A NAS short clip about autism and bullying

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^^ If you think that's over the top then you're sheltered. Try a whole gang forming a circle around a single individual who is being pushed by one and then the other, a cupcake driven into the face and then pushed down into the dirt and kicked and beaten. Try being chased by kids wielding knives. Try being chased by a gang wielding bats and boards and throwing rocks that hit you. It isn't anything to laugh about.

So not having met any violent psychopaths makes me sheltered? The premise of the scene was simply that the boy had Asperger's, no other background information was given, and it strikes me as ridiculous and over the top when those children reacted as they did to the boy's replies.
Whether it's possible or not is irrelevant in this case because it doesn't change the fact that we have no knowledge of the relationship between those children. In addition, the first scene was extreme in it's own purpose and only pushed the next scene to another level of absurdity.

It was acted out as a demonstration. It wasn't supposed to be award-winning acting in cinema photography. It's very real for those who have gone through it and most understand it is only a representation of the kinds of things that occur.

Last edited by Meadow on 31 Jan 2010, 3:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

That really ISN'T anything to laugh about and I cant imagine having to go through that or even living in a place where that happens.

I had a 'gang' of around 6 kids after me for a while when I was about 17.

They would chase me on their bicycles, (but they weren't carrying weapons); fortunately I was very fast runner.

One day when they appeared on their bikes, I decided I wasn't going to run any more and so I turned and started to walk towards them.

For once they didn't start to chase me.

When I reached them I asked them what the problem was and within a few minutes, it was clear that there would be no more chasing.

I was actually pretty scared as I walked towards them (alone of course)

I imagine it was probably quite unbalancing to see the kid they had been trying to terrify, walk up towards them and confronting them like that.

I was between 8 and 12 when I was subjected to these things after I was returned to my dead mother. I was never able to fight back so I did a lot of running when I could run. This happened to me in a district of East LA and a couple Southern states. I'm white but I managed always to be the minority in most of the places where I grew up. It was rough, to say the least, and I wasn't really equipped to deal with it. I don't think anyone would have been.

Some of us are actually beaten up like that least once in our lives. I didn't see who did that to me because they threw a coat over my head, this was in primary school, when I managed to get out from under the coat they had all run away, it was an all girls school. I learned to make myself scary in secondary because bullys don't target scary people as much. That you laughed just meant that you couldn't believe people could be that nasty for little or no reason.

All through school I dont remember being bullied. Yes I once had someone say hit me in the crotch during a four square match but I beat him up. And yes if I ever see him he and I are friends.

Thanks I make sure I have the prize right in front of me and i'm appreciate the fact thaat you find it a positive uplifting, ive never been told that before and that's the first Thats pretty much made my day

Im glad I was in a special ed. My elementary and middle school years were spent it a school that shared the building with a special education school. They scared me. Now I know they are just different what with wheelchairs or not being able to speak. But way back when I was frighted.

Could only bear to watch half of that. Very sad.

However - I do wish there was more focus on this kind of stuff and less on curing people, putting them in therapy, etc.

Understanding is the cure.

i wish alot of people see this.

Indeed.... This should be helpful for the people and besides, most people must have been through this stage before.
I know I have been through a smiliar patch as Chris has.

I hope people take this to heart. In sixth grade, a boy with Asperger's was chased out of my school by a kangaroo court of his peers. There were thirty kids in the room, and I was the only one not laughing. Needless to say, I was "in the closet" for a long time after. Our teachers knew about it but never aknowledged that anything had happened or that it was wrong. It happened because he had AS and was open about it, not because of anything he did. The sight of it changed me, and it must have been infinetly worse for him.

A lot of this happened to me throughout school. I was beaten up more times than I can remember, but I did fight back when it got bad. The name calling has continued to a greater or lesser extent throughout my adult life, and to be honest, I'm pushing forty, I've lost faith in humans.

The worst of it is, this stuff is still happening. My son has been assaulted at school several times by gangs, including only last week... he's been off school since, may be returning tomorrow, depending.

He's had to go to hospital after one assault, he's been verbally abused on a near daily basis, kicked, shoved down stairs, all the rest of it. At a previous school we had the police involved.

I don't know if telling others about autism is a good thing or not, I fear if the fact of it were to be shared it with bullies it would get worse. But then, if they understood why we're different they might feel less threatened. Who knows?

Well, we're hopefully getting some support soon from the autistic support groups locally. I'm getting very depressed by the whole situation.

I remember a teacher in one of my schools mercilessly persecuting a girl with HFA. The girl, who I'll not name for her privacy's sake, was six foot at twelve, as well as autistic, so you can imagine how difficult it was for her.

Anyway, the teacher was laughing at her, I can't even remember what about now, and the class were just laughing and laughing. And I kind of cracked, I don't know why. I stood up and said to the teacher that she was the moron, she was a weak stupid pathetic bully, and the only reason she was picking on my friend was that she knew the kids despised her, and she was trying to distract them from her own inadequacy.

Then I marched out and told the head teacher what was going on.

I was a "hyperlexic" child, apparently, it seems that my vitriol combined with the verbals had a bit of an impact. My friend and I were moved to another class, and it's one thing from that school that I'm proud of.

I've lost contact with that girl now, I have no idea where she is. I wonder does she remember the incident?

Good vid, good vid. What I find intriguing is that the majority of the English-language autism activism videos I see originate in the UK. I guess it says a bit about the different cultural perceptions of autism in the UK vs. the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, etc.