‘Slowly Learning to Cope’

What public figures are you referring to?
Pam: The one that comes to mind first is Bill O'Reilly. He said that Shawn possibly liked where he was at. Bill's a very outspoken figure, and he has a very large following. It seems a lot of people thought that if Bill said it, it must be true. And there were some others that seemed to back him up, although not as openly and not as emphatically. Another is Geraldo [Rivera]. He went on Bill O'Reilly and was going along with him. They later backtracked some. But Bill O'Reilly has done excellent work for children, which was why it was so shocking.

How is Shawn doing with his recovery?
Craig: He's doing really well in all regards. One of the most important things to us was getting his education back up to speed. He worked one-on-one with a tutor over the summer. The current school year, he's in private school in St. Louis, a small school where they work one-on-one with students. They allow them to work at their own pace. He underwent an educational assessment [after his return], and at that time, he was working at about a 4.5 grade level. In the last couple weeks, they re-evaluated him, and now he's working at an eighth or ninth grade level. We're just flabbergasted. It's evident how smart Shawn really is, how quickly he's able to get a grip on new things. The teachers are just glowing with praise about how well he's doing. He seems to be a leader. Other children look to him for guidance. He helps out other kids with problems. So in that respect, he's excelling. On an emotional level, it's not something that will go away overnight, but he's making very, very good progress. He's able to process what happened, and he's slowly learning to cope with that. He has good days and bad days. There are days when you can tell he has something on his mind, but overall, we feel he's making fantastic progress. We're seeing the shine and sparkle in his eyes, a lot of the old 11-year-old boy come out, the joking. He was all about being in a good mood and sharing that with the world. Slowly but surely, we're seeing that come back. In the early months, we didn't see that, we didn't see that personality. It was in there, but hidden. He has made a lot of progress since then. We're certain he will be able to get a handle on this, and make it to where it's not part of his everyday existence.

What's his life like these days?
Pam: He's back to riding his dirt bike. The birthday before he was taken, we had given him his first dirt bike. For his 16th birthday, he got a new one. Next season, he might do some racing. There's also his four-wheeler, basketball, baseball, videogames, things normal teens do.
Craig: And also talking on the phone [sighs and laughs]. He has reconnected with several friends he was in school with at the time of his abduction. He has made quite a few new friends, and he's developing some good friendships through his school. He's a very outgoing kid. He's able to just walk up and start talking to someone. It seems he's able to make those friendships very quickly. His circle of friends is growing rapidly. We're thrilled there are kids out there that can look beyond all that negative information out there and treat him just like any other kid that they met. It's really wonderful for us to know that kids are accepting him for who he is. We know that's not always going to be the case. Some kids are going to say things that are inappropriate and will hurt his feelings.

Has Shawn seen any of the friends he made during his captivity?
Craig: To this point, no. As part of the litigation, he was asked not to have any contact with any of the friends he made while in captivity. Now that that's over, that's up to Shawn. If he wants to reconnect with some of those kids, we will certainly make that available to him.

Given all the media exposure Shawn got, does he attract a lot of attention?
Craig: Actually, we're finding that he's really not as recognized as much as we thought he'd be. Pam and I are much more recognizable. It's making it difficult for us to go places as a family. But Shawn seems to blend in. Very infrequently do children passing by him recognize him. In fact, there are some instances where he had to convince a child that he was Shawn Hornbeck [laughs].

How have you balanced being protective of him with allowing him the independence a teenager wants?
Pam: It's very hard and a very fine line that we walk everyday. We just take it day by day. Eventually, hopefully, it won't be in the back of our minds, but at this point, we're not there. We always make sure someone's there [with him].
Craig: We've got a group of family members that we're comfortable with him being with, so when there's something Shawn wants to do and an occasion where we don't want him to be recognized, we'll send him out with one of those relatives or a couple close friends that we trust enough. It's hard to pick and choose who I am going to entrust my child to, who's going to have the right answers, the right actions in case something did come up. That's been an ongoing process and a difficult process. We can't be there 24 hours a day. And, naturally, he doesn't want his parents shadowing him wherever he goes.