HUNTINGTON BEACH : Special Distinction Earned at Edison

Craig Thompson, Eagle Scout, piano virtuoso and speed demon on the word processor, and Julie Manuel, who is confined to a wheelchair, has very limited reading ability and has difficulty communicating, will be two of the shining lights at Edison High School’s graduation exercises on June 11.

The two are students in the school’s Special Abilities Cluster, a program for youngsters who are intellectually or physically severely handicapped, or both. Eighteen of the 100 handicapped youngsters enrolled in the program will graduate, getting either a diploma or a letter of recommendation.

Thompson, 22, a highly functioning autistic who had trouble channeling information to his brain, taught himself to overcome his disability, his father said.

He has has met all the education requirements set by the state and the Huntington Beach Union High School District and will receive a diploma.

Manuel, 21, was born prematurely and experienced a lack of oxygen at birth that contributed to brain damage and cerebral palsy, her mother said.

She loves to help others and has an engaging smile that lights up any room that she enters, according to Vice Principal Kathryn O. Schwabl. She will receive an official letter of recommendation for meeting goals and objectives that a team including Julie, her parents and teachers set for her at the start of the school year.

Thompson, Manuel and about 100 other severely handicapped students moved to the Edison High School campus last September when the Guidance Center at Wintersburg High School closed. Many attend some integrated classes with regular students and have become popular and accepted on campus, Schwabl said.

When the students moved to the Edison campus in the fall, Principal Brian Garland vowed that they would be Chargers (the school nickname) from opening day on. Participating in graduation exercises fulfills part of that pledge, officials said.

Thompson, who also attends a computer class at Coastline College, will attend Orange Coast College next fall where he plans to study music. He hopes to become a music teacher.

“I’m very proud of him and I feel very good that he will graduate,” his father, Allan Thompson, said. “He’s done very well from where he’s started. He’s received great acceptance from regular students. Many of them cheered when he won a Golden Key Plaque” awarded for school achievement.

Betty Manuel, mother of Julie, said the move of the special students to Edison last September “opened a whole new world, and that was wonderful being with typical high school kids, who were very kind.”

“I’m sorry to leave it (Edison) behind us,” she said.