The conversation in the #ActuallyAutistic community is dominated by Western, predominantly white, voices. The autistic experience in the Global South & East is VERY different.
"10 year Boy with Down Syndrome Assaulted by Bus Driver - Abuse of Students with Invisible Disabilities by Educators"
⚠️ CW - Stories on mistreatment and abuse of students with invisible disabilities in schools across the country. May be disturbing to some.
Yesterday, a bus driver for the Upper Darby school district in Pennsylvania, was charged with assault, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a child.
Juliet Pratt was captured on surveillance cameras, duct taping the a student with Downs Syndrome around the ankles and chest to restrain him. The footage also show the child, who was already in a safety harness, caused no disturbance and remained in his seat. Regardless, nothing warrants this kind of abusive behavior to people with invisible disabilities, especially by someone involved in child education. The March 8th incident was not the only. The bus driver admitted doing this appalling act to the child, at least one other time. Pratt cut the tape restraints with a seat belt cutter to free the boy upon arrival at the school.
There seems to be no mention of charges related to disability protectections in news reports. Has she done this to others? Would she have done this if the child did not have a disability? If Ms. Pratt singled the child out for this treatment because of any disability related reason, (ie - thinking she could get away with it because of the boy's DS), authorities may want to consider this an ableist hate crime.
Unfortunately, this problem is not uncommon. In some places, the techniques used are legal, bringing harm to many students with invisible disabilities. In Virginia, a 10 year old autistic boy, had the "bones in his hand and foot crushed" by an educator. The injuries were caused by a staff member who was isolating and confining the child, in what was called the "scream room".
Many reports of similar abuses have surfaced in Connecticut schools as well. In one case, a second grader with ADHD was held down, and locked in confinement after a manifestation of symptoms. Aside from the mental and emotional wounds caused, just as in many other cases, the child suffered physically injury. According to the story linked below, students have been restrained and isolated "thousands of times causing dozens of injuries" in Connecticut schools. This hardly sounds like accommodation and community intergration.
Then, there's Xavier Hernandez, who died as a result if being held down and restained by multiple staff members at "Boulevard Heights" school for "students with disabilities" in Texas.
These are the people entrusted with the job of shaping young minds? What lesson does this type of behavior teach other students about interacting with people with invisible disabilities; that they should be restrained, isolated and subjected to physical and mental damage? Considering these, and many other such acts, it seems many educators could use a lesson on understanding and accommodation of persons with invisible disabilities.
Yearning for closure when a relationship ends isn’t uniquely a autistic experience, but alot of autistic people are often deeply affected when a relationship ends without closure. This maybe because our brains crave clarity, certainy, directness, and quite possibly need them to feel ok.
The push of modern society to make everything and everyone available, fast, and instant is killing #ActuallyAutistic people. It’s sending us into burnout, it’s destroying our lives. For many, literally KILLING us.
The struggle to decide if I should try a new coffee place for the first time, when I have a 10min wait for the train, where I don’t know if my standard script will just work… :-)
In the end I decided to take the risk and it worked fine :-).
Nu, are you an #ActuallyAutistic member of the Jewish community? Come join my FREE virtual discussion & affirmation circle on June 18 to talk about and affirm our experiences.
@panda@actuallyautistic@autisticadvocacy to my mind this section alone should cause the prevention of this research being carried out as there is an obvious real and immediate risk to the individuals involved, this has happened before in other research and #ActuallyAutistic people are known to be at higher psych risk when they are "betrayed"
@actuallyautistic In its consultation document, the #Spectrum10K team had written ‘We incorporated the feedback of our Advisory Panel into the creation of the Spectrum 10K study protocol, which is the manual that the research team will follow as they carry out the study.’
@panda@actuallyautistic@autisticadvocacy are any of the original or existing celeb promoters of #S10K on the fediverse, just that section on risk support alone should give them pause for thought, considering how much at risk #ActuallyAutistic people are for suicide
@panda@actuallyautistic@autisticadvocacy so the fact that i am seeing direct and obvious risks already in reading this can only mean that they still haven't got anyone involved who is #ActuallyAutistic or even have reviewed this document, TBH i'm starting to struggle now as #SBC is a major trigger for me being one of the unlucky people to have had a direct interaction with him which directly harmed me, so going to stop for now