London school forced autistic 6 year old to wear vest

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'Disgusting' reason boy, 6, was forced to wear yellow vest at school

For s**ts and giggles I'll take a stab at why...

Is this kid a runner? Has this kid eloped in the past by hiding somewhere in the school taking off in the surrounding neighborhood?

I'm guessing the kid does not have an aide with him either.

The school I worked at had three autistic kids who eloped. One took off in the building and wedge himself into a small storage closed. He was found 90 minutes later. The other two eloped during lunch recess. Both could scale a 6 foot chain link fence like a spider monkey.

The vest would have made line of sight watching easier as there was 200 children and 4 adults. None of the kids that eloped had a 1:1 aide at the time.

Long story short, all those kids wound up with a 1:1 until it was figured out what was triggering the running. The two recess runners lost lunch outdoor recess for two months. The police had to find them in the neighborhood. Good times.

While I totally understand why this mom would be furious. I'd like to think the school didn't just slap a bib on this kid only because he's autistic and no other reason. There's a back story I'd be interested to hear.

Especially since the UK is 100% more autism friendly than the US in services provided. You in the UK may crab about not getting help, but in the US (for adults) there is no possibility for help. Scraps are more than we get here.

A difficult one to judge. They don't really give their reasoning other than to 'support'. The article appears to be an unhappy mum sticking up for her son but really without any real information how is one to judge?

I take Tawaki's view, there could be a number of reasons for the vest. I'm assuming Mum isn't happy that it makes him standout, would she be happy with all the other things that could make him stand out in a mainstream school? Such as having a one to one or taking special classes or even taking part in some ritualistic behaviour.

I suspect the mother wouldn't make such a big deal about it if all was well. It does kind of seem like making all black people have a a tattoo with a number on their wrist. Something dehumanising about it.

I see this problem a lot. I assume the kid is fairly young 4-6 years old as this is fairly common in British schools.

It sounds really bad but when you look at the bigger picture it can be see as the best out of a load of bad options:

1. Kid has 1:1 for the whole of break. That puts off other kids from playing with them so the can become isolated.

2. Let the kid play with all the others and expect an adult to watch them closely but from a distance. That is really difficult though and it is not fair to put that responsibility on one adult.

3. The kid wears hi-vis and his 1:1 finds it far easier to see them from a distance allowing them to interact with the other kids.

4. Kid just does not get to mix with other children a playtime.

5. Let the kid play and see how the parents react when he or another child is hurt (I am making assumptions that this kid has behaviours that could lead to someone being hurt but there are normally reasons for schools to use hi-vis such as being a runner).

This is not some sort of evil dictatorship making autistic children stand out but there is no easy option. If you can think of better please let me know as I would happily change the current system.

The point of this process is to allow children to have as much experience of life as possible while keeping both them and in some situations other children safe.

What would you suggest?

There is a very big difference between being treat the same way as everyone else and equality. To be treated equally means that autistics often have to be treated differently.

I have had a mother of an autistic child refuse to let me put support in place because she felt that it would mark her child out as different. Denying a child support like this can, in some cases, be far worse that singling them out.

A lot of people have fought very hard to allow most autistic children into mainstream classrooms and there are still a lot of people who would put a stop to it. This is real progress.

You see a child being ostracised, I see a child, that due to progress, is now included in a mainstream playground instead of a special school where they really are excluded.

The parents should have been told but we only have a journalists word that the mother was not consulted. This assumption that because it is a mother of an autistic child she must be totally honest is very disrespectful to the others involved and quite often not the case.

There are serious issues with the way we support these children. The one people who cannot be held responsible are the people in the front line who are doing what they can. They are not trained properly, they are not paid well and there is no money to change anything. The do try do do what they think is right.

I have seen some terrible things in education but this is not one of them. This is a standard policy that is trying to make things better. No it is not perfect but it is an improvement. Of course if you can do better, please leave suggestions here.

Assuming the vest is because he's a runner, this is a hard one. As a teacher, the physical safety of my students is the top priority above emotional safety or learning. Don't get me wrong, emotional safety and learning are very important, but if I had to choose, it would have to be for physical safety. The problem for autistic students in gen ed settings, though, is that gen ed teachers, special ed teachers, aids, guidance counselors, and admin really don't understand autism. No one there knows I'm autistic, but I interject when I can to help the students who also are. Other staff doesn't get that the same punishments as for NTs don't work, like restricting something fun until the kids reflects on their behavior. IEPs are not that helpful, they say the same thing for pretty much every kid who has one. 1:1 is definitely ostracizing, and even then, aids are trained to help with learning deficits, not autistic behavior. Whoever said above to find out why he is a runner is on the best track. I find I can calm a lot of behavior with unruly autistic students by being very explicit. On the other hand, I am not good with the mind games needed for unruly NT students and leave that as much as possible to the NT teachers...

The yellow vest seems to me like the equivalent of the yellow stars that the Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. If I was that little boy, I would find it very humiliating to have to wear that vest to school every day and I would refuse to go to school.