6 Y/O Autistic student criminally charged w/ assault

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Again, Zero Tolerance policies are being taken too far. Here's the article Video is also present, but I have no idea of how long it will be up.

Unbelievable... That teacher has a screw loose or something... I'll bet those parents have a pretty strong case if they want to bring suit against the school under the Americans with Disabilities Act...

i'd also question the professionalism of whatever police official took the complaint...

6 year olds, autistic or otherwise, are little kids. they might know something is a not-nice thing, but they still act impulsively and like... well, like little kids. Arresting a 6 year old is insane.
A few years ago here they arrested a 5 year old girl for something similar--- handcuffed her and everything. The parents were not amused at all.

Not to be a jerk or anything, but if the teacher had responded physically, by holding the kid from hitting/kicking her, for instance, the parents would be having her face criminal charges. The usual liberal response is to talk to the child, but a 6-year old isn't going to be able to pay attention to that. Would an autistic kid mind being put on time-out? I would have deliberately sought out time-outs when I was a kid, I'd have enjoyed some alone time in the middle of the school day. Not letting the kid join in somthing like ice cream a few hours later? I doubt a little kid would still be thinking about the attack, it would be ancient history to him by the time he realized he had lost a privilege. You could TELL him when he misbehaved that he would lose a privilege, but it wouldn't actually hit him until he couldn't do somethingl.

What CAN a teacher do to discourage this kind of behavior? I seriously have no idea. I have always avoided having to supervise children, because I have no idea what could be done that would both leave this kid with the idea that this behavior is not worth the consequences and still not get me in trouble. I think any consequences would seem like too much to the parents.

it says he has other conditions besides autism,this boy has complex and challenging needs,and it does not sound like they have adapted for them properly,especially as they have not been trained in "intervention methods" [which would have meant the lady not getting hit],a teacher who works with any child,whether autistic or not,can't expect it to be risk free,what is this lady doing working in teaching children if she can't take a few hits or kicks.

What is this world coming to?

Tim

UPDATE

Here's the Press Release that the parents put out.

The parents of Nathaniel Darnell, special minor child accused of assault, release the following statement to the press.

“We do not, cannot, and will not deny our son’s accuser (Glenda Schiltz) her right to due process just because we disagree that this criminal case is the best thing to modify the future actions of and outcomes for our son. We have not, nor has our precious son, denied his action and poor behavior. We have not anytime in our son’s three year academic career hidden the fact that our son is a child with multiple disabilities, both emotional and mental. We only deny that our son has NO worth and no equal protections, due process, or civil rights. We were and are angered that the actions taken were seen as the only way to help a child with multiple emotional and mental disabilities. We believe that our son can learn nothing from this action except that he is “different” and that he is undesirable and separate.
We have simply asked the school, going on a third year now, to provide a free, affective, and appropriate education for our son, yet he has not advanced a grade nor advanced his educational goal. We find it ironic that when you demand what the United States Supreme Court has already repeatedly told schools they must supply, you become a trouble maker who is unreasonable. We simply ask after two years, and now going into a third when are we supposed to become worried about our son’s long-term outcome. Autism has a window of opportunity in formative years and must be both CAUGHT and SERVICED to yield better outcomes. We contend that 45 minutes a day of special instruction is nothing close to intense intervention. We too contend that we have asked repeatedly for alternative placement inside the school only to be told the “law” says he has to be in a normal classroom.
We want our son’s accuser to know that after many tears and much searching for belief that humanity is not gone from mankind, we realize that she is just a soldier in a battle. We hope for her sake that she hasn’t been used as a diversion to the root causes that have lead to her incidence with our son.
We believe and allege that our son has been denied civil rights, due process, equal protections, a right to self-determination, and even self worth by some people and some policies in his school district and if not the policies then their failure to follow them.
Contrary to the superintendent’s statement to the media, we believe that in whole the district is a good school system, and even submit that for students without special need it is very, very good. We, indeed have three other students who thrive there and are exceptional students. We simply say that some employees there that work with children who need extreme assistance and patience may be feeling that they are forced to work harder than they are paid to work and that may lead to disdain for those they claim to serve. Still, even if the problem is pay or funding, we all, as parents, citizens, and as advocates both for education and special children have a right and a duty to make sure this isn’t the case. We hold that our son and other witnesses have allegedly seen denial of his rights and mistreatment of his person. Would any of us be better parents if we did not ask for answers when such things occur? If the problems are rooted in the above then we all must ask is the above criminal or is it all to ride on our son? This nation must soon look at the laws commonly called “zero tolerance” and at our education funding policy with eyes that politics cannot glaze. How can our nation reward, monetarily, a school for improving its test scores yet, not have oversight to make sure that it isn’t an incentive to push problem and special needs children away. Then ask our leaders how a set of laws---again known as zero tolerance---- can be so easily, without regard for the sanctity and sanity of families, used as a means for this push away form dignity and rights. Columbine and all other such tragedies that drew forth these laws were tragedies that sickened and terrified everyone with a stake in education and rearing children. Still, as loving parents, we will scream ( even to the detriment of our persons) out to whoever will hear that our six year old child, who performs at the development of a four year old and who is mentally and emotionally troubled also in other ways, was not at those tragedies and will not pay for them. Laws cannot serve their purpose if they are not used for their purpose. Why is common sense so uncommon? The Darnell Family issues and supports all the above.”

WTFH?!

Here is the letter I wrote and sent to the school. Here are places to write. The boy has been acquitted, but the problem remains, the school is not helping the boy, and indeed there was a separate incident where the bus driver slammed him into a seat and bruised him. He is being treated like a bad little boy instead of a child with a severe social learning disability and the school needs to hear from other aspies and autistics about what really should be done.


MY LETTER

Please have some mercy and understanding for a little boy who is going to have enough trouble coping with life without the entire school and justice system being against him from the age of six! Six!

From what I've been reading his lack of social skills are getting him in trouble. Social skills don't come naturally to an autistic or aspergers syndrome child the way they do to a neurotypical child. They have to be specially taught, just as you would special techniques to teach a dyslexic child to read.

The way I had it explained to me is, some kids have some special talent that lets them play the piano by ear, from just about the first time they sit at the piano. We marvel at those individuals! But, if you have an individual who can't play the piano by ear, someone who sits down at the keys and just plunks at the keys, unknowing what to do, we don't despair of that person learning to play the piano. We patiently teach them, note by note, line by line, measure by measure. And with patient teaching, practice, encouragement and love, many folks who are piano deficient become quite piano efficient with time. It is the same with a dyslexic person learning to read or an autistic person learning social skills. We don't punish them, (the way this little boy is being punished) for not having what did not come naturally. We teach them, expression by expression, social rule by social rule, gently, lovingly and patiently for however long it takes.


This little boy is being judged for not knowing what did not come naturally to him. It is if we lived in a society that expects everyone to be a natural piano player and we are not understood and are punished, shunned and scorned because we are the type that have to be taught note by note.

This kid reacts with violence when he is frustrated, because reacting in any other way, did not come naturally to him as it does to most other people.

If we just punish him back with more violence he is only having his own method of coping modeled back to him.


It is quite possible he cannot read facial expressions or notice them. Many autistics can't and don't. Because, when he misbehaves he does not get the facial warning, (the FIRST WARNING) not to stop doing something when a parent, teacher or bus driver frowns at him as a neurotypical kid would, he is surprised when suddenly he is being punished physically or forcefully restrained from doing what he was doing, so he thinks naturally, that, that is how ANYONE including he HIMSELF should FIRST respond when he doesn't like what someone is doing. He needs to be taught how to read facial expressions so he recognizes that vital FIRST WARNING, he is missing instead of being oblivious to it. And he needs to be taught the first response is not to start getting physical with people but to use facial expressions and verbalizations of his own to express his displeasure. To punish him for not reading faces or responding with his own face, (but physically instead) is just as much a miscarriage of justice as it would be to punish a blind kid for not noticing a frown or a shaking head or finger. He just can't see it.

The judge dropped the case but the child is still not receiving appropriate help. The school treats him like a bad little boy instead of a child with a severe social problem. Here places to write and call to try and change that. We can make a difference.



The School Superintendent:
Phone (606) 735-2523
Fax (606) 735-3640
Ask to speak with Mr. Tony Johnson, Superintendent
tjohnson@Bracken.k12.ky.us

The Board of Education:
E. Lawton Ulrich, Board of Education Chairman
(606) 756-2295


Gregory Jones, Board of Education Vice Chairman
(606) 747-5389

The School:
Taylor Elementary School
Phone (606) 735-2169
Fax (606) 735-2058
Ask to speak with Raye Jean Hopper, Principal
rhopper@bracken.k12.ky.us

With luck, our calls and e-mails will make a difference. Please act today.

based on the press release, those parents sound like idiots. they could have spun this story in their favor. Now they're shooting themselves in the feet.