Posted on 09/20/2014 9:21:16 PM PDT by Morgana
CHARLOTTE, N.C. —
A mother said her autistic son will not go back to Ardrey Kell High School after he was handcuffed at school last week.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg School officials said they have to protect the safety of both the student and school staff.
But the outraged mom told Eyewitness News reporter Paige Hansen, she can't imagine any reason where handcuffs would be necessary.
"It breaks my heart for him because he doesn't know. He's trying and that's autism," said Kim Riley.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsoctv.com ...
As someone who knows - if your 19 year old “autistic” son is in “resource,” and a police officer has to be called to handle him, it’s not because he’s out of place.
I’ve taught dozens of autistic kids, and while their thinking is quite different from normal kids, I have yet to meet one that’s become violent. I have a feeling this (19 year old) kid was a bit farther along than autistic.
Yet to see one that is violent? I have! More so to themselves than others but yes I have seen them violent. It is called SIB or Self-injurious behavior. I have seen these kids (or adults) beat the hell out of themselves and if a caregiver tries to stop them they get hit in the process. They can beat themselves so hard that they get bloody noses and knock out their own teeth! I’m sure they have done worse that I don’t know of.
I used to work with mentally disabled adults in a live-in facility. An autistic woman very nearly broke my arm. She was a terror.
A 19 year old disabled *man* shouldn’t be in public school.
“Riley said her son has been aggressive in the past, but never a danger.”
This is a mother who is not seeing that her innocent son *can be* a danger.
Incidentally, we never once had a problem with a person who had Downs Syndrome. Not one incident. But the autistics gave us hell. Violent outbursts, public masturbation when we took them on day-trips, smacking staff, attacking other clients who *somehow* set them off, outbursts because the food was set on the tray wrong. They needed their schedule and any variation on that schedule provoked a temper-tantrum. (Sorry, kid. Another client needs an ambulance right now. Fine. Go ahead and break the lamp.)
One thing that I did figure out fast is that autistic people are not stupid. They get overwhelmed and can lash out, but they have a pretty good capacity to figure out what’s going on. They’re just completely lacking the ability to handle it.
Not saying that I didn’t love ‘em, but it was work and I ended up on the receiving end of a tantrum more than once. I had no authority or training to restrain, so the best I could do was place my body between the violence and the other client that they were trying to beat or stand as a barrier between the client and whatever they were trying to do that would cause them injury.
Sometimes, talking worked. Sometime it did not.
Autism was handled well before the 80’s came along.
This is not uncommon for disabled children. Most of them stay in the public school until they are 21, and I know in my state they are not only allowed but the school can not forbid them. Remember they are mentally disabled and it takes them much much longer to learn things. Most of these kids, like this man has the mental capacity of a 10 year old if that. Some of them it does help to stay in school longer. Some of them I don't think it does a bit of good and it's not their fault I truly believe it's the school's fault in not being able to help them.
“Incidentally, we never once had a problem with a person who had Downs Syndrome.”
If God himself came down from Heaven and told me I was pregnant BUT had to choose either a Down Syndrome baby or Autistic one. I’d take the Downs baby!!!!
“Incidentally, we never once had a problem with a person who had Downs Syndrome.”
If God himself came down from Heaven and told me I was pregnant BUT had to choose either a Down Syndrome baby or Autistic one. I’d take the Downs baby!!!!
To others let alone himself.
I have seen autistic and other disabled children do horrendous and danagerous things to those trying to help. Somehow parents seem to think the “job” will be easier for the staff then what they experienced with their child, and why they usually institutionalized them because they could no longer handle nor endure..
A family worker has worked years in ER trauma centers and said the only way you can handle the stead flow of tramatic situations is you learn to block it out so that you can do what needs to be done....but when a "special needs" individual comes in it throws the entire medical team unless they sedate them.
I am one for sedating these people even if we don't feel comfortable doing so...medical staff , no matter how well trained, should not have to endure physical attacks and such from out of control "patients". Doing so causes the medical team to "burn out" and that at rates which create shortages of help they could otherwise work..and that effectively.
Me too! Such sweet souls. :)
Really?
I have a friend whose daughter is severly autistic.
More than Rainman.
You mess with her patten and the house gets destroyed!
He spends $50k a year on computers and house repairs.
She needs to be institutionalization but, they won’t do it.
She’s 20 and has the strength of an orangutan.
He’s 6.4 and weighs in at near 300 pounds.
He takes an ass beating every couple months.
She is truly a danger to the family but, his wife refuses all help available and says she will kill herself and the daughter if the state attempts to take her.
It’s tough and sad.
They are not capable of managing or controlling her. The wife and other daughters could never defend themselves against her and would never conceive of injuring her, as well the thought of the state taking her is a terrifying situation to consider and impossible to endure.
I wish they would enlist the right resources, so everyone could live fuller lives.
Won’t happen...
Would the mother prefer that he have been tased?
As a mother of a son on the autism spectrum, this breaks my heart. This is why my son attends a private school.
The Newtown shooter was autistic.
Just sayin’....
What if the causes are something the leadership did/is doing? Has anyone mapped the increases over time of ASD to the increased uses of pesticides or nuclear radiation or new products?
Instead, we seem to be just staring at the problem if it affects us and ignoring it is it doesn't and crossing our fingers during every pregnancy.
When students (and their families, and thereby society at large) once again become their primary purpose, with the well-being of educrats, shielding their interests behind those of teachers, the one-room school house may eventually reappear, with far better results.
The institution designed to educate the next generation is designed to be incompatible with its original function. This is the triumph of a single philosophy of education, one flavor of "experimentalism" given the emotive label "progressive education," that has succeeded in crowding out every other philosophy of education to the point where, to graduate from any teaching college in America, educrats must adopt the godless brand if they expect to receive a license to teach.
It's taken more than a hundred years, but its triumph is complete, with the causes of the attendant disaster having become almost completely invisible.
The ghost of John Dewey marches on.
Right now the only protocol is to drug them and throw them in special ed. The drugs create more issues and the special ed classes are full of Severe Behavioral Handicap students that torture the autistic children. Public schools get extra $$$ for special ed kids, then they put them in danger. We send our son to a private school. They educate him for the same $2100 that it costs other students. In our state, Ohio, his public school would receive $17,000 to “educate” him.
E.R. workers are amazing and must have unique psychological make ups. I don’t know how they provide compassionate care, technical expertise and remain detached enough to function and protect themselves emotionally. They are a special bunch. My Dad was one of them. RIP.
Yes they are....but there’s always a group of people they cannot block their emotions about, rather affects everyone when they are brought in for treatment....abused children.
Mrs. BN used to manage a group home for severely & profoundly retarded children. They used a "PIC Hold" (sorry, I don't remember what the acronym stood for) to restrain violent kids and prevent them from hurting other children or the staff.
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