re: School sues autistic student for threatening to kill principal

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Too often the system now caters to the problem children at expense of the masses. I feel for those with challenges but schools must have means to discipline and enforce standards including behavior and academics.

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At my son's school, the IEP group rarely caused any problems. Mostly sweet kids. But if this kid is like sociopathic, something needs to be done with him. That's dangerous.

All the "regular" kids were the ones getting caught with guns and knives and having massive fights in the cafeteria twice a week. My son and his friends stopped even going to the cafeteria. One kid in junior high, went home and shot his mom in the chest with a gun. He was "normal".

His school got incorporated into the Winston-Salem school district and turned 70% minority, then all hell broke lose at that school. Used to be one of the better schools in the area. Glad he graduated and got the hell out of there. We wanted to transfer him, but he didn't want that. Not many schools with IEP programs.

I don't think the special needs kids are the big problem here. Some can be, I'm not saying they're all angels.

Some of the medications that special needs kids are on have some pretty strong side effects. My son is on anti-seizure meds for epilepsy that can cause bipolar disorder. I'd rather him have an outburst than seizures. Not saying it is an excuse, but it's also not his fault. He's a good kid, but when he has an episode, you want to drive him to the woods and leave him there. Very hard to deal with. Then a couple hours later, he's back to his normal good self.

It's hard. These are tough situations. Sometimes there's no good solution. I get that the school should take action here. Maybe try home schooling kids with these types of issues. I don't know...

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Just looked up the stats on the school again. It's gotten even worse rating since he left.

They screwed up a good school. Actually pisses me off bad.

Now it is over 76% minority and rates a 1/10 for college preparedness. Failed school and shite students.

I know I come off as defensive, but that's not my intention. And I wanted to vent about the downturn of the school...

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“would just love to kill administration.”

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The school will lose. This is certainly not a threat to kill or harm anyone.

Sounds like the principal is a major snowflake. Imagine some baw telling a barista that “I’d like to punch you in the face right now“ or even “I’d like to strangle you right now“ and the barista filing charges. The barista would be skewered by the OT.

I can tell you for a fact that kids on the spectrum have made similar statements many many times in the past. Mostly are given some sort of discipline and sent for a mental health evaluation to determined dangerousness. And virtually all of them are cleared as not a danger to others and sent back to school

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he just doesn’t have a filter

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Bet he does now.

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My son is autistic and nonverbal and there is a portion of the system that just doesn't want to deal with him

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I’m sorry y’all are going though this. It’s heartbreaking. My son is on the spectrum but we don’t face the challenges you’ve described to that extreme. God bless you and your wife. It does take special people to tolerate the world around children with challenges such as this.

As the father of an autistic child, let me just be as clear as I can about this:

The school is doing the right thing. A high functioning autistic child (aka Asperger's) absolutely knows better than to say this to people:

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would just love to kill administration.

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This mother is a lunatic and a liar. People like this make it harder for my child, and I don't appreciate it.

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They were supposed to have provided counseling since the ninth grade, but they said they could never keep a contract with a counselor, and so he didn’t get the counseling that he needed and there are a lot of other services that he was supposed to get that he did not get

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I understand her concerns here, but insurance will cover this for most autistic kids. Why didn't she get him a counselor herself? Why is it all about what she can get instead of what she can do?

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disparities facing students with disabilities, who represent 13% of the student population nationwide but experienced 23% of expulsions,

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I guarantee you the large majority of these instances are people who game the system to be labeled "disabled" for benefits, not because of people with actual disabilities.

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Considering this kid is a senior I'm guessing this has been an ongoing issue. Also, can't the principal make it six more months? Or was the criminal complaint the option the cops gave her to ensure the kid couldn't come to school until this was all worked out? Bad situation for everyone but the principal can't take on the responsibility of knowing a threat has been made and not use every resource to protect everyone else.

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Honestly, we don’t have enough to really speculate other than projecting our own experiences. The thread will likely be a Rorschach test of the type of educators we’ve been around, and type of kids we’ve experienced dealing with challenges.

That said, my gut is most educators aren’t doing this whimsically on a first comment. Especially this close to the end of his time there. Without serious concern, it seems the easiest path would be trying to go with the flow as much as possible for a couple months.

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armsdealer

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My son is autistic and nonverbal

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Churches reject him for vacation bible schools

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How old is he and where are you?

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Churches reject him for vacation bible schools and "mom's day out" programs, because you know that is the christian way.

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If professional daycares and special kids camps don't have the people equipped to handle your child, why would you expect a church event staffed by volunteers to have people equipped for this? Why would you even want random volunteers with little to no training on autistic children keeping your kid?

All that said, if you're in the Hoover Alabama area I know the church for you.

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The only place he gets to go is to school because they are legally required to teach him.

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What is your plan for him after he ages out?

Who knows. Some kids are incredibly tough to deal with and impact the school’s ability to teach other kids. Some kids are capable of violence, even if they’re autistic.

And at the same time, many school administrators are pearl-clutching pussies or power-tripping women looking to flex their muscles in their little fiefdoms.