A sad commentary

It remains to be seen just how much truth there is to this event, however, I hope this article at least serves to shed some light on autism spectrum disorders (ASD). I regularly hear stories from families about their children with ASD being ostracized in the community: they're worried about going shopping, going to restaurants, going on trips, etc... because they don't want to deal with the looks they get--or even the comments they get--when their child gets overwhelmed. I certainly can't expect every person in the grocery store to automatically think that a child throwing a tantrum has autism (though a little sympathy to all parents wouldn't hurt :D). I do, however, think that educators have a responsibility to understand and be familiar with the differences between purposeful "willfulness" in a child and symptoms of more serious underlying difficulties for that child. I personally am very surprised at the type of punishment described in this article--for any child, ASD diagnosis aside. You can come to your own conclusions about what the school district should do. There are so many wonderful,caring educators out there. Hopefully stories like this one will happen less and less often.