School exclusion of autistic boy unlawful, judge rules

I remember reading once about the belief that the difference between "normals" and autistic people is that autistic children are born with a skewed interface to our reality. So, while this limits their ability to fully function in our domain, it seems to me that this allows these people to actually see elements of our reality that we can't comprehend, or use areas of their brains in different ways than non-autistic people.

When unique children, of any sort, are forced into a typical learning environment designed for "normals," their true potential is never realized. And the rigidity of such a learning environment, one that discourages individuality, will do more harm than good. Not to mention the fact that children tend to be very cruel to anyone they see as different from themselves. Such sustained, unrelenting torture can not help but bring out the dark side of the victim.

So specialized schools that can help these children to discover their gifts and enhance their unique skills should be available to parents without any added expense. Not to mention the fact that a nurturing learning environment is likely to be the most successful method to integrate these unique souls into our society in such a way that they require less government support in the future.

-dex

a reply to: DexterRiley

one particular concern is future adulthood and I could suggest readers look into a recent tragic story concerning an autistic chap in either Sweden or Finland who was given a toy gun as a present. he happened to be in a town/city centre and was shot dead by the police whilst openly carrying said toy gun.

I would suggest all societies will have to adjust to accommodate the growing autistic population. this planet needs more love and less strife and with the child under our care this love is boundless and without conditions. it is a most humbling experience that has stopped me in my tracks many a time.

f

a reply to: DexterRiley

The biggest problem with providing those schools is that they often need very low teacher/student ratios, sometimes even 1:1, in order to be effective. And there are some autistic individuals whom we just don't know how to reach.

Sadly, I think the best of those schools will remain the ones where parents are asked to pay part of the costs. I just don't see how the state provides for it for free in any effective manner, especially not after the hash they've made of what should be standard education for all.

a reply to: UpIsNowDown

My granddaughter bit another kid and got sent home for 2 days. Whats the difference? Were her human rights violated? No, she was being a thuglet(her momma's word).
Anyways this is a conundrum. You don't want to go all 1700's and throw them into a "special" school, nor do you want to interrupt an entire class of students, because one kid will take up 90% of the teachers time.

a reply to: UpIsNowDown

This is an issue that is very close to me.

I have spent the past 8 years or so working with people with disabilities like autism.

I would like to bring this up in a different context.

When the trans bathroom debate was going on, I warned people that this was the begining of a much larger issue.

People were saying that schools and other public places had a duty to provide proper facilities to trans people, even if it incurred great costs.

My point was why stop there, what about people with autism.

As you video correctly points out, things such as bright lights loud sounds, and many other things that are normal to most people in public can severely aghitate or hurt a person with autism.

So what is the duty of public facilities in ensuring that their buildings are accessable to all people, including those with autism?

If they have to have special bathrooms for a small precentage of people, shouldnt they also remove all broght lights, louds sounds, and other things that make their building unaccessible to people with autism?

Or are trans people somehow more important than autistic people?

The point is, although it may seem cruel, at some point a line has to be drawn that says the detriment to the vast majority of the population through costs or loss of facilities outweighs taking every single consideration for every single type of person.

A friend of mine has a son who goes to this school.... www.celebratethechildren.org...

He is on the autism spectrum and also has a few other issues, and has really enjoyed and done well in this school.

As far as I know, the tuition is state/local paid.