Eric Duquette has been diagnosed with autism. He however graduated as Class Salutatorian at the Smithfield High School in Rhode Island. In a class with under 200 students, he got the second-highest grade point average. He plans to study Biology at the Rhode Island College comes fall.

He proudly delivered his commencement speech at his High School graduation with his classmates cheering him on. This was really amazing especially from someone like Eric who had not spoken a word until he reached five years old.

Watch Eric Duquette, Smithfield High School Class 2010 Salutatorian deliver his speech in this video.

Eric Duquette is a prime example that support from parents, teachers and the school are very important to be able to achieve one’s goals and dreams.

So there, for those who do not have any diagnosis that need to be given special education services, they should put in more effort to their studies and not on their playstation 3 games. When these happen, perhaps it is time to put more effort in teaching the importance of time management.

Congratulations to you Eric and we are sending you virtual hugs from our little corner of the world.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 19th, 2010 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Autism, Being a (Special Ed) Teacher, Challenge Yourself, In the News, Interesting tidbits, Lessons in Life, Teaching Techniques, special education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.