13 year old autistic boy arrested for meltdown

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http://www.kcra.com/news/23687980/detail.html

The poor kid was being bullied, so he had a meltdown, and the cops pepper sprayed him, arrested him, and threw him in juvenile hall. Read the comments, people simply don't care.

That's just evil, what the authorities did to the poor boy. No wonder we have issues with society.

I put the blame on the school rather than the police officer.

The police officer was confronted by a situation involving violence. A peace officer's responsibility in this situation is to control the violence and protect all concerned. As for the night in juvenile hall, I am not going to second guess the decision. There was violence and property damage which makes out a prima facie case for a charge. An ASD is not a get-out-jail-free card.

The school officials, on the other hand, should have been more proactive about ensuring that this sort of incident did not arise in the first place.

[cynicism]
One wonders how many children with special learning needs wind up getting withdrawn from schools after the nominal roll date because the school has failed to take steps to prevent incidents like these.
[/cynicism]

+1.

that's true. the school should have handled it better. they should have called his mom, not the cops. the cops shouldn't have maced him. they shouldn't have thrown him in juvenile hall. they should have just restrained him until his mother got there to calm him down. it's true that an ASD is not a get-out-of-jail-free card but, i don't mean for this to sound stuck up or anything, but things for people with a "disability" shouldn't be exactly the same as it is for NTs. Especially when it comes to kids. Not as much when it comes to adults.

also...the school said everything was taken care of and that the school was safe. can't she sue them for knowing about this situation but doing nothing about it?

America... Worst. Educational and justice system. Ever.

Juvenile hall is the worst place to put an autistic child. Ask anyone who had served time in both juvie and jail, and they'll tell you juvie was worse. There's a good reason why they're called gladiator schools. And an autistic kid would be easy prey for other juvenile offenders, who have raging hormones and want to establish themselves in the pecking order.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

[sarcasm] Damn I'm proud of my country. [/sarcasm]

There's a police officer in a school!? HUH!? Never had one of those here in UK (needed one a few times though).

[rant]I hate schools/colleges that say that they specialise in autism/AS and then call the police whenever something goes wrong. Contrary to popular belief, calling the police doesn't help the situation, in fact it is often made worse as the police rarely know anything about ASDs. I know because this happened to me at my college... where I was told they specialised in ASDs. They didn't. a 30 minute training session doesn't count. [/rant]

Yes, I am copying everyone else with the whole bracket thing!

I love how they don't explain what he did to deserve getting maced, handcuffed, and arrested. They don't explain how he broke the window or why. There's absolutely no details in this article.

So irritating. It leaves too much open for interpretation. Why bother reporting news without the actual details of the situation?

Which reminds me of a story I read yesterday that I will post shortly..

I'd like to know whether the kid was high-functioning autistic or low-functioning. All it says is that the kid is autistic.

That being said, if the kid was high-functioning autistic then the police were probably justified in arresting him. If he was low-functioning than different tactics probably should have been used. I don't think mentally handicapped students can be arrested, but I'll have to consult one of the special ed teachers in my school to ask if that's true. In the end, I think the school should have done more to prevent something like this from happening.

How can you possibly decide that the police were right in arresting him when it doesn't even say what he did??

Mean while the bully does not so much as get detention let a lone an angry look from the school. The bully will be back to his old tricks if the school lets the kid come back.

I recently talked to one of my school's special education teachers about this, and she told me that the police can't legally arrest an autistic person for having a meltdown. With that in mind, I'm guessing there's a lawsuit brewing.

I disagree with you.the media propagates the poor little ret*d who suffers and needs a cure IMAGE of autism. when in actually we are sheep that don't follow the herd. we are weeds in the field, and our gov. knows that. so they try to make us conform.
I was arrested at age 13 for an almost exact same situation as this kid. RESTRAINING someone with autism is a bad Idea, it causes the person experiencing the meltdown to feel trapped and we will do whatever is in our power to get out of that situation.
that being said, we are mostly non confrontational. People pick on us and bully us and mistreat us, yet they don't realize we are people. if you bully an NT for a long time they will snap eventually. well so do autistic people . Notice we generally don't make eye contact.THAT SHOWS OUR PASSIVENESS ! for whatever reason, our brain resorts to the primal instinct like any primate. when you make eye contact with a dog or gorilla it is a challenge and they get mad. well with us it is very similar, we are trying to diffuse the situation by showing we are not trying to cause trouble.

as far as breaking thekid breaking the window, he was not trying to cause property damage.

WHEN my situation happened,and I was melting down, the cops and teachers blocked all the doors, so i tryed to escape through the window.

the solution is very f*cking simple. if someone with autism is having a meltdown, let them go alone where they feel comfortable until they can cool down and actually be logically responsive.

Im sick and tired of this country. police are like little tattle tales who get payed to bully and intimidate everyone into conformity,

HMM That isn't true for aspergers. got arrested twice for meltdowns, and I wasn't being violent. I was just trying to get away from the problem