School gives nonverbal Autistic boy most annoying student award

A Northwest Indiana school district offered an apology this week after an 11-year-old autistic boy's special education teacher gave him an award for "most annoying male" in his class, according to WLS-TV.



5th grader Akalis Castejon received the 'award' during a recent end-of-the-year 5th grade luncheon at Bailly Prepatory Academy in Gary. His father Rick, who was in attendance, said he "didn’t want to cause a scene with other parents there so I left the award on the table and tried to walk away," only for Akalis's teacher to then announce "Akalis forgot his award!"



According to the report, Akalis is "non-verbal autistic" and occasionally "rocks back and forth, or shakes."

"You'd think one would know and understand the conditions of autism and have more patience to deal with children who suffer from autism," said his mother Estella, who was not present at the ceremony.

www.zerohedge.com...

This is unbelievable

A nonverbal kid with autism being mocked for being annoying by the school?

It then goes on to say all the parents did was demand an apology, but the teacher refused

This story irritates me

It even says the dad was thankful his son didn’t understand the award and was just happy to get something shiny

I don’t want anyone fired or anything, but all of the adults at the school who let this happen should be ashamed of themselves

How could a special ed teacher be so callous or ignorant?

I'm sorry, but I laughed when I read the title.

I guess the reality is that what's really laughable(and why I was laughing) is the state of "education" in our country.

It seems you are either woefully ignorant or extremely "over-educated" when it comes to those that are "teaching" our children.

So my point is that somewhere between teaching a 5 year old to masterbate and have anal sex, and basically giving an autistic child a "retard" award. It is the middle ground that intelligent people should be striving for and those same people should be flushing/running out the psychos on both ends.

As was pointed out, thankfully, the child was unaware of what happened. Sadly, the father was the one that was victimized and had to go home and deal with the mental anguish of the ignorance of those he trusted with his child.

I'm not even a father, but the heartbreak I feel he imagined(while only a small percentage) would be devastating.

I'll have to agree with MR Spock... the title is just hilarious.

Obviously it's of bad taste... but if the kid is actually annoying, why should they be afraid of saying the truth?
Life is hard, there will always be somebody that is going to get the short end of the stick.

PC culture is a slippery slope, make one exception and they take a mile.
Liberty above all.

a reply to: MisterSpock

I work with people with autism

Each person is unique but as this dad mentions, the number one thing most want is to be treated like a normal person

This garbage teacher mocking the disability in a way the kid can’t even understand is despicable

I think it does show the mixed up priorities of our education system, and how terrible some of the people we entrust teaching children are

I hope this family gets stronger from this and find educators that treat them and their child with respect

a reply to: Grambler

Wouldn't the teacher be treating him as an equal by giving the kid the award?
Or you prefer for them to treat him as someone "different"?

a reply to: efabian

I completely disagree with you

Normal humor is making fun of someone who can understand the situation to some degree

Worthwhile humor is when we punch up, or make fun of those with more or equal power or means or authority

Picking on an autistic kid who doesn’t even understand for his illness is disgusting

And even then, if this was some comedian doing it, so be it

But it’s a special ed teacher

This isn’t a pc issue, its beyond that

originally posted by: efabian
I'll have to agree with MR Spock... the title is just hilarious.

Obviously it's of bad taste... but if the kid is actually annoying, why should they be afraid of saying the truth?
Life is hard, there will always be somebody that is going to get the short end of the stick.

PC culture is a slippery slope, make one exception and they take a mile.
Liberty above all.

Sorry if I'm misreading this, you agree with me the title is hilarious, but I certainly am not in agreement with the rest of you're post.

Are people with mental/learning disabilities "annoying" to those/us without them, surely on some level, but it's certainly not some "truth" you should seek to inflict on them knowing they can't understand it.

Once again, I feel really bad for the parent(s) in this situation. As it's just another in a long line of hurdles he(she) has to overcome in their life of just trying to love their child and wish the best for them.

originally posted by: efabian
a reply to: Grambler

Wouldn't the teacher be treating him as an equal by giving the kid the award?
Or you prefer for them to treat him as someone "different"?

No that’s not treating the kid as equal

Did another kid get the most annoying award?

Is it normal for teachers to mock kids for medical ailments?

What’s next making fun of kids that were sexually abused? I

a reply to: MisterSpock

Again, it is not that I agree that they made fun of the kid and such.
Because from what the article says, it was actually the father that brought up the issue.

Do you agree that the kid should be treated as "something different" the rest of his life?

originally posted by: Grambler
a reply to: MisterSpock

I work with people with autism

Each person is unique but as this dad mentions, the number one thing most want is to be treated like a normal person

This garbage teacher mocking the disability in a way the kid can’t even understand is despicable

I think it does show the mixed up priorities of our education system, and how terrible some of the people we entrust teaching children are

I hope this family gets stronger from this and find educators that treat them and their child with respect

I agree...I'm no monster(no matter what I tell myself every night in the mirror).

It is literally all they want, especially the parent. Just the chance for society to except their child and for someone to understand the day to day struggle they go through trying to give that to their children(their one reason for living). I can see why the father chose the actions he did and I'm thankful the child didn't feel the pain his parents did.

As someone who would have viewed this from afar, I'd have beat that bitch on his behalf....probono. That way everybody wins(except me, I guess).

a reply to: Grambler
School is overrated. When I think of all the time I wasted in my life in school. Boy oh boy, I would have gotten out of there at the age of 5.

They should just home school this kid, and well plenty of other things they can get him to do that involves other kids and less meaningless awards. They likely gave that award to the wrong kid. Non verbal kids are usually the least annoying. Its the overly verbal ones that are more then annoying.

originally posted by: efabian
a reply to: MisterSpock

Again, it is not that I agree that they made fun of the kid and such.
Because from what the article says, it was actually the father that brought up the issue.

Do you agree that the kid should be treated as "something different" the rest of his life?

I'm confused...

I certainly don't think he should be given "quarterback of the year award " or anything "different"(as you stated).

But I certainly don't think he should be singled out as problematic, most likely due to his disability, as he seemed to be.

Just a thought but what if, to the other kids in his class, he was actually annoying?

What made the kid annoying? Actions/behaviour ? Noises? Lack of noises? Should the kids be brain washed to not consider the kid annoying or should they just be allowed to be kids?

originally posted by: efabian
a reply to: MisterSpock

Again, it is not that I agree that they made fun of the kid and such.
Because from what the article says, it was actually the father that brought up the issue.

Do you agree that the kid should be treated as "something different" the rest of his life?

Your making a false choice

This isn’t him being treated differently

Teachers don’t normally mock students for being incredible difficulties in their life

No one is saying this child should not be punished if he does something that warrants it, or shouldn’t be able to be joked around with at all

I am saying teachers shouldn’t mock him for his disability

Again if a teacher doesn’t mock a student whose parents died in a car wreck about it, is that teacher treating the kid different?

Must we mock all rape survivors for being raped, else we are treating them differently?

Of course not

The same is true of illnesses; refraining from mocking a child for a serious disability is not treating the child differently

originally posted by: Grambler

originally posted by: efabian
a reply to: Grambler

Wouldn't the teacher be treating him as an equal by giving the kid the award?
Or you prefer for them to treat him as someone "different"?

No that’s not treating the kid as equal

Did another kid get the most annoying award?

Is it normal for teachers to mock kids for medical ailments?

What’s next making fun of kids that were sexually abused? I

How are you sure that they are mocking the kid because of his ailments?
Your bias is showing at this moment.

Treat everybody as an equal, illness or not.
If he is annoying, he's annoying. It does not have to do with his illness.

originally posted by: Grambler

originally posted by: efabian
a reply to: Grambler

Wouldn't the teacher be treating him as an equal by giving the kid the award?
Or you prefer for them to treat him as someone "different"?

No that’s not treating the kid as equal

Did another kid get the most annoying award?

Is it normal for teachers to mock kids for medical ailments?

What’s next making fun of kids that were sexually abused? I

"And the 5th grade award for "biggest slut" goes to Amy. She was raped by all three of her uncles...."

No #, huh.

I'm all for criticizing people for things within their control, but mental/learning disabilities certainly isn't one of them.

originally posted by: latic
Just a thought but what if, to the other kids in his class, he was actually annoying?

What made the kid annoying? Actions/behaviour ? Noises? Lack of noises? Should the kids be brain washed to not consider the kid annoying or should they just be allowed to be kids?

Are you people serious?

So if the kids think that autism is annoying, then the teacher is obligated to give an award mocking the kid with autism?

Unbelievable

So I guess if the kids think one kid is ugly, the teacher must give an ugliest kid award to that kid, right?

a reply to: efabian

How do you know it doesn’t have to deal with his illness?

You seem quite positive

We are talking about a kid who is not only non verbal, but is has such a difficulty with his disability that he didn’t even understand what the award was and it was making fun of him

What possible annoyance would this kid be to his teacher that wouldn’t involve these challenges

The amount of hoops you are willing to jump through to say it would be not normal or treating someone differently to NOT give an autistic kid a most annoying student award is to unreal

originally posted by: Grambler

originally posted by: latic
Just a thought but what if, to the other kids in his class, he was actually annoying?

What made the kid annoying? Actions/behaviour ? Noises? Lack of noises? Should the kids be brain washed to not consider the kid annoying or should they just be allowed to be kids?

Are you people serious?

So if the kids think that autism is annoying, then the teacher is obligated to give an award mocking the kid with autism?

Unbelievable

So I guess if the kids think one kid is ugly, the teacher must give an ugliest kid award to that kid, right?

It would be of bad taste, sure.
But remember, life does not care if you are offended or not.

Make them strong now, you are not going to be there forever to protect them from the real world.