He can’t dress, bathe or feed himself — and now even his hard-fought dream of going to college may be over.
Nick Astor, a 19-year-old with cerebral palsy from Park Slope, says SUNY Purchase is refusing to accommodate him and his longtime caregiver with a larger dorm apartment while he attends the university starting this fall.
“I just won’t be able to go to school. That’s it,’’ a dejected Astor told The Post.
The teen excelled in high school with the help of his ever-present aide, earning him a spot at the college. While his limbs sometimes buckle, Astor’s resolve was solid as steel, winning the respect of his classmates at Millennium Brooklyn HS.
But just days before he should be packing for college, Astor’s dream might be derailed after SUNY denied his request for a place big enough to provide a separate room for his caregiver.
Without his caregiver’s steadying hand, even getting out of bed in the morning for class would be impossible, according to Astor. He can’t even use the restroom without assistance.
His father, former Associated Press reporter Michael Astor, said he and his son explained the situation to SUNY, but the college insisted that Nick and his helper share a single room.
“That’s not reasonable,” Michael Astor told The Post.
The distressed dad said that having his son share a small room with the aide would be unhealthy and cramped — and that the helper had understandably declined the arrangement.
Nick — an aspiring political science major who fearlessly dabbles in stand-up comedy while leaning on a walker — said SUNY’s stance violated “human decency.”
His father has been desperately trying to marshal support for his boy. More than 1,400 people — some of them Purchase students who met Nick at an orientation — signed a petition demanding that he be accommodated, and his former educators from Brooklyn also have rallied to his defense.
“Nicholas was an amazing middle-school student, and I was lucky and honored to be his principal,” wrote Lenore Berner, Astor’s former principal at MS 51 in Park Slope. “Please grant him this accommodation. He deserves this opportunity.”
Michael Astor said SUNY has insisted that the request of a separate room was “unreasonable” and that other students with similar issues managed to share a single space with a caregiver.
“We have provided accommodations as required by the law, and will continue to work with the student’s parents to address their concerns,” a school spokesman told The Post.
“Purchase College has a history of working with students with disabilities, and being able to provide accommodations. The campus is committed to diversity and inclusion. We hope that the student will choose to join us in the Fall.”