Like Lightning

Another camp. 3 counselors per cabin of 6 or 7 teenage girls. It served a combination of needs. Some kids had developmental disabilities. Some had experienced trauma. In our cabin, three of the girls were autistic. This girl only seemed to say two things: First was, "Number two no touching!" which meant that she had touched something- or more often, someone, roughly, and a staff had caught her. My assumption is that in school, there are a list of rules, and #2 has to do with not touching others. We'd call her name, she'd shout, "Number two no touching!" we'd affirm it, and she'd put her hands down. The other thing I heard her say was, "NoooOooooo!" as she ran off. At this camp, we tried to be flexible with activities. Often, she and I would spend free-time, skipping and galloping a quarter mile across camp, then skipping and galloping a quarter mile back. She loved it. What she hated, it seems, was swimming. It took three attempts at getting her to join swimming, before we gave in and found alternative activities for her. We could have tried more, but...

We took the girls to the shower room. All the girls showered and put on their swimsuits- some with help. Then we started to walk out of the shower room, when like lightning, her swimsuit came off, and she was running, screaming, "NooOoooo! as a co-counselor and another staff chased her. They caught her fairly quickly, and got her swimsuit on her, and the co-counselor told her "no" every time she'd move her hand to her swimsuit. Same thing the second time. Third time though, she waited until we were halfway to the pool. Then in front of a group of teenage boys, like lightning, her swimsuit was off, and she ran right through the line of boys who all stood speechless, faster than ever before. It took a few minutes for them to catch her and get her swimsuit on. That was when it was decided that she apparently doesn't like to wear a swimsuit, and she was allowed to participate in other activities instead.