New Zealand teacher threatened/abused by Kavanaugh's fans

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Thanks for the information link.

Because he flies direct from here to the USA on AirNZ, he has a choice of only four USA airports to land at: San Francisco, Houston, Chicago and Los Angeles. He had the most trouble from the goonsquad at LA, on his first arrival, and it was so bad that his father from here in NZ had to talk sense to them via phone contact because they didn't believe his "story" that his arrival to stay and audition in the USA as a basketballer had been arranged by the basketball team's manager (which it had been, and he was carrying the visa and related papers issued from the American Embassy here).

This would have been distressing for any foreign traveller, particularly after such a long long flight, but for an autistic person it is inhumane treatment.

His father managed to establish the bona fides with the tormentors. They still delayed my grandson for an unreasonable time after that, so that he missed his connecting flight. So once again, my son had to handle the mess from here which stressed him as well as causing unnecessary expense. The cretins who caused all this didn't even apologise after they received absolute confirmation from the Team Manager in the USA.

So he will probably continue to land at Houston, it is the most convenient for his connecting flight.

I have had the misfortune to land or depart at LA on a number of occasions, and IMO it is one of the rudest and most awful airports in the Western world. San Fran has treated me fairly reasonably, and Dallas was ok too but so large and spread out that getting to connecting flights on time can be a big hassle there.

Again, thanks for your helpful link.

Since then he has gone via Houston and no trouble AFAIK, thank goodness.

If your grandson lives most of the year in the United States and works here with a passport from his home nation, I wonder if he would be eligible to receive a pre-flight background-check card <https://www.tsa.gov/precheck> whereby the check is done once and for all, while all the TSA workers would simply nod at him, as he waves his card and smiles. With some assistance from his team managers verifying his profession and need to travel internationally, they could likely put the cherry on top of the cake. But, I amn't certain that a documented alien is eligible for such a card (at least I see no disqualifying reasons at the web site, and many other nations playing along with the scheme).

Apart from the business of transporting him, I am fascinated with a professional basketball player who is autistic. I have an idea who we are discussing, but I amn't sure.

Wow, thank you, I'll definitely be looking into the travel card possibility.

The best known of the diverse group of NZ basketball players on contract in the US is Steven Adams, and you may be thinking of him, though he isn't my grandson. Steven is a very interesting young man though, from an underprivileged /poor/very large family - the kind of kid that teachers ignore and write off as bound to fail at school - and his sister Valerie has won multiple Olympic, Commonwealth medals including golds for her extraordinary ability as a shotputter. Steven's career path inspired others like my grandson, because Steven showed it could be done, if you had enough talent then there was a chance to do more than stay here and play for the Tall Blacks.

Like Steven, my grandson was written off at a very early age by teachers, until he was headhunted by a school that was the national best in basketball. Unlike Steven, he had a family who really supported, tutored and encouraged him to find and follow his own star, and a father who financed the early hard yard stages. We picked up on his extreme visual ability before age 2, and this talent instantly combined with huge reserves of muscle memory, gives him a distinct autie advantage.

Interestingly he is the 'most autistic' of all the auties in our family (a lot!) though he is the only one in a sporting career. We are more generally inclined to be the science type.

Making death threats can get a person in trouble, not only in the U.S. but many countries. If someone makes a death threat it should be investigated. One of the lessons learned from many of the school mass shootings was that the perpetrators often told others about their plans they were ignored and were not passed to the authorities.

In this case, the authorities were notified.

Samantha Ness, the Minnesota teacher who sent a tweet saying “Kill Kavanaugh,” referring to recently confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, has resigned.

The special education teacher had been placed on leave after administrators in the Independent School District 917 in Rosemount learned of the missive. Instead of waiting for the investigation to conclude, Ness opted to resign, according to district Superintendent Mark Zuzek.

“The actions of the employee did not occur at school, and there were no school devices, equipment, or other school staff involved in the actions. At no time were students or staff in danger,” he said in a statement.

Ness wrote a few hours after Kavanaugh was confirmed on Oct. 6, “So whose [sic] gonna take one for the team and kill Kavanaugh?”

Source: Minnesota Teacher Who Tweeted Call to ‘Kill Kavanaugh’ Resigns

On the other hand, individuals should not use social media to personally attack anyone. Let the authorities look into this matter. And especially never target the wrong individual in the wrong country and then make threats as occurred when a teacher is New Zealand was falsely targeted. Not the proper approach.

People really need to do their research to be sure they have the right person. People share names all the time.

Ignore this post - just trying to reactivate WP email notification system

Here is an example of why threats should be taken seriously and reported and investigated by authorities:

Months before a February attack that left 17 dead at a high school in Parkland, Florida., suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz trespassed on campus grounds and mingled with students, newly released witness statements allege.

Computer science teacher Sandra Rennie told investigators that she saw Cruz wearing a hoodie and backpack on the first day of classes at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in August 2017, South Florida's Sun Sentinel reported.

Cruz had been kicked out the school a year before.

“I was like, 'Oh, Nik, you’re back,' and he’s like: ‘Yeah I’m back,’ and I was like, OK, well good to have you back,” Rennie said.

She said she wasn’t alarmed when Cruz told her he was a student again, but still alerted an administrator, who escorted Cruz off school grounds.

Rennie said she also taught Cruz in an engineering class, where he “didn’t make a lot of eye contact, kept his head down a lot,” and was quiet. She described his grades as “Fs” when asked about his academic performance.

She said he once destroyed a class project consisting of bridges made out of toothpicks and Popsicle sticks so others wouldn’t get a better grade, the paper said.

Rennie also said Cruz once became angry because a school computer barred him from researching different types of hunting guns. Cruz once showed her images of disfigured people that he thought was funny.

In an August 2017 Instagram post, Cruz sent vile messages to another male in a bid for a girl’s affections and started a brawl with the student in September 2016.

“I will kill you!! !! ! I am going to shoot you dead,” read a transcript of one his diatribes.

On Valentine’s Day, Cruz returned to the Parkland, Fla., school armed with an AR-15 rifle and killed 17 students and staff members and injured another 17, according to authorities. A security guard thought he was carrying a duffel bag but did not confront him, according to the statements.

Cruz also allegedly threatened to shoot his brother and mother in separate past incidents.

Cruz is charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and faces the death penalty if convicted.

Source: Parkland suspect Nikolas Cruz trespassed at high school months before massacre, teacher says

But we don't hear the good things do we, from the major sources of autism reports. We get stuff that is based on negative bias and interpretation, 98% of the time, driven by self serving researchers and charities, who benefit from promoting the stigmatising versions. And it gets internalised by young AS people.

There are a few things on the net about exceptional visual ability showing up early for some AS children;
here is one:

https://consumer.healthday.com/cognitiv ... 00296.html

It is a subsection of one of the many varieties of exceptional ability that comes with the innate wiring...