Look at this story: http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S1748817.shtml?cat=565
Here is a young man clearly identified as autistic, working with a school resource officer and eventually police which leas to charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The judge is praised in the comments section for having the common sense to conditionally drop the charges.
First let me say that I am not excusing inappropriate behavior, but anyone who has autism has had to deal with melt downs and some of us do better than others. That being said there are several questions that beg asking. Here are my questions:
First - if he has been under the care of public schools all his life, and they have a mandate to care for children with autism until they reach age 21, why at 19 wasn't he taught the skills to manage his meltdowns?
Why didn't the school official recognize what was happening and defuse the situation?
Absent defusing the situation, why was it escalated to the point of police being called?
Autism Speaks quotes a statistic of 1 in 110. Why weren't the police trained to defuse the situation rather than escalate the problem to the point of arrest?
Why does the news report make it sound like the judge is doing him a favor by dropping the charges?
The fact is that employer background checks reveal more than convictions, they also report arrests. This means that because the system let him down, that a handicapped individual is now facing greater challenges in finding employment in a difficult economy.
Why is this, and why weren't these questions asked publicly?
Autism - the stigma continues.
©2010 Dan Homan
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