at the age of three months, paterson contracted an ear infection that spread to his optic nerve, leaving him sightless in his left eye and with severely limited vision in his right. since new york city public schools would not guarantee him an education without placing him in special education classes, his family bought a home in the long island suburb of south hempstead so that he could attend mainstream classes there. paterson was the first student with a disability in the hempstead public schools, graduating from hempstead high school in 1971.