Autistic punished for wandering instead of school staff

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Mom: Autistic Boy’s Wandering Met With Punishment From School Despite Federal Law

I just now watched the video.

I thought wandering was an issue primarily for the more severely disabled autistic people?

Frankly that kid seems to me to be aware enough to be at least somewhat responsible for his actions. While I agree with the parents that suspending him for 5 days was an overly harsh punishment, I don't see anything wrong with the school asking the kid to apologize, at the very least.

I think a high functioning autistic can be susceptible to wandering off. They said he's wonderd off before that. It's hard to say if it's autistic wandering or just playing hooky. But it sounds like the school jumped the gun without weighing things out. And also if he has wandered before perhaps they should have been more vigilant.

I don't know enough about him or his history and certainly not why he went home in the middle of the school day to make any judgment so the rest of this post is speculation. We know autistics can be seemingly normal in one area and clueless in the obvious. While he is "high functioning" enough to attend a mainstream school and walk home he might not "get" the obligation to be in school until closing time. There might a bullying or sensory problem that makes school unbearable.

Assuming autism is being used as an excuse and he is a chronic hooky player and thus a suspension is warranted this suspension is questionable because irrespective of his offense he earned the privilege of attending the pre-graduation activities. In sports, it is common practice if a player does something suspension worthy during the playoffs or championship rounds that the player serves the suspension at the beginning of next season. This solution would cause some problems in that you don't want him to miss the first 5 days of high school. But there is no reason the suspension cannot be served sometime early in the new school year.