School for 10yo AS in Western Victoria, any recommendations?

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Hello

This post is one of desperation and frustration. I’d rather give a summary instead of one mega-long post.

We have our 10 year old Son in a Government school in the Western suburbs of Melbourne at the moment. He has been suspended twice in a short space of time for aggressive behaviour towards teachers. The current suspension looks like it will go on indefinitely, and he has not been to school for most of this term (about 5 – 6 weeks).

The school have said these suspensions are the result of Assault on teachers. We have researched the particulars about law and suspensions and had a number of meetings with the school, all to no real avail. We just can’t see the point in going legal at this time because we know it would be to the detriment of both our children’s future at that school if we had a battle, won and then left them in that environment. Believe me, I was ready for a fight and it still might happen but at this time our resolve is to seek a school that can truly cater to our child’s needs, rather than just giving us ‘empty platitudes’.

Can anyone in the WP community recommend any schools out in the Western suburbs of Melbourne that can cater for a child with Asperger’s? Western Autistic School won’t take him unfortunately because they have a waiting list with no places.

While the search is on for a new school we are seeing a Paediatrician and Psychologist to investigate Risperdal and Behaviour Management.

Anything you can tell us would help.

Thanks

Hello,

I think it might be easier to give you some advice about how to resolve the situation if you gave more information about what happened. While I try not to use scare tactics, you really need to think twice before giving your child Risperdal. That drug works by inhibiting a persons ability to think. It is a tranquilizer. If you want to know what it feels like, try taking some NyQuil and then try functioning. It works by inhibiting your son's thought process, and since he cant think much, he cant become angry much, and thus the behavioral problems are considered solved. But the problem with this is also that it impairs his ability to do anything creative, to learn, or simply to use his mind to its full potential.

Now if the choices were between being a bit foggy and having a hard time thinking vs. being locked in a jail cell for repeated assault, then I wouldnt blame you for getting some Risperdal. But I would start first off by figuring out what is causing this problem, and then working out a solution that doesnt involve drugging him with mind altering medication that can have serious life long side effects such as muscle spasms and seizures.

Also, I would be careful about trying any behavioral management plans. Often times those are nothing more then just thinking up creative ways to punish your son. Now I am not saying that every plan is like that, but often times they work under the principle of enforcing behavior on your child rather then working WITH your child to come to a solution. Have you tried talking with your son to figure out why he assaulted his teachers? What does he say was the cause? Perhaps the solution to this problem merely requires your son's teacher to back off and stop being such a source of aggravation. I know that I had a few sadistic teachers who really didn't like children, and took every opportunity to enforce pointless rules and punish others. Perhaps your son just needs more time off durring the day to relax alone? Maybe he is just overwhelmed from lunch/recess because he is stuck in a loud, chaotic environment with 100s of noisy children.

Don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that your child did the right thing by attacking a teacher, but often times the situation can be resolved by simply talking with your son, and working out a solution to problems that you might not even think exist. After all, learning coping skills and anger management will serve your son life long. Putting him on drugs and punishing him for having human emotions isnt a viable long term solution.

Tracker has a point, and for some reason when I read your post earlier I had trouble formulating the thoughts. I have no school recommendations for you, as I am nowhere near you geographically, but it is important to note that with AS kids aggressive behavior can mean the same thing it does in a toddler: ie, something is wrong and I don't know how to tell you (or I've told you and you aren't listening). You need to slowly and carefully break down all the situations and find the triggers, and then all the stress builders leading up to the triggers. Once identified, you work on mitigation. Our kids have trouble with many, many ordinary things; go up or down a few threads and you'll read about a child that can't stand to hear the people around him breathing or chewing. These issues are REAL, and step one in dealing with AS aggression is to treat them as being real.

It is possible that your child simply cannot function in the chaotic (to someone with AS) environment of a public school. You may have to consider homeschooling. All options should be on the table as you try to work through this.

I am sorry that you have to work through so much right now; it is much easier for me to write than for you to find successful alternatives, I'm sure. The best we can do is make sure you are seeing as many sides of the situation as possible, and know all the options.

Hi

Thank you for the replies. When I said Behaviour Management perhaps it wasn't the best choice of words. We are seeing a psychologist to help with ‘coping’, my son himself says he doesn’t know why he gets angry. I can easily see it, as his main ‘triggers’ are excessive noise and too many instructions at one time. Once he reaches his processing limit, he’s gone and it’s either fight or flight.

We’ve been going to meetings at the school for six years and sometimes there hope, but mostly they can’t manage him and aren’t really willing too. I’m an Aspie myself and the injustice of this all has got my blood boiling, but to fight this seems futile and after some soul searching we have decided to look for another school.

I’ve been doing some searching on aggression in the forum, but if anyone can point me to any resources I would be extremely grateful. The aggression is the problem with the school at this time, they basically want him to go on medication before he comes back. At the last meeting with the school the teacher and principal both said they feared him and felt like they were targets. Its total BS, they are positioning themselves to get rid of him we feel – I’ll stop at that or I’ll start to go off.

His psychologist is very reluctant to put him on Risperdal and if she did it would be a very low dose.

If anyone can recommend a school, we would be grateful. At the moment, he is really falling through the cracks and the school system can’t help. At this time, homeschooling would be a last resort – neither of us are teachers.

Thanks

Hi,
I have a 10 year old son dx'd with AS,ocd,gad,adhd and tourettes. He is in a school in the Western Suburbs. I moved him to this school this year, as his last school werent doing a thing for him. The school he is now in have been fantastic. It operates a little differently to most schools. My son also attends a one day a week respite program run by western autistic school, and a social skills group on Saturday also run by Western.
Getting back to the mainstream school, his school have quite a large number of kids on the spectrum so they do have some understanding, they also regularly invite Gayle from western out to do school visits. The western autistic base room was located at my sons school about two years ago. Western are having a parents support group meeting this Wednesday. PM me and I will give you the school name and support group details.

There are a couple of us from Vic on here its nice to meet another.
cheers Aurea

Would you consider a private school? If Western is full due to a waiting list, is there any private school similar around?

Hi bull ant,
I'm not in the Western region but in the north (Thornbury), however I've heard that Werribee Primary School support ASD students well, so perhaps give them a try?
I really feel for you - dealing with schools is sooooooo hard. My 8 year old is at our second school, and while it's better than the first, because no place could be worse than the first, it's still not great. My son's being picked on and the anti-bullying policies are weak and ineffective, but I won't go on.....
Have you heard of the AYCE program? I know someone whose son is doing that and they are happy with it. Of course, it's not ideal, but then, there's not much help out there. Cheery aren't I!
Keep us informed of how you get on.
Cheers,
Temma

Hi,

Thank you for your kindness, in particular Aurea for talking to us privately . I took the day off work yesterday and we found two other Public schools that will enrol him and cater for his needs. There is one private school close by which sounds promising, but we won't be able to check that out until next week.

I have spoken to the Department of Human Services about receiving a Case Manager. At this time, they want us to try out this program http://signposts.net.au/. Not sure, as its based on telephone meetings. We are continuing with his Psychologist and Paediatrician for teatment and options. His paediatrician says that a low dose (1ml per day) of Risperdal has been proven to be effective, we are trying this very carefully starting tomorrow. The hope is this will help calm him while he learns other strategies, and will only be a short term treatment. This decision was based on a 40 minute discussion preceeded by long emails with his paediatrician. She is fantastic and very supportive.

Temma, nice to meet another Victorian Is the AYCE program only secondary?

In regards to the treatment received by his current school, I am talking to a lawyer tomorrow whom specialises in discrimination law. I'd love to post the details here but will refrain, it is however not disimilar to this http://a4.org.au/a4/node/147

It will be about another week before we decide on which school and transfer him. By the way, Werribee Primary is full.

Thanks ... more to follow