My school system is bigoted against autism.

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I have attended special ed classes and some mainstream ones at Yorktown high school in Arlington, Virginia for three years. For all that time I was treated indifferently by the school administration. High school seemed to be passing with few successes or any big events at all. I completed core classes with a solid "C" average. One day I was invited to attend an IEP meeting with my parents to discuss my placement in a class. It soon became obvious that the meeting wasn't business as usual. An official from the county special ed office was there. She immediately asked my parents to allow the school to give me an "emotional designation". My father wisely refused this offer. Shortly after his refusal the vice principal announced that I had been accused of saying that I would bring a gun to school. It was shortly after the Sandy Hook shootings. The political climate leaned heavily against those with aspergers. On the basis of an accusation, I was suspended from school for 10 days. The police did an investigation into the accusation and found that it was false. Even so, the vice superintendent thought it necessary to keep the incident on the record, as if it had been true. She agreed to take it off the record on the condition that no more accusations would be made against me by the end of the year. I found the terms of this deal unacceptable. Although the county suggested that I go back, I chose to leave public high school in the middle of my junior year. It was the only reasonable option I had. There was no way I was going to walk through the doors of the building knowing people harbor so little trust in the people there. At the end of the year I expected the county to at least delete the black mark on my record. I was surprised to find that they hadn't done this. Even though I had a letter from the vice superintendent promising that this would be done they still seemed to be stalling for some reason. At great expense, I hired a lawyer to take on my case. It soon became apparent that there were many inconsistencies and violations of policy in how the school had dealt with me. The lawyer was able to send a very strongly worded letter to the county listing all the violations and grievances against me. Only after the county received this letter did they remove the entry in the records. It took about 8 months for them to do the right thing. I have spent thousands in legal fees. Arlington County has wronged me so badly that it will take me years to make up for what I have lost.

Have you tried submitting your story to any media sources? This sort of incident needs to be combated before the stereotypes get out of control. The US media has displayed a marked ignorance of AS in the last few years, frequently implying that people with AS are violent and dangerous by associating the disability with scandalous crimes.

I wish Alex would address this, since he seems to have some pull with media sources, by steering them toward more realistic and human stories, especially those involving discrimination, which is particularly problematic because (in my experience) even the people whose job it is to assist the disabled frequently do not understand autism well enough to even know HOW to help the autistic.

Wow. I'm very sorry this happened to you.

This is an example of treating a person like a 1950s style Communist witch hunt.  Once the accusation is made, seemingly no rational reply can suffice.  And in truth, human institutions might often act this way---unless we take active steps to treat people fairly and treat people decently.

Now, you can straight up sue the school district for money.  You'd get a lawyer who wants to take the case on contingency and the lawyer would receive approximately a third of any settlement or court victory.  One thing to be careful of is that 'settlements' typically include an agreement that the two parties not publicly discuss the terms.  And this sounds like something you want to talk about.

As far as emotionally, it's personally costly to sue.  It's also personally costly not to sue.  It needs to be your own decision.  And there's also no reason you need to make this decision all at once.

Try and keep your family in the loop and maybe inform them before you make major decisions.  This keeps them from being caught emotionally off guard.

And leaving school in the middle of 11th grade is a big deal, even for the best of reasons.  And in this case you were driven out.

Just please don't let this derail your future education.  At this point, I don't think the school would dare include this in a transcript to a college.  And even without a letter from a lawyer fixing things, I think a lot less stuff is sent off to colleges than schools let students believe.  I think this is used as a mechanism of control, and shame on high schools for doing this.

And remember, you're a good person, regardless of what this crappy institution and its hidebound representatives might think.

[sarcasm]
Don't worry.

The world is bigoted against autism.

This is good practice for you.
[/sarcasm]

[sarcasm]
Don't worry.

The world is bigoted against autism.

This is good practice for you.
[/sarcasm]

Mainstream media or formally mainstream media is really much more like a politically correct tabloid and they are also easy duped. The same for many college administrations with the addition of being financially corrupt and incompetent.

I really liked what you said "I was surprised to find that they hadn't done this" I 'm not, school admins are often morons, I am not joking.

Anyways don't let them know you have aspergers in the future ok, lesson learned and you did really good too!
Let it go and move on