An Inconvenient Truth

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Unfortunately, one of the things that has become obvious to me over the years is that the general public doesn't have a clue what it's like to raise a special needs kid, has no real desire to know what it takes, and when times are the least bit tough the public is especially willing to throw our kids under the bus if it will help their own situation in any way. This is true, whether it's a smaller, relatively well off district like the one we live in, or a large one such as Los Angeles.

One might expect that the Superintendent for one of the largest districts in the country would be a little savvy when it came to talking about how resources were allocated during an economic downturn, and would refrain from saying things that were just REALLY STUPID. When L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines was talking about a school for the blind in the LA Unified School district he recently said,

"Some of those are very, very severe cases, but you have to look at it in perspective. When you fund some of the special ed things, you're taking from regular kids."

Aside from it being blatantly against the law for economic considerations to be driving who gets what services, there is the whole "attitude" thing. The attitude that says that special needs kids are not "regular" children. The subtext that assumes that they won't become productive members of society, so why invest any money in them. When such attitudes result in self fulfilling prophecies, they are felt to be proof positive that they were right all along. The attitude that while "regular" education is a right in this country, that special education is a privilege that can be easily revoked at the first sign of money trouble. The attitude that my kid (and millions like him) just aren't worth it.

I have found, as I stated, that such attitudes are not limited to uneducated or poor people. Indeed, my personal feeling is that such attitudes get worse, the higher up the socioeconomic scale one is on. It doesn't matter what overall political viewpoint you hold. Platitudes regarding equality rapidly fall apart when it comes to spending a dime on special needs education instead of the football team.

I don't know what the solution is. I'd like to think that the only solution is success. Being out there, in the public eye, as much as possible. Expose the public to successful former special ed. kids as much as possible, and eventually they'll change their mind. And holding them to the letter of the law until then.

Georgia Scores a Hat Trick

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In the game of hockey, a hat trick refers to when a single player scores three goals on the opposing team during the same game.

In the game of "how can we be the most discriminatory against autistics", the US state of Georgia has been in the news three times in the last two weeks. First it was charging a 14 year old autistic boy with felony terrorism charges for stick figure drawings he put on his homework. Then it was police using a taser on an 18 year old autistic young man who didn't answer their questions fast enough, and appeared different.

Today Georgia is in the news again, and again it's for tasing an autistic man. According to Fox News:

"Twenty-three-year-old D.J. Moran said multiple officers surrounded him, cuffed him on the ground and then tasered him, MyFoxAtlanta reports."

Of course, the multiple officers couldn't possibly handle this after they surrounded the man and were putting him on the ground, so they just had to taser him:

"Police officials released a statement saying, 'The officer used a taser when the suspect failed to cooperate by struggling and resisting, after being instructed to place his hands behind his back. The suspect only complied after the taser was used.' "

Fortunately, even though the police tried to cover themselves by charging the man with multiple felonies, a jury (who saw a police cruiser cam video of the event) saw things differently:

"Police charged Moran with multiple felonies, but a jury did not convict him."

So congratulations, Georgia! Guess I won't be spending any of my vacation dollars in your state this year.

Geogia-Zero Tolerance for Differences

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Evidently it's not safe to walk around (or sit) any place in Georgia while being autistic. At least not by yourself. Because if you do, you're fair game for being tased by the police. At least, that's what the police chief of Tybee Island, Georgia seems to think.

A little over a week ago, it was a 14 year old boy being arrested on felony terrorism charges for drawing threatening one inch stick figure drawings on his homework. Now it's an 18 year old autistic young man tasered after being confronted by police while he was sitting on the curb waiting for his brother and a friend to come out of a restaurant.

WMBF news reported yesterday on how 18 year old Clifford Grevemberg was waiting on the curb outside the Rock House Bar and Grill for his brother and a friend to come out, when he was approached by two policemen. According to the police report, Clifford was staggering while walking back and forth in front of the establishment, and when questioned, responded that he was waiting for his brother to come out with some food.

The police report said that one officer asked Clifford if he had been drinking, and he responded yes. Of course, they didn't ask him what he had been drinking. Unless he was asked if he had been drinking alcohol, my 10 year old son might have also responded in the affirmative, having drunken water, soda, or some other perfectly legal beverage. The officers then asked for identification (twice), and when Clifford turned and began to walk away, they grabbed his arm. Clifford, as might be expected, tried to retract his arm away from them, which gave these two police officers all the justification they thought they needed to taser him. Which they did while forcing Clifford to the ground, causing a bruised face and a broken tooth.

The Tybee police chief, in a statement given today, tried to explain away the incident by saying that Clifford gave the appearance of being intoxicated, and tasing him prevented further damage to both Clifford as well as the officers. He gave a backhanded apology, saying

"We are sincerely apologetic for the injuries suffered to Mr. Grevemberg. We are also sorry he was left unattended under the circumstances..."

In other words, if you are so brazen as to think that you have the right to walk or sit in a public place while being autistic (and you don't have an attendant immediately at your side), then you shouldn't complain when the police tase you and arrest you.

Terrorism? Really??? Or "Get Out of Our School!"

If this wasn't so over the top ridiculous, it might be funny.

A 14 year old Georgia boy has been charged with a felony (making terrorist threats) for a small (about 1 inch high) set of stick figures he drew on a paper in class. The stick figures depict one figure (labeled "me") shooting another stick figure (labeled with his teacher's name).

There is no question that his drawing the picture was both inappropriate and wrong. There is also no question in my mind that the school's response is so wildly disproportionate as to make me question why they would do such a thing. There has been no allegation of the boy attacking his teacher, bringing a weapon to class, or even of having formed a definite plan as to how he would accomplish the task in his drawing. There has been no mention of the school consulting with anyone else (the boy's doctor, their own psychologists, the police) to evaluate the situation as to how likely it was for the boy to be able to carry out his threat, much less evaluate the seriousness of the situation.

Many people threaten to kill their spouses every day. They very seldom get arrested, much less charged with making "terrorist threats".

So why would a school do such a thing?

My guess (and it is a guess, as there's been no statement I've seen from the school) is that this charter school where the boy is enrolled wants to dump this "problem student" from their school, and that they are using this as a convenient excuse. Many charter schools don't want to spend the time and money it takes to properly educate children with special needs.

This could end up as a case of "zero tolerance" gone wild, but I suspect that, in the end, the school will come up with some "compromise" that will entail dropping or lessening the charge, as long as the boy withdraws from the school (or accepts another placement they have suggested).

Walking While Black and Autistic

The phrase "Driving While Black" is one that is familiar to every African-American in the U.S., and refers to the practice of African Americans (especially young black males) being singled out by the police for "special treatment" when they are driving. Otherwise known as racial profiling, through either upbringing or isolated experiences many police officers come to unfairly believe that the majority of blacks must be up to no good, and thus deserve to be singled out for closer scrutiny, and assumed to be hostile until proven otherwise.

Steven Eugene Washington, a 27 year old black man who reportedly had never had a run in with the law, was shot dead while walking to a friend's house the other night in Los Angeles. When he was reportedly approached for "acting suspiciously", he reportedly

"...did not comply with their investigative demands and appeared to be reaching into his waistband. Fearing he was reaching for a weapon each officer fired once. One bullet struck Washington in the head."

While the LAPD gives its officers a one hour course in dealing with autistic individuals, the department could not say whether the officers who shot Washington had taken the course.

My ten year old bi-racial son had a large birthfather. He will be a big man. This scenario is one of my greatest fears.

I ache for the Washington family tonight, and long for a world where more than one hour is spent training first responders.

Temple Grandin BBC Documentary

Lately many people have been commenting on the HBO Temple Grandin movie that was just released. I watched the movie this last week with my family. Overall, I would say that it was pretty good. I don't expect Hollywood to get many things right, but I'd say they did a pretty fair job with this treatment. Claire Danes did a much better job than I expected. I feared before seeing it that she was much too "glamorous" for the role, but she did a good job of capturing the general tone, and playing things pretty straight.

Here's the trailer from the HBO movie:

Trailer

Buddy Boy told me several years ago that his mind was like "a video camera. I can just hit rewind, and see things over again." He had never heard of Temple Grandin at the time. After seeing the movie, he asked if I thought Temple could teach him to think in pictures. The HBO movie presented it as Temple thinking in black and white still pictures. I guess he saw this as fundamentally different from his thinking like there's a video recorder running in his head. I told him she probably couldn't teach him to think in pictures, as everyone pretty much thought the way they thought.

For those who have access to HBO in the states, I think it's definitely worth a watch if you have time. For those without HBO access, I'm sure it will be out on DVD soon.

Also, on a local list I'm on, someone sent me the links to a nice BBC documentary on Dr. Grandin on YouTube. You can see it here:

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ycu3JFRrA&feature=related

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-iy7GNsmm0&feature=related

Part 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDWH_Sfnoc0&feature=related

Part 4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epwa0zQ8jx8&feature=related

Part 5:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aidkSBsyDlA&feature=related

Murphy's Law

Anyone that has children is very familiar with Murphy's Law, commonly stated as "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".

This morning, Buddy Boy started spinning around the kitchen, while holding his bowl of broccoli (yes, Liz gets both kids to eat vegetables and protein for breakfast).

So Buddy Boy is happily spinning away, saying (while broccoli is flying from the bowl) "Look, it's Centrifugal Force! It's one of Murphy's Laws."

Liz and I both got a big kick out of that.

In the same vein of humor, here is a Rhett and Link YouTube video entitled "The Perfect Bathroom Trip". We showed it to both of the kids today. Our grammar school nurse is planning on showing it to the kids in school.