Autistic Cambria teen has his sights set on elite school in Ojai. It comes down to 1 test
Tristen Lehrmann is a smart, witty eighth grader at Santa Lucia Middle School in Cambria. He’s also autistic.
Tristen wants to attend an elite private boarding school in Ojai.
Before he could even apply, he had to take an SSAT, or, Secondary School Admissions Test. But those who know the 13-year-old or have taught him are confident that he’ll place well in any admissions screening and subsequently do well in his studies and chosen career.
Kyle Martin, principal of Santa Lucia Middle School and assistant superintendent of the school district that oversees it, said Tristen is “a phenomenal student.”
For instance, “He’s in geometry as an eighth grader, which doesn’t happen often,” Martin said.
Tristen “is one of those kids who picks everything up naturally,” Martin added, even at a high-level Cal Poly EPIC (Engineering Possibilities in College) camp that was “all about engineering.” “Tristen’s like a sponge. He understands the information and holds onto it all.”
School admissions test
Tristen took the SSAT in Monterey on Oct. 19, and aced it, according to his mom, Jade Lehrmann Bodine. The proud parent said the teen got a high score of 2,124 out of 2,400.
Where that will place Tristen in the crucial percentile ratings isn’t yet known. (For instance, a student who was placed in the 95th percentile would have a score higher than 94% of the other test takers.) But various school officials agree that 2,124 is a good score for any student.
According to www.ssat.org, the SSAT “is a standardized test used by admission officers to assess the abilities of students seeking to enroll in an independent school.”
“The SSAT measures the basic verbal, math and reading skills students need for successful performance in independent schools,” the site says. “It’s an indispensable tool that gives admission professionals an equitable means to assess and compare applicants, regardless of their background or experience.”
SSATs are given for three levels: Elementary, middle and upper. Tristan took the upper level, administered to students in eighth through 11th grade for admission into ninth grade through post-graduate studies.
Tristen said the math and science questions were the easiest for him, no surprise since he’s a star STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) student.
The hardest part? “The writing,” he said with a shy smile.
Ojai boarding school
Tristen wants to attend the Thatcher School in Ojai.
Bill McMahon, Thatcher’s director of enrollment and planning, couldn’t comment Nov. 21 about which students would, could or might be admitted to the school in February, or if any of their previous or current students had formal diagnoses of autistic spectrum disorders.
McMahon did say that the highly selective school is “eager for all kinds of people to apply.”
If a student discovers his or her passions early in life and can talk about them, “that’s great,” he said, but “our goal is to get anybody who’s interested in this school program to apply.”
“Our admissions process is just like that at a great liberal arts college,” McMahon said. “It’s our job to sort through all the kids applying, and find the ones who will be a great fit.”
Why an independent school for Tristen?
Tristen wants to attend Thatcher because “he’s going to outgrow Coast Union High School by his junior year,” his mom said.
“He wants a real high school experience that he can’t outgrow, to learn about everything at once,” she added, rather than selecting one career path and focusing just on it.
“Thatcher is more like a college,” Bodine explained. “You can take computer classes and ag classes and have a horse. It’s a boarding school, so the lab is open until 10 p.m.”
Tristen said he hopes to go to Thatcher School “so I can learn more, out in the open, and take care of animals.” That echoes a bit of why he likes being a Boy Scout, which he said allows him to “go on adventures and learn about how to survive on my own,” perhaps in the wilderness in this area, giving him a break from being around so many people.
Tristen defines himself as “kind of a loner, I guess.”
There are seven in his blended family — three boys (ages 12, 13 and 14) that are Bodine’s, and two girls that her fiancé, Jared Meichtry, adds to the mix.
What if Tristen doesn’t make the cut at Thatcher?
“We’re considering Mission Prep,” his mom said. “If that doesn’t work, he’ll attend Coast with some added Cuesta College classes until he goes to college.”
Autism spectrum diagnosis
Tristen’s autism spectrum disorder was diagnosed when he was 5. His mom had noticed a drastic change in him when he was about a year old.
As a young child, some of the manifestations of Tristen’s disorder were worse than others, Bodine said.
His behavior could be very disruptive, she said, adding that, “He’d tear apart the classroom, and be really out of control.”
Bodine said “part of his autism is elopement disorder,” in which the autistic person wanders or runs away from a caregiver.
“He’s shut down an airport before” by running away, she said with a rueful chuckle. “It’s not that he’s fighting to get away, but like magic, he’s gone. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen as often anymore.”
When Bodine and her three boys moved to Cambria, where their family has had ties for decades, in 2010, the new grammar school “didn’t have a gate yet,” she said.
As a kindergartner, “Tristen decided he didn’t like any of the books at school, and he wanted to go to the library downtown to get a book he wanted. So, he went. … They built the gate around the school soon after that.”
What made a huge difference for Tristen, she said, was “early intervention.”
Tristen said his autism spectrum disorder both helps and hurts him.
“It helps because it makes me, like, smarter,” he said. The hurt? “How it makes me react, maybe do something wrong, and I might freak out.”
Asked what he wants other people to know about autism, Tristen thought for a moment and said firmly, “That it doesn’t always affect you badly.”
How autism affects emotions
Although Tristen’s autism behavioral impacts have improved exponentially as he grew older, the syndrome affects him now mostly on the emotional side, according to Bodine.
Now, “He’s very intelligent, witty, very ‘there,’” she said. “You’d think he was quirky, but wouldn’t think he was autistic.”
But “he doesn’t really understand emotions,” Bodine said. “He may mute the emotions or may not feel them. He doesn’t know or think that he’s extraordinary” in his capacity to learn and retain complex information.
Additionally, Tristen “doesn’t understand or feel empathy, pride or all those things that are within yourself in perspective to others.”
“Those don’t exist in his world,” Bodine said. “He doesn’t ever think about what somebody else is thinking about him.”
In fact, when a younger Tristen won a cyber security award from the U.S. Air Force, in a competition through Cuesta College, a few years ago, “he didn’t even tell me about it,” Bodine said. “He just threw it in the back of the car. He doesn’t have a whole lot of pride. He’s just doing what he thinks he’s supposed to do.”
According to Martin, Tristen “seems to get along with everyone. He’s a sincerely nice kid.”
“He’s his own person, but that makes him beloved, I’d say,” Martin said. “He marches to his own drum, but helps anyone who wants to march along with him.”
