experience Christopher had the last year as a teacher in his old school district. After a meeting with the superintendent, he didn't like the answer about the state testing. So after the meeting, he met with the head of HR and told her to get rid of the 'weirdo.' From then on, many administrators, coordinators, and other officials came into his room, taking notes and trying to get him to quit. He had accommodations put into his records with HR before he started with the district. They broke every accommodation because he was autistic—the book focuses on people like himself who have been bullied at work because of our disability.
Please note names and locations were changed for legal reasons.
Currently, Christopher is still married to his wife of 33 years. He teaches SPED for an urban school district, but he is looking to be an administrator soon. He is still writing, but finding the time has been tricky. Both Christopher and his wife have two granddaughters, three dogs, and a cat!
