Partial report on Sandy Hook shooting released

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For discussion:

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news ... mbine?lite

Nice. They all but left out the Asperger's, touching on it only briefly.

Which matches my experience. When my classmates hit puberty, the instinct to establish the "pecking-order" kicked in. I was ostracized as well.

Perhaps this is the takeaway from the report.

First and foremost, this is a human tragedy because twenty-six human beings were murdered.

And also, for those of us interested in autism rights as I certainly am, this does make things more difficult. And I think we can go ahead and say that in honesty and candor.

There's a least a couple good talking points we can use to advance a dialogue:

If 1 out of 88 persons is on the Asperger's-Autism Spectrum, and with a world population now exceeding six billion, in rough, approximate numbers that is sixty million people on the spectrum. And out of any group of sixty million human beings, a couple of them might do something really awful.

And remember, Adam Lanza first murdered his own mother. There was a lot more going on than just the fact that he had Asperger's Syndrome.

"His Mother described" is not a diagnosis.

If Adam actually did what he's accused of, that behavior would be far more consistent with schizophrenia than with autism.

Agreed. Even if he had Asperger's, he had a whole lot more wrong with him that eventually had led him to the Sandy Hook school.

Years ago, I remember reading that a person with schizophrenia was actually less likely than a member of the general public to commit a crime. Now, a person with the specific subset of paranoid schizophrenia was more likely, but only modestly so.

Report said he was diagnosed with Aspergers and OCD in 2005 and did not take his meds. He had noise and touch sensitivity issues, disliked crowds. he had very ridged routines average to above average intelligence. His "symptoms" grew noticeably worse starting in middle school. Unfortunately for everybody his obsession was mass shootings. No connection could be made between his "disorders" and the massacre. He destroyed his computer to the degree it is still unreadable.

The way I see it, when the media used the Sandy Hook tragedy as a way to propagate their Neo-Nazi, anti-autistic agenda, they all became child-killers themselves. In some ways, maybe Lanza's crimes were for the better. After all, the reactions of people to his crimes did reveal their true colors. Now it is much clearer who is worthy of life and who isn't. Negligence is even worse than malice, in my opinion. Everyone who insults Autistics are no better than Lanza. They're all child-killers, in my eyes, and I don't wish them any better of a fate than I would have wished Lanza, if he were still alive today.

Even though he shared a home with his mom,he would not communicate with her except through e-mail,that was on the NBC nightly news last night.Sounds like some serious mommy issues that we will never know about.

I read that on Yahoo News. Lanza obviously had become so self-isolated that the fantasy he was left to immerse himself into became reality for him, and took over his life.

Here is what ticks me off:

there was some online resource about AS that listed only a handful of people with AS, and Lanza is one of them.

Many places have factually linked him as having AS, when there is no proof he was diagnosed with it aside from "his mother thought he had it". And lets face it, she wasn't exactly an observant parent

My best guess would be that he and his mother had a scorpions-in-the-bottle type of relationship.

The fact that he shot her first makes me think she was the root of it,even the Columbine kids didn't take out mommy.Even if you find your mother annoying and a pest, if you know she loves you,she would be the last person you would hurt.Unless you had a real serious undiagnosed mental illness,not AS.Then the mom should have got him help,even if he didn't want it.

I agree. While one can make a guess about Einstein or Lovecraft having Asperger's, as diagnosis was largely non-existent in their lifetimes, today if someone is listed as having Asperger's, they ought to be properly diagnosed.

That was true about the media prior to the report. Irrelevant now

http://www.scribd.com/doc/187052598/Off ... ook-Report


"Over the years from the late 1990s and into the 2000s, the shooter had evaluations of various types, some of which were available to the investigators. In the late 1990s he was described as having speech and language needs. At that time he was also being followed medically for seizure activities. In preschool his conduct included repetitive behaviors, temper tantrums, smelling things that were not there, excessive hand washing and eating idiosyncrasies. In 2005, the shooter was diagnosed with Asperger’s Disorder [and was described as presenting with significant social impairments and extreme anxiety. It was also noted that he lacked empathy and had very rigid thought processes. He had a literal interpretation of written and

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What these episodes were was unclear.

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This is a party where attendees eat pizza and play video games.










35 verbal material. In the school setting, the shooter had extreme anxiety and discomfort with changes, noise, and physical contact with others. In 2006 the shooter had an overall IQ in the average range. He had no learning disability. Depending on the psychological test taken he could be average, below average or above average. Testing that required the touching of objects could not be done. It was reported that his school issues related to his identified emotional and/or Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) spectrum behaviors. His high level of anxiety, Asperger’s characteristics, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) concerns and sensory issues all impacted his performance to a significant degree, limiting his participation in a general education curriculum. Tutoring, desensitization and medication were recommended. It was suggested that he would benefit by continuing to be eased into more regular classroom time and increasing exposure to routine events at school. The shooter refused to take suggested medication and did not engage in suggested behavior therapies. Over the years his mother consistently described the shooter as having Asperger’s syndrome. She had a number of books in the home on the topic. She also described the shooter as being unable to make eye contact, sensitive to light and couldn’t stand to be touched. Over time he had multiple daily rituals, an inability to touch door knobs,

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repeated hand washing and obsessive clothes changing, to the point that his mother was frequently doing laundry. In 2006, the shooter’s mother noted that there were marked changes to the shooter’s behavior around the seventh grade. Prior to that, he would ride his bike and do adventurous things such as climbing trees or climbing a mountain. He had stopped playing the saxophone. He had been in a school band but dropped out. He had withdrawn from playing soccer or baseball which he said he did not enjoy. It is important to note that it is unknown, what contribution, if any, the shooter’s mental health issues made to his attack on SHES. Those mental health professionals who saw him did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior

I would not be surprised at all if Autism Speaks uses the Sandy Hook report, partial or full, as a reason to brainwash people into believing their anti-Autism propaganda to be fact.