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September 07, 2008

Comments

Liz Ditz

Charles, what a heartbreaking story. Please extend my gratitude and sympathy to A.'s parents.

I have broadcast this post to all I know in the [rational] autism network.

karenrz

I feel for these parents, since he would have not been diagnosed in the last two decades before the dx criteria was expanded.

But, this child was high-functioning and I want to know: Didn't the parents have a clue as to what their son was up to? How could they have missed the signs? Didn't the parents speak to their son about sex and appropriate behavior - did they really leave it up to the school to educate their child in this?

All parents need to teach their children right from wrong. The ball got dropped, and now he has to pay unfortunately.

Danielle D.

This was a truly heartbreaking story to read.
One thing that concerned me was that the parents felt that if A. was diagnosed earlier he could have gotten the training that he needed to make better decisions. The prosecution even said himself that after ten minutes with A. you could tell that he had a problem. If the problem is noticed by a stranger in ten minutes, wouldn't the school's educators see the problem and gave him some sort of training on decision making? I truly feel that this should have been added on to his IEP.
What I feel is also important to remember in this situation is that this could happen to anyone, not just someone on the Autism Spectrum. The internet can be a scary place, and is used by almost all students in and out of classrooms. I feel that smart internet training should be provided to all students in and out of special education. With everything going on the internet these days, it definitely would not hurt to teach students good decision making techniques, and prevent this type of situation from happening in the future.

Sue Keller

Thanks to these parents for having the courage to share this tragedy. Before we criticize the parents, we would do well to remember that even special ed. legal advocates have said pick your battles with the school system. The special ed. system is adversarial against the child and family, trying to provide only as minimal services as possible. As parents we try to do the best for our kids and become experts in all facets of their disability and in special ed. law, but those 2 things together would constitute a full-time job. Many of us have to work outside the home, also. Some of us can't work outside the home because there is no appropriate child care available for our child, thanks to that big ADA loophole: "reasonable accomodations". My point is we're all doing the best we can. Truly these parents did all of us a service, by letting us know what could happen if we remain ignorant about the problems of lonely adults with disabilities. In addition to teaching our kids the dangers of the Internet, we also need to provide opportunities to socialize in person for our teens and adults with disabilities. Encouraging our kids to have friendships and later, dating relationships, would go a long way to make our kids less vulnerable to abuse.

Sherry Hollis

Danielle wrote - If the problem is noticed by a stranger in ten minutes, wouldn't the school's educators see the problem and gave him some sort of training on decision making? I truly feel that this should have been added on to his IEP.


Schools see alright. They just don't want to do a thing to help children. Lots of people question why schools seem to 'not notice'?
They notice, alright. They also notice that they will NEVER get reprimanded or have to pay the price for hurting children.

THIS is why they do it.

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