My brothers daughter is autistic, I think it is so frustrating because you don’t know what causes it. She is one of triplets and it is hard on my brother because you see that she does not “play” and laugh with the other two. She is as sweet as can be though. She was diagnosed early and has been in school since 2 and has teachers come and work with her every day. Believe me I have compassion and see what goes into having an autistic child.
I have also seen the violent kids mainstreamed. When my son was in the third grade he was in a class with a boy who had very violent tendencies. His outbursts were bad, throwing chairs, knocking the desks over, throwing the books. The boy liked my son and as a reward, if he could make it through the week without any outbursts, they could both go and have lunch with the Principal in the courtyard and get icecream. Over the years he has been in school off and on but he could never mainstream.
that is why the degree to which these kids are put is schools with other kids should be determined by behavior not diagnosis, as a parent if another child hurts one of my children I don’t really care if it is because they were autistic or if they are a criminal punk, I just don’t want it to happen, if autistic children or children with any other problems can go to school and function at an appropriate level that is great, if they can’t they belong somewhere else