This is a topic that we know can be very sensitive for many and something no parent ever wants to hear is happening to their child, whether they are autistic or not, school bullying. Sadly, it happens and it is happening more and more in our schools.
Today, while sitting surfing the Internet I came across an article over at CNN.com about autistic kids being bullied more then other kids. Of course my jaw dropped instantly and I became very frustrated with this. These kids are already dealing with enough and now they are becoming a prime target of school bullies.
Bullying is something that we hate hearing about and wish we could put an end to it, but sadly it’s harder said then done. With autistic kids becoming a huge target, we wish we could put an end to it even more even faster.
What are the school systems doing to help prevent this bullying? Yes, many schools have updated their bullying policies, but are they following through with these new policies? It is hard to ever know.
Protecting our kids is very important and teaching them the importance of not bullying is just as important. Whether a child is bullied or bullying, they need to understand what is going on, why it’s happening and how it can be prevented. Our world is changing so quickly that our children are growing up even faster and developing personalities like they see in the media, video games, etc. Bullying has always been around but now it seems more apparent then several years ago.
At the end of the article there was a paragraph that really made my blood boil…
In order to report being bullied, you need to understand when you’re being targeted, for example; in contrast, you also need to understand and effectively deploy harassing social information in order to be a bully — things that autistic children generally cannot do.
If a child is unable to report being bullied because they are unable to understand when they’re being targeted, how are they ever supposed to put an end to it? When a child is emotionally and physically showing the signs of bullying, why can’t something be done? No child deserves being bullied and no child should be a bully, but sadly the world won’t work that way.
It is not usually hard to determine that a child is being bullied as how they act changes towards other children that could be bullying them. No child autistic or not, will willingly go play with someone who is bullying them to the extent of hurt and emotional frustration. Monitor it, understand it and listen.
There are two things in this world I will do everything in my power to raise awareness on, Autism and bullying. Has your child ever experienced bullying? How did you deal with it?
Check out the article here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/07/health/autistic-kids-bullied-time/
Ignorant attorney blames abuse against autistic man on autism itself. Wow. Just amazing. So now it’s the autistic person’s fault for being autistic. And any caregiver that abuses the severely autistic person must be under so much stress that these poor abusive caregivers need counseling and support. http://www.criminal-law-attorney.com/alleged-abusive-caregiver-has-troubled-past/
Here’s response one person had to this disgusting attorney’s ignorance about autism.
“It’s interesting that in the video clips shown of these abusive caregivers, in no clip is the autistic young man exhibiting behaviors that would give a caregiver an excuse to abuse the young man. In fact, upon careful analysis, which apparently you haven’t done, you see these caregivers are bothered by the autistic young man’s getting up and needing to be walked, comforted or cared for. Instead of comforting or caring for the young man, viewers see in these clips that the caregivers are busy texting on their phones, sitting and closing their eyes as if trying to sleep or watching a movie on their lap top. Good try Mr. Spital, in attempting to downplay and minimize the horrific abuse against severely autistic people in our community. But we aren’t buying it.”
What’s next? Another ignorant attorney will pipe in and justify abuse against elderly people with dementia? Or bullying against people with Aspergers? If a caregiver can’t handle working with this population they should find another profession, not abuse the autistic person and then blame the abuse on the autism itself. Just sickening.
The truth is abusive caregivers are often the ones you find wanting more pay, more hours, more shifts, etc…and stay in the position to collect a check. Then, when caught abusing, they blame the victim’s autism. Worse, abusive caregivers often stay in the position because they get off on abusing and controlling the defenseless autistic person.
My son was bullied last year , so devastating. My son is 12 years old and he has autism, when he was out of his class room a boy 13 ripped the head off of his toy. So during lunch he confronted the boy and asked him to either fix it or buy him a new toy. As he told my son no , my son just turned around and continued on with his lunch ,as he turned around the young boy had already taken off his sweater coat and rolled up his sleeves . My son stood in a stance blocking his face as the boy was jumping all around . Then things happened so quickly , he swung at my son putting him in a headlock punching him in the face ,knocking him to the ground and punching him 6-10 times , he blackend my sons face and ear . One fortunate thing the teachers saw but got there to late , so they pulled my son in the office and he said the boy hit me . After more meetings they thought maybe it was caught on the hall camaras ,sure enough it was . The young boy 13 was charged with assault and had to do do some anger management etc. I think camaras should be mandatory in all schools inside and out both elementary and high school . thank you And the hardest part of all as parents was watching the camara footage ,made us sick . The school did expell him for 20 days and he was returned but in other classes no where near my son .