Parents and schools struggle to find a place for more and more autistic kids.

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Even if a cause for autism is eventually found, a cure may not be discovered for some time.

That means an increasing number of parents from all walks of life are adjusting to life with autistic children.

For the Cabrillo family, that means getting angry stares from strangers when they take Jeremiah out in public. Like most autistics, Jeremiah looks normal at first glance. But being in a supermarket causes him an overload of sensory input. So he throws a fit and starts screaming.

“People make comments under their breath, like, ‘Why can’t they control their child?’” says Sandra Cabrillo, who also cares for Jeremiah’s older sister. “It makes me so mad when I hear that.”

Rafael Cabrillo admits that what makes his heart sink is whenever they get together with children from other families and can really see and compare how far behind Jeremiah is in his social skills.

Marcela Salaiz has found a solution for the angry and weird stares they get out in public. She made a shirt for Felix that explains that he has autism, and expresses her own thoughts on the origin of his illness. “My name is Felix,” states the shirt in big white letters on the front. “I have vaccine-induced autism, AKA mercury poisoning. My mental age is 2. I’ll be one of about 4 million severe autistics in the US by 2015.”

“My other son, Fernando, won’t go out with Felix if he’s not wearing the shirt, because he’s tired of having to explain to people what’s wrong with him,” she says.

Susan Oros’ daughter, Samantha, breaks the autism stereotype in two ways. First she’s a girl. And second, she smiles a lot. Diagnosed with autism at 2 and a half years of age, Samantha is now 6 years old and still hardly speaks a word.

Oros says one of the hardest things about raising a child with autism is setting an educational plan in partnership with educators, which she had to do before Samantha could enter MCOE’s special education programs.

“It’s so tempting to say that I want her to read by the time she’s 8 years old, or things like that,” Oros says. “But even if she gains those rote academic skills, I worry that that’s not going to be an indicator for her success. Or for happiness in her life.”