School accused of putting autistic student in bag

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Here's the article link, but first I'd like to say that parents of ALL kids should home school because the public schools are all lousy. This story is yet another outrage committed against a disabled person--and by people in a position of responsibility, who are old enough to know better. They should be arrested for child abuse, illegal restraint, and child endangerment.

http://news.yahoo.com/school-accused-pu ... 29844.html

If the link isn't clickable, just copy it and paste it into your address bar window. I had to tell my father that about links I put in my emails to him. For some reason they are never clickable, and he was complaining about having to type them out. He forgot about the copy and paste short cut.

Remember, we on the spectrum are all:

A Different Drummer

If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
Perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears,
However measured or far away.

--Henry David Thoreau

That is inexcusable.

The comments section just makes things worse--have you read some of those?

I don't care if the kid was "acting up" or not--there is NO REASON to restrain ANYONE like that!

The story is unclear, but I am not yet persuaded that this is the outrage that many are painting it to be.

The boy's behaviour required intervention--from that moment, he was going to wind up being treated differently. Not because of his disability in se, but because of his inability to function in the classroom environment. Reducing stimulus in a supervised fashion can often be a much more satisfactory way of dealing with disruptive behaviour.

The time he spent in the bag was short (20 minutes, according to the article), he was capable of recognizing his mother's voice and rational enough to explain why he believed he had been put in the bag. Given that it had been used before without any apparent ill effects, I see this as potentially a more reasonable method of dealing with uncontrolled behaviour than other types of restraint or isolation.

Some of us are very well aware of the therapeutic benefits of, say, weighted blankets. I think we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss this without a consideration of its beneficial impacts--not for the school, but also for Christopher.

It makes me sick the way that child was treated.

If my parents didn't take me out of public school to homeschool me when they did, I would have commited sucide years ago. I think I saw this story on the local news.

I would like to see it established that forcing anyone to "function in a classroom environment" is inherently child abuse. Period. Torture. Inhumane. Vile.

I suffered through public school. I even had a few very good teachers. In spite of that, I honestly believe that I could have learned far more just left to my own devices. In fact, I usually did learn more on my own than I learned in school. Public education taught me two things: 1; to be lazy (because I was so far ahead of the required work that I never needed to struggle to do any of it), 2: to loathe being required to do anything "just because" to the point where I am totally unable to endure anything of the sort, even in situations where I am intellectually aware that might be better. I already suffered far too much of it. As a result, I am less fit for living as an adult than I would have been if left alone.

"The employees of the Mercer County Public Schools are qualified professionals who treat students with respect and dignity while providing a safe and nurturing learning environment"
Uhuh..does that mean they put a light and some learning materials inside the duffel bag with him?

When my wife was looking for a place for our boy to go to next year she went to one school, where they put a wee boy in a chair and tied him into it with and adults pants belt right in front of her. Took that one off the list..

Home schooling is simply not a viable option for a lot of people. Very few can afford it to begin with, and in some cases, such as my own, it's far more work than we could possibly handle. We tried. It didn't work out for a plethora of reasons to numerous to post here. It's a nice dream, but life as it is in today's society makes it impossible for ALL parents to do so. It's great for those who can, but to imagine everyone can do it is just not reasonable.

That teacher should be fired, even though firing the teacher
just won't be enough.

This was an ill advised and possibly illegal way of controlling the child, but the individuals calling for the educator's heads should answer this question: How would you handle a disorderly child?

If parents did the same thing in their own home it would be classified as abuse.