6-Year-Old Autistic Student Criminally Charged After Alleged Assault

WCPO.com ^ | September 23, 2007 | Lance Barry

[Graybeard58]

A six-year-old autistic boy has been charged criminally after an incident inside his school where he allegedly assaulted a teacher's aide.

It's a story you saw first on 9News.

The incident happened earlier this month at Taylor Elementary School in Brooksville, Ky., located in Bracken County.

He is in kindergarten at Taylor Elementary, but 9News was told that due to his autism and other conditions, his mental capacity is the equivalent to a child half his age.

But despite that condition and his age, it still hasn't stopped a school employee there from holding him accountable: criminally.

Whether it's playing outside with his parents, or coloring SpongeBob Squarepants pictures, Nathan Darnell isn't much different than other kids his age.

But two things that do make him different from many other six-year-olds is his autism – and his criminal rap sheet.

"We are not denying that he did what they are saying, but we are denying he is culpable," said Tony Darnell, Nathan's father.

It was just last week when Nathan's teacher's aide, Glenda Schiltz, filed a juvenile fourth degree misdemeanor assault charge against him.

"What human being with a heart would do that to a six-year old?, asked Cathy Darnell, Nathan's mother. "Seriously, who would do that? I know I wouldn't."

According to the affidavit which 9News obtained, Schiltz alleges that on September 5, Nathan grabbed her by the shirt, pulled her backwards and began punching and kicking her.

"He admits to shoving her down, but he says he didn't pull her backwards," said Tony Darnell.

"She is no small person, she can defend herself," said Cathy Darnell.

So what does the school have to say about the matter?

Superintendent of Bracken County Schools Tony Johnson would not appear on camera but did say in a statement, "I believe we followed proper procedures and I have full faith in my staff".

Despite being autistic, Nathan is integrated with all kindergartners at Taylor Elementary.

His parents believe Schiltz and other teachers there are ill-prepared to handle special needs students.

His mother openly questions Schiltz's credentials.

"[She believes] you need to take him behind the woodshed and teach him something," Cathy Darnell, said. "That is her mentality, beat it out of him."

"Most of the time it [Nathan's behavior] is whining and screaming. I am sure that is hard on teachers and stuff, but we find a way to deal with it," said Tony Darnell.

On Wednesday the family went to the county courthouse, where an inquiry was held and it was decided the criminal case against Nathan will indeed move forward.

It's likely then that Schiltz will have to be there.

But until they get a chance to tell her personally, Nathan's family, in the meantime, does have something they want to say to her.

"She is a cold-hearted woman, that she has made every teacher look bad," said Cathy Darnell.

Repeated attempts to contact Glenda Schiltz were unsuccessful.

9News also was in communication with several school board members and none wanted to comment on the matter.

This is all heading to a proceeding scheduled for next week in which six-year-old Nathan will appear in juvenile court as a defendant.

[VxH]

[He should have a full day 1:1 with him, no question.]

No, question - Who is going to pay for the 1:1?

There’s no easy answer to this. Just as there isn’t an easy solution to the problems that will be created when productive normal adults suddenly find themselves afflicted with a debilitating condition and no health insurance.

These are difficult social issues that we have to face. The alternative is to let our society disintegrate and be displaced.

[gracesdad]

“What they need to do is sit the child down and say “I want you to stop being autistic right now, mister, or you’re gonna get it!”.

You shouldn’t be putting that out on a public forum. You could sell that cure for a lot of money.

[Lovebloggers]

The school district will pay for it. IDEA mandates it, and it is what it costs to educate children.

[Lovebloggers]

Lol!

[VxH]

[Autism is not resultant of lack of “willpower” on the parents.]

The premise is that drug and alcohol abuse is associated with an increase in autism incidence rates.

There are no formal studies proving or disproving a link, however, there is anecdotal evidence suggesting an abnormally high incidence of autism among members of substance abuse recovery groups.

Will power is a general term that denotes the application of coping skills which decrease substance abuse rates.

Therefore, if reducing substance abuse incidence results in lowered incidence of Autism, the application of will power would reduce Autism - in SOME cases.

[VxH]

[The school district will pay for it.]

Most School districts have limited resources.

Can you provide budgetary examples of how those limited resources are reallocated in order to comply with the IDEA?

[perseid 67]

I don’t believe Autism is caused by a lack of discipline , but discipline and structure do help those who are afflicted with Autism. This is why Lovaas behavioral therapy is successful.

What does not work with Autism is throwing your hands up in the air when an Autistic is behaving badly and calling the cops. For Pete’s sake, he was a six year old. Even ,normal six year olds sometimes act like barbarians.

What does not work with Autism is taking all Autistic kids and hiding them in isolated class rooms. This will have a disastrous effect on the ones who are verbal and high functioning. Some of the posters are treating Autism like it is a communicable disease. That is the depths of ignorance.

[Lovebloggers]

Link to the study please.

[Lovebloggers]

Sure, go to your state’s DOE, click on any district and access their budget. It is all public information.

My District’s budget is $70 million/year, of which $5 million is spent on special education for 1,000 children on IEPs, and roughly 1,000 children on 504s (out of a district of 7,200 students). Not exactly breaking the bank is it?

As I previously stated, this is what it costs to educate children.

[Lovebloggers]

Amen.

[VxH]

[showed several positive changes, including]

Those are all nice, good to have, touchy feelies.

I’d like to see numbers.

The article quotes numbers only for the positive effects upon special-needs students.

I’d like to see the numbers resulting from the same measures being applied to non-special-needs students. I think the absence of these numbers is questionable.

Would these missing numbers indicate a negative impact upon the performance of non-special-needs students? Since the authors of the study apparently chose not to provide that data, we’ll have to speculate.

Lowering a non-special-needs student’s performance and then teaching him to feel good about his lower performance does not seem like a particularly desirable situation.

[VxH]

[Sure, go to your state’s DOE,]

But I’m asking you, since you’re knowledgeable of the subject.

[My District’s budget is $70 million/year, of which $5 million is spent on special education ]

What was the allocation prior to the IDEA?

[DelphiUser]

I would like to begin by apologizing for the length of this post...

I have some questions for you, I am not being facetious, as I said I have an autistic niece.

I hope I ma not that sensitive, LOL!

Is there a standard to teaching and disciplining autistic children?

ABA, or Applied Behavior Modification are considered the standards for teaching autistic children, discipline is a part of teaching, but it is not like a "punishment regimen" or something. We can find one extreme to the other from experts telling us what is the best way to handle all children. With the rise of an autism diagnosis, I wonder if at this stage most things are in a trial and error phase.

All child rearing is a "Trial and error" phase, however, there are a lot of "Tools" that as a parent you are going to need especially with an autistic child.

From reading your posts I get the feeling that as a parent you need to spend a lot of time redirecting behaviors and basically giving in to inappropriate behaviors, although curbing them, instead of being firm in what is right and wrong.

I would not say "giving in to inappropriate behaviors", but traditional woodshed activities do NOT work with autistic children.

If you want to teach someone, you need to approach things from where they are now.

All children, autistic or not will act out and push limits, that is why we need to teach them self control.

Absolutely, ABA is a combination of behavior modification (self control) and actually training the Neural net(s) in an autistic child to work together.

From an outsiders view, I have to wonder how catering to the behaviors such as chew toys and trampolines in your house, help down the road.

It's simple, you cannot teach someone who is out of control. Get them under control, get them to be able to think about their behaviors, and then you can modify what they are doing. While they are acting out is not the time to "Train" them.

I understand that they help at the moment but when does it end?

With my niece, she knows what is going on around her, she is extremely intelligent and listens and understands directions, it seems her problem is she cannot be pro active in getting her emotions and words out.

I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but i would say she is High functioning, my son started out non verbal, not understanding english either.

I just pray that we find out what causes it because I think that will go a long way in treating it.

At the bottom of this post, I will go into a bit about what is being done, and what the studies I have participated have said.

My heart goes out to you and your family. I have not walked in your shoes so I am not being critical, but, having children 17-10, I am amazed at the way most “experts” in child behaviors have just about erased responsibility in many areas. Personally, I think the mind set is to coddle all children. I know I would jump through hoops to do what I could to help my child just as you are. Raising children is hard enough and autism and all that it encompasses is such a gray area. I hope the experts are doing right by these children.

Here is what I have been told by the researchers in the programs I am participating in: A) Autism spectrum disorders are caused by a genetic propensity, coupled with a triggering event.

B) The genetic propensity is characterized by Chemical depression or an eating disorder (Bulimia, Anorexia, compulsive eating disorders, etc). Statistically, your odds of having an autistic child goes way up if you have such a history on both sides of the parents family.

C) While there are huge emotional, and legal battles over triggering events, some that can be identified from common stories of parents of autistic children are Inoculations of children with vaccines that contain a tincture of mercury, head injury, onset of dietary allergies (Gluten allergies, sugar allergies, allergies to stuff in their home, etc), Lack of vitamins due to dietary avoidance or inability to absorb (usually B12).

D) All these factors are usually expressed before the child reaches the age of eight by five 90% of children who are autistic are exhibiting symptoms. By three 80% will be exhibiting symptoms. Some, like my son are born exhibiting symptoms.

E) it is not unusual for an autistic child to progress in language and social skills and then regress at about age three or when the triggering event happens. This is typically most noticeable in speech they will start talking for example and then stop or regress to one word communication from full sentences, etc.

F) Autopsies of Autistic people, have shown that autism is characterized by multiple competing neural nets in the brains of autistic children. Normal children between the ages of three to five begin killing off any neural net that will not Join or link to the main or largest net in the brain. Autistic children Never kill a neuron. Autopsies of autistic people who have been through ABA show the number of neural nets decreased, but the percent of decrease is not chartable because methods are improving all the time.

The studies I and my family have been participating in involve Genetic markers, and MRI's to allow the researchers to see how the genetics express themselves in my father's, mine, and my son's brains, they are also tracking how my son's brain structures change as he continues to develop, and as he continues to have intervention with ABA. We have been participating in this study since it's inception five years ago.

I hope this information is helpful, I would recommend anyone who has an autistic in their family and wants to understand what is going on attend an autism conference, I know there is one every year in southern Utah,at Snow college. One of the speakers at one of the ones we attended was Temple Grandon, an autistic who started her own company and who speaks about autism, it was fascinating. A couple of things she said that will give you an idea what they are up against, she sent out a person first who asked us not to applaud, When she came out on stage she explained that applause stresses her, and she might lose control and run off the stage. she asked anyone who felt like applauding to simply stand up instead of applauding. she also told us that before and after speaking, she schedules a half an hour to jump on her bed at the hotel to release tensions and calm her down.

It boils down to this. Autism is not just bratty kids, an autopsy can show the difference, a trained nuero-psychologist can see the difference on a MRI, it is not some made up malady to allow parents to coddle a kid. There is currently no "Cure" There are methods, there is help, Autistic children can learn behaviors and control mechanisms where they can be productive members of society they will never be "Normal", once the triggering event has happened, there is no road back, that is what we are working on in these studies. Once you do know the triggering event, and you remove it, often the autism lessens in it's severity. My son for example went through a chelation to remove the mercury in his system and his autism improved greatly.

This is off of the top of my head, if you would like, I can FM you some additional resources that are available on the web.

[Lovebloggers]

Wow, this is actually how you think. By virtue of having special needs children included in a learning environment someone lowers the performance of typical children? I don’t even want to see the links that support that total nonsense theory.

Teaching children tolerance, diversity and to be essentially a responsive classroom is somehow detrimental to typically developing students.

This study was done to show the effects of inclusion on special needs children. The indicators of success of the typical children is done through grades, and standardized testing — all of which you can access through your state’s DOE website.

Of course I never considered that failing classrooms are failing because of the special needs children being forced on those poor typical children. /sarcasm

[Lovebloggers]

Prior to IDEA? I don’t know as I my District was formed back then (it is a five town district). I guess I would have to look into the archives that date back to the Nixon Administration to get those figures for you.... or not.

Of course the States and Federal govenment just institutionalized these students then — the nostalgia of which probably brings tears to your eyes. We should get back to the good old days of reading, writing and institutions.......

[DelphiUser]

They will, however, be living in a society filled with the products of the schools they will not be attending.

As will my children, Grin.

And I must apologize for saying “your” when I am generalizing. I don’t mean your children specifically.

Thank you, since the posts were directed at me, I took that to be your meaning. Apology accepted.

It’s all to easy in this medium to forget that there is flesh and blood and often pain on the other end of the wire.

Been there, bo-bo-ed that.

My comments regarding sociobiology were intended to point out that the human condition can often be better understood by understanding the behavior of other species.

I would change often to some times, but ...

You should have seen the unintended reaction I got when I explained to a Palestinian that his people and the Israelis were acting on an animal-instinctive level instead of using their cerebral cortex and knowledge to override instinct. I mentioned having observed monkeys. He took it to mean I was calling him a monkey. No amount of explanation could convince him otherwise, even when it was explained by a mutual Jewish friend.

I have been to Israel, I was very careful when answering politically charged questions. You were lucky.

I suppose we could stop talking to each other altogether, but I don’t think any of us would like the end results.

Nah, besides I like how good you make me look by comparison (It's a joke...)

So, I choose to interact in the hope that we may learn enough about each other to establish a common ground. On this board, that common ground is the desire for a Free Republic. I love the Republic for which the Stars and Stripes stand. I pledge my allegiance to it. Far to much has been sacrificed by others for me to do otherwise.

If I was that thin skinned, A) I would not be mildly autistic B) I could not participate on the religion threads on this forum, LOL!

I agree about this land, did you know that Mormons consider the Constitution to be a divinely inspired document? Even though I am a Fred Thompson supporter (Go Fred #1 in the polls with out appearing to break a sweat) I have been baffled by the anti Mormons who keep attacking Mitt thinking he would subvert said constitution. This belief in the constitution is one of the reasons that utah is so conservative neither candidate for president bothers to campaign here, we are a "Fore gone conclusion" as a republican / conservative state.

Anyway, have a nice day.

[Lovebloggers]

Oh and just one more comment.... the “allocation prior to IDEA” statement — there are 2,000 special needs children in my district. The $5 million allocated to provide them services is a part of the $70 million total amount it costs to educate children. All children.

[VxH]

[Link to the study please.]

As I said, it’s anecdotal evidence, not formal.

Gathered by observing the incidence of self-reported autism in conversations that take place on substance abuse recovery forums.

Also, I know a former Federal juvenile probation officer who indicated a belief among her peers that such a link exists.

Probably tough to get funding for such a study from a system that has a vested interest in creating a greater requirement for the services of that system - as opposed to enhancing the perception of individual, parental, responsibility.

FWIW, I think the special-needs parents here on this forum are exceptional in that they have taken personal responsibility for the welfare of their children. Many non-special-needs parents would do well to follow their example.

[Lovebloggers]

I really need to proof read before posting — yikes!

[perseid 67]

The ignorance of people who assume that high functioning Autistics have nothing to offer society is astonishing.

Those who study genius study Autistics. While not all Autistics are savants, all savants are Autistic.

Sitting next to an Autistic ,who is brilliant in Math, may not hurt your kid. It might even help.

Some of these posters would rather their kids sit next to a teenage drug dealer than a high functioning Autistic. Some of this may be related to the fact that people do not want someone they consider to be retarded to perform as well as if not better than their own spawn. Some people are too concerned with appearances for their own good.