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I have also wondered about the issue of how school staff working with autistic students are trained. My children attend a public high school where there are several students with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. The autistic students are mainstreamed, but have support staff who work with them closely, IEP's, etc.

For the most part this has worked out well. For example, there is one autistic young man who both of my children enjoy attending classes with. They like the way that he thinks and the way that he sees the world. He expresses himself very differently, and as creative kids, they like that about him. He seems to be doing well in the school--as do nearly all of the other autistic children who are in the school.

Conversely, however, there is another autistic young man in the same grade whose behavior really seems inappropriate and strange. What I mean is this: he follows girls inside and outside the school and frightens them with his behavior and the things he says to them, which are often sexually graphic. He also has written a number of stories and poems in class to read aloud which are incredibly graphically violent (about shooting, stabbing, cutting, burning, dismembering etc).

I first learned about his behavior when he began harassing and following my daughter. She talked to us about it, and on our advice, she then talked with her advisor at the school, who then called a conference with the principal, the autistic student's staff aide, and the school psychologist. They called my daughter into the conference. The school psychologist was terrible to her---he said that she had to be making things up, and that it was all because he was autistic---that she must be singling him out for mistreatment. They did eventually speak to the autistic student about appropriate behavior, but he has continued to follow and frighten girls at the school, and to act out sexually in other ways at the school which are too graphic for me to relate here, as well as continued to write and read weird and violent stories in class. Recently, he took a particular interest in one of my daughter's friends, a very quiet and shy girl a few years younger than him, and was following her and harassing her so much she finally broke down sobbing in her class one day. She had been afraid to tell anyone what was happening...after my daughter's experience with the school psychologist it is not hard to see why that might be.

I wasn't upset with the school psychologist for his reaction, although it was not fair for him to automatically assume that my daughter, who is a good student and good citizen, was lying. My take on his reaction was that he is a strong advocate for special-needs kids, and I am certain he has witnessed far too many incidents where special-needs kids are treated poorly by other kids. So I get it. But my kids are in their 4th year at this school, and I have heard story after story about what this young man is doing. In this very small school, everyone is aware of his behavior. And it seems that no one at the school is willing to address it.

I want to be CRYSTAL CLEAR here---I do NOT ascribe his behavior to autism. His behavior in no way is representative of the other autistic children at the school. Rather, I ascribe the school's lack of appropriate response to his behavior to a lack of training or understanding on their part. I think the biggest tragedy is that not only are a lot of young girls being subjected to behavior that frightens them but also that he isn't getting the response or direction he needs so that whatever is going on with him can be addressed. What a disservice to this young guy. It just seems like a tragedy all the way around.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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