Autistic child arrested for violent outburst in school

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http://thefreethoughtproject.com/autist ... -outburst/

I'm not sure if this is 100% true or not. Regardless, it's disturbing.

Ugh. Arresting an 8-year-old just because he hit his teacher once? It wasn't even like he was being a danger to anyone else. The teachers need to learn some better discipline methods and not treat every outburst like a major, life-threatening crisis. Especially when he already had a fear of police...He's not going to stop having outbursts if he's treated like that.

They're likely going to give him PTSD and give him the perception that "he's the enemy". Good work, school!

The kid attacked a teacher. What about hertrauma? What about the trauma to the other kids that witnessed their teacher being attacked?

The needs of the many ...

That is if they did suffer any trauma that is....still not sure cops arresting and throwing an 8 year old in jail is a proper response to the situation even if they where however. What about other kids getting the trauma of worrying the same would happen to them if they lose control. Also if you read the article apparently it was a special needs school and there was a plan in place to be followed for those situations which the school failed to abide by...this wasn't just a normal classroom where a kid out of the blue had a random violent outburst and nothing in the article suggests the cops treatment was necessary.

Exactly.... really they should've been well prepared to handle this kind of situation. Instead they defer to the police. Usually you only see the police get involved with large-scale fights or drugs.

It's a bad way to handle an autistic child at the end of the day.

An 8-year-old child is easily overpowered. Being hit once by one is not traumatic.

And what happened to telling kids off or putting them in time-out? You know, normal punishments?
Or even working with them to help them have better emotional control and better impulse control?

Back when I was a kid, there was only one boy in my special class who was violent. He would get put in time out and excluded and he would also be sent to the office. None of this got rid of the behavior. I guess the schools now take it far to calling the police thinking this will stop the behavior.

I didn't get trauma from the kid. I just didn't like him then because he was mean and then I was relieved when he wasn't in my class the following year. He had gotten me in trouble several times when we were in the same class together because he was a pathological liar and the adults would believe him. Most kids will deny they did something wrong so of course they would believe him over me. But the following year I got back at him by getting him into trouble which was unintentional but I let him take the blame because I didn't want to be in trouble and the teacher didn't believe him when he said it was me. I just kept walking away. I would say the worst he had ever done was throw chairs in class and he was in the office for the rest of the day and he only did that once thank goodness. he has never thrown any other furniture except pushing over a chair and kicking at it. I was too little to be scared by it, I was only bothered when he took my chair and threw it because he moved my chair lol and I didn't like anyone touching my stuff and moving it.

Should be noted that PTSD is pretty rare to develop among children as well....

How the heck can you know this?

But regardless, hitting is not acceptable, autistic or not. I think we are becoming too tolerant of autistic kids "acting out." If I had hit out eveytime I had the impulse, I would be in jail and rightly so. Autism is not an excuse for violence.

This was in a school meant for autistic children. The teachers probably knew very well about this, and perhaps were experienced in this. There were far better ways to handle this situation. Really all you probably needed was a counsellor to come in. I don't see a gun being used here, nor do I see any kind of homicidal intent, either.

And sure, we are becoming "too tolerant", because tolerance and acceptance are things we haven't been fighting for and complaining about. There are healthier ways to help autistic people not act out in such a bad impulse, but apparently instead of using any kind of constructive method these people result to actually using the police. The only thing that teaches is the instillation of fear. That's not a good way to teach anyone, really.

Yeah, but police respond to other things than those.

They really should have contacted the parents first. The school's action is odd and makes me wonder if they were acting out of frustration, or fear themselves.

My daughter is in a special ed class for autistic kids, and I expect the teachers to handle a bad situation with a student much better than having to call the police.

Have you seen 8-year-olds? They are small. They cannot generate much force at all. They are no danger.

Have you ever been hit by one? Some kids can hit pretty hard and have a strong force so it can hurt. If my son could hurt me at two unintentionally (I don't mean hurt as in going to the hospital), just imagine how much worse the pain would be if he did it with intent, now imagine that from an eight year old. I did learn how kids can hurt adults no matter how small they are, they can be pretty strong too and I thought people were just wusses until I had kids of my own. Toddlers can be aggressive, especially if they don't understand that biting hurts or pinching or hair pulling. Now imagine that from a five year old or from an eight year old who is bigger. I doubt they are strong enough to give you a concussion from a hit of course but they are strong to give you a bruise.

To get more technical, don't forget about the ones with RAD or who are little psychopaths and can seriously hurt people. Child of Rage for example, her name was Beth Thomas. Or the time on Dr. Phil, an eight year old was threatening his parents with knives and even Dr. Phil was expecting them to restrain him and the mother kept saying "He has a knife." Really, an eight year old can't stab someone? Or the time when I was 15, Frankie was bragging to me about breaking kids bones in his school including other handicapped children who were defenseless and he was nine for god's sake.

Yes.


And the kid in this situation DIDN'T STAB ANYONE. Do try to have a sense of perspective.