Prejudice by College Officials

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I was recently kicked out of my student teaching not because of anything that was my own fault, but because of symptoms of my Asperger's. In addition, the college officials who kicked me out gave me an F in the class!! !

The people who decided to do this to me would not give me a chance to correct any mistakes I might have made, nor would they work with me on a solution. They just told me that, although the "problem" had improved, it had not improved enough. I asked for one last chance, but was turned down.

I never was rude to the students. I did not curse, yell, or threaten people. I LOVED the students - they were very sweet.

It was the adults that I had problems with. For example, one of the paraprofessionals helped her son cheat on a vocabulary test, and I called her out on it (not when the students were around, though - it was between me, her, and the teacher). She got mad at me, so I defended myself. Bad move, Tharja - you're not fit to student teach because you can't turn a blind eye to people doing unethical things.

Nothing I did ever harmed the students in any way, but one of the people who kicked me out of student teaching said, "You know that you don't want the students to suffer". What the heck?

My parents are thinking of fighting back, but I don't know if it will help me any...

I graduated college in 2005 and was diagnosed with AS last year, so I was never punished for anything relating to Asperger's.

I'm sorry that this has happened to you.

I was often punished for my AS traits and comorbids at school, although, not so much these days.

It's unfairly probably somewhat long odds, but going official, filing an official appeal, filing an official complaint of discrimination by whatever ADA policy they have, is probably your best bet. And win, lose, or draw, you will probably feel best in the long term. And it is good that your parents are able to be supportive.

Once a person is negatively labeled, people shy away because they're afraid of also being negatively labeled, and it really can be as crude as that. Plus, the institution wants smooth functioning, seemingly above all else. The institution sure doesn't want to acknowledge that it's made a mistake, and probably other negative dynamics as well.

When I worked at a department store, this so-called manager (cough, cough) allowed me to be bullied primarily because I was Christmas help and the persons doing the bullying were full-time commission sales people.

This is truly the dark side of NT decision making.

It might not help you any, honestly. But I think you should fight back. Preferably in some way that will leave a record that the officials behaved in a discriminatory manner, somewhere you can lay out your case and force them to make theirs... it sounds as if they didn't. It may not help you, but there may be others someday who will benefit from an action that is just public enough to make them less likely to abuse their power in this kind of situation.

Also, here's some questions to ask yourself that might be relevant: Is it possible the person you called out for cheating had any influence? Would any of the parents of students you tutored speak in your behalf against whatever supposed issues made the officials remove you? Is there any possible validity to the claims that you were not effective as a tutor (I'm not sure what they were claiming the problem was)?

I'm no lawyer, these are just my thoughts on it. Good luck!

I would suggest that you consult a lawyer, you need to consider what do you want to happen.

When you complain or get into a dispute resolution system it is important to have a clear idea of what you want to happen.

My own view is that the people who were involved in cheating should get into trouble for their misdeeds, any reprisal they take against a person who makes a good faith complaint against them is (or should be) a crime.

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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.