He’s affectionately known as “Shorty” to his mum Sarah, but with his head just inches from the ceiling, Jonty Connor is anything but. The 16-year-old is 2.16m (7ft 1in) tall – and still growing.
Jonty shrugs his lanky shoulders when asked how he feels about his height. He’s never known anything else. At three, he already stood a head above the other children of his age, and looked about five.
It wasn’t until he was eight that Jonty realised how much bigger than average he was, when he was teased and called names like “Skyscraper”.
When he shot up even more, the teasing stopped because the bullies were intimidated. These days, it’s just the staring which really gets him down.
“I don’t like people looking at me, especially people I don’t know,” the Auckland teenager says quietly.Unfortunately, his height is just one issue the gentle giant has to deal with. He also has epilepsy, asthma and life-threatening allergies.
Jonty also has developmental delays – he didn’t walk until he was two, has the reading age of 10 and attends the Rosehill Special School in Papakura.
But Sarah says his height has nothing to do with his developmental disorder. Doctors have told her it’s genetic. Sarah’s grandfather was tall, although she’s not sure what his height was, and Jonty’s dad is 1.91m (6ft 3in).
Doctors began monitoring Jonty’s height from about the age of three. Sarah says that when Jonty was six, doctors offered her the option of putting him on growth hormones which would have sped up his growing rate and then capped his height at 2m (6ft 5in). When they couldn’t guarantee his organs wouldn’t be affected, Sarah refused.
Since then, she’s prayed for Jonty to stop growing, but accepts that he’s likely to keep getting taller for a few more years yet.
“People would say to me that Jonty was probably going to be really tall at 10, then everyone else would grow past him. I’m a bit shocked he’s got as tall as he has,” she says. “Doctors are monitoring the growth hormone in his blood, but a few months ago he still had quite a bit.”
Sarah also feels self-conscious when others stare at her son or make comments. “We were walking through the mall one day and the security guard stopped us to ask me how tall he was. When we go anywhere, a hush comes over the place.
“People need to realise it’s as inappropriate to say to Jonty, ‘Bro! How tall are you?’ as it would be to say ‘Bro, how fat are you?’ if he were obese, or ‘How short are you?’ if he were a little person.”
Ironically, Sarah remembers teasing a tall boy while she was at school with remarks like, “How’s the weather up there?”
“It’s like what goes around, comes around,” she sighs.
Buying clothes and shoes for her son is extremely difficult. Sarah, a single mum, says she can’t afford to buy specially-made size-18 shoes that fit and he must squeeze into size-17 shoes.T-shirts and shirts which are XXXL may be just long enough but are too wide in the shoulder. Trousers are always too short.
His bed is too short for him too, but Jonty says he’s happy to sleep on the floor if he stays the night elsewhere.
Squeezing himself into the booths at ocDonald’s is almost impossible and knocks on the head are just part of everyday life.
At least there are some positive aspects. Jonty can reach the highest shelves in the supermarket and has been paid to clean ceilings. He’s also started to play basketball – partly because everyone he meets suggests it – and he’s hoping to become a bouncer when he’s older.
“Let’s face it, Jonty’s different. There’s nothing that can be done about it,” says Sarah, who has spoken to New Zealand Woman’s Weekly to make people think twice about cruel comments.
“But pointing out that difference publicly is not appropriate. I hope he has stopped growing, but I’ve learned not to expect that. He’s going to be whatever height he’s going to be.”
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