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.
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...