"Charges Against Autistic Teen Dropped"

Post Reply New Topic

It's a bit of a different story compared to others where a person with an ASD gets in trouble with the law. I'm not sure what I think about someone getting away for misbehavior quite yet, but at least the judge educated himself more about autism before making his decision.

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S1748817.shtml?cat=565

That judge did the right thing. Meltdowns are not misbehaviour. Those kids can't HELP having a meltdown when deluged with overstimulating input like that.

Good move.

This is great news but the conditions of his charges being dropped are so full of strings. There's no telling in the next six months if the fire alarm will go off again or if he ends up with a meltdown that the school officials are incapable of handling.

I worry...

I did not see any information in that coverage about why there were four fire alarms in a row. It seems that if the school knew that was going to be the case, it would have been a reasonable accommodation to have let the autistic student and his family know ahead of time. If setting off fire alarms was some students' idea of a joke, then someone should be doing some serious community service time right now- false alarms are illegal because they can lead to real emergencies, as they did in this case (if that was indeed the reason for the alarms).

Really lovin' some of the outright ignorance in some of the comments there.

I don't know much of the details with the story, and where to draw the line between misbehavior and having a meltdown. It seems like a good decision to me now when I read it further that the judge waived the charges on the condition that he stays in school and he stays out of trouble. I also worry if the fire alarm goes off four times in a row again, but that seems like very small odds. I think that the best thing about the story is the judge actually educating himself about the issue and taking the time to understand before making a decision.

As far as fire alarms go, sometimes when people are working on maintaining the fire alarms they can be set off, either by accident or as a functionality test. When I started as a freshman at Arlington HS in Arlington, TN, the school had only been open for a year and the campus had just been completed in full. Throughout the four years I was there, there were countless days where the administration would announce to teachers over the intercom to 'disregard fire alarms unless otherwise instructed' because maintenance work was being performed. It was always quite possible for three or four fire alarms to occur after these announcements so that the workers could test the system. It is possible that the school in question had an excess of unruly and immature students who saw pulling the alarm as a joke, but it's also possible that it could have been due to maintenance. Still, you are correct, if that were the case then somebody should have at least been warned. But seriously, we are talking about the American public education system, how much forethought do 90% of school admins give in a situation like this?

Yeah. One woman commented that some children should just be left behind.

I wonder how she'd feel if she had an autistic kid? Would she be happy for him/her to be left behind?

Who's being ignorant?

Anyway the judge made the right decision.

I think he was referring to the comments on the story that he linked to, not anything posted here.

I'm currently undergoing a trial because I had a meltdown in public at my parents and I may even end up in Juvenile hall for it...

I'd recommend pleading not guilty on the basis of not being criminally responsible due to mental condition. When undergoing a meltdown, you have no control thus you have no culpability. Are you able to retain legal counsel. If you are undergoing criminal proceedings you have a right to legal counsel, and if you can't afford one, the state will provide it. In Canada, all court houses have duty counsel which consists of lawyers who give free legal advice and help those who represent themselves in court. Your parents should not have any say in how you plead and if you plead not guilty, be sure to educate the judge on your condition and see if you can get an expert witness to testify (therapist or such).


Also, with respect to this ruling, in case law, it will serve as a good precedent in your defence.

When and how did this happen? Who brought up the charges?

I agree with the advice Tory_canuck gave above and I think you should follow it.

I know I had to stop reading them. But these are people who have no context and also are not a member of forum like this. Even so, I still think there are some dolts posting there!

Glad to see the judge educated himself of autism...At least it is good news