5-year old aspie voted out of kindergarten by students

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Written by my son in response to this situation - he has encouraged me to share his comments with others.

Listen, I'm not some mad mother or father thats pissed about what you
did to Alex. I'm a 22 year old man with Asperger's who runs a
successful computer repair business. I would not be where I am today
if teachers like you existed in my school. SHAME ON YOU FOR YOUR
TREATMENT OF ALEX! If my parents and school had not supported me in my
development I would probably be just as much as a low life as you are
today. But I rose above that, I surpassed my disabilities and became a
successful student who gets straight A's in his computer courses at
college.

I hope for Alex's sake that he never has to face you again unless its
in a court room to get the justice he DESERVES! I hope you know what
you have done by upsetting an Asperger's kid. While they can be
infinitely kind and forgiving, they can also feel infinite anger that
will not subside until justice is served. You would be surprised how
motivated someone with Asperger's can get when they feel wronged,
their desire for justice will never go away until it is served.

I'm not trying to make any threats by that but I would advise if you
ever see him again you BEG for his forgiveness and promise it will
never happen again. You might be surprised by the results.

Oh, and I'm forwarding the story of what you did my mother and from
there to every Asperger's support group we know of. And don't worry, I
won't forget to include your e-mail address and other information.

Have a wonderful day,
Ben

Left the school, felt awful for a while, but thankfully it's things like that throughout my life that have made me incredibly strong and resourceful and, amazingly, really independent. So I spoke to the course leaders, explained why it was such a ridiculous system, sent in a letter of complaint, moved home, got over it. It was incredibly traumatic and made me question a lot of things, but thankfully I've got the most supportive, incredible family I could ever ask for and they rallied around me and got me cheered up. My friends back home all bought me lots of coffee and took me out to cheer me up and got me over it quick smart too, bless 'em.

Turns out leaving the place was the best thing that could've ever happened, as I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now or have met the love of my life, but even so it was bloody awful at the time.

You know how you get really bullied as a kid, you can't figure things out, but slowly you teach yourself social norms and you learn to interact normally and eventually have lots of friends and pass off as normal, but then something comes up that throws you and you feel about five years old again? It was one of those situations.

I just got wind of an email from Melissa Barton, Alex's mother. She said that the thing to do here is to contact:

Office of Governor Charlie Crist
State of Florida
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001

Citizen Services Hotline: (850) 488-4441
Executive Office of the Governor Switchboard: (850) 488-7146
[Office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time]

Fax: (850) 487-0801

For individuals with hearing loss or speech disability:
1-850-922-7795 (TTY)
OR
711 (Florida Telecommunication Relay)

ASAN - Autistic Self Advocacy Network has also issued a statement on this. In particular, I highlight this section:

Please be polite yet firm in your comments, pointing out the unacceptability of such actions when aimed at any student, as well as the need for this school to adopt policies to prevent this from happening in the future. This is an opportunity to drive home the message that we will not stand by while one of our own is abused. We ask that you please cc: [email protected] in your e-mails to the school district so we can keep track of the strength and sources of this response. Remember: abusive messages hurt our cause - please be respectful in your comments.

Here is a brilliant article by MaccaJ on this story in the Daily Kos dated May 25:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/26 ... 902/522855

He reports that

I personally believe that chivalry is a disgusting practice. But that's a matter for ANOTHER thread.

I was not too surprised by this story; merely saddened. Hey, next week, let's vote out the kid in the wheel chair because he whines about needing a wheelchair ramp and can't play games with the other kids on the playground. There's a REASON a kindergarden is not governed by a democracy: we hire people to look out for the best interests of the children because they are not READY to govern themselves! At least, that's how it's SUPPOSED to work. With a teacher like this, the kids may just as well run around feral.

Apparently "Lord of the Flies" wasn't part of this teacher's education. Nor was the "blue-eye/brown-eye" exercise. I can only imagine what Ms. Rosa Parks would have said about this. T_T

it is sad for people with disabilites to be picked on like that, the teacher should be fired and the kids need to be taught to be around people with disabilites.

Thats SICK! That B*TCH should be fired! she should go to jail. Thats abuse!