Have any of you been put into the "special" classe

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Thankfully, never. When starting secondary school, all the teachers were well-informed that I was smart, just a bit outspoken and wild, and that I was allowed to take part in mainstream classes as I was at that level intellectually and my social skills were just a little behind.

I really feel for the people who were shoved into special ed classes, though.

It seems like whenever I meet a special ed teacher or really any teacher who has ever had an autistic student they think they're an expert on it. And my advocacy ideas are just silly because I don't "really" deal with autistic people.

Waaay back in the day when I was elementary school there were all kinds of kids in there together. There was a kid who was awesome at drawing and running but had absolutely no interest in making friends with anyone, even though people tried. We all just left him alone and it wasn't a big deal. There was a kid who was stupid and people just accepted it and let it go. She did well enough to pass. There was a fat kid with enormous fingers and no one cared. There was only one Black kid and although she did her hair different no one really noticed that she was the only Black kid in there. There was a kid whose last name was Bush when George Bush Sr. was elected VP and he became an instant star even though there was nothing else remarkable about him. I had a good friend who was a boy and was only friends with girls (turned out he was gay). No one cared. I was a jerk and refused to do lessons that were "stupid" and the teacher just let me do harder ones and color the rest of the time.

My point is that all the kids were different and no one had a disorder because they stood out. Sure some kids were enemies with other kids, but it was because of personal issues, not because everyone decided they were different.

^This is pretty much what happened to me a few months ago. When I had a meltdown which was largely caused by being in the special ed room, I was told I was not allowed to leave, even at breaktimes or lunchtime (evidently whoever made that decision had forgotten that I have friends, and that there are lunchtime clubs I enjoy visiting). It stressed me out a great deal - being in one room for the whole day at school with no contact with my friends), so after pressure from myself and a couple of the special ed teachers, they retracted the decision. I am now going back into mainstream lessons.