Board index › General Discussion › General Autism Discussion

Peers rally for Autistic/SPD Student turned away from dance

Page 1 of 1 [ 5 posts ] 

Previous topic | Next topic

ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 67
Gender: Male
Posts: 36,214
Location: Long Island, New York

21 Feb 2017, 4:32 am

Teens support classmate with autism after he is turned away from dance

Quote:
Max Bedard, 14, has autism and a sensory processing disorder. His mother Michelle said he can only wear certain materials and clothing and others can even cause him anxiety.

“There are things that are extremely, extremely uncomfortable for him,” said Bedard. “He can’t wear buttons. His socks, I have to be careful what kind of socks I get him. The sewing around the toe can be very irritating.”

Max went to his school dance on Friday in sweatpants, clothing he was comfortable in. He said when he arrived, school officials told him his clothing did not fit the dress code and he had to leave.

“I cried about it so I decided to stay home because I felt really embarrassed and upset,” said Max. Bedard said five minutes after she dropped Max off, she was called and told to come pick him up.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


kraftiekortie
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 4 Feb 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 87,510
Location: Queens, NYC

22 Feb 2017, 2:41 pm

It's rare for this sort of support to occur. It's very heartening.



Ettina
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Jan 2011
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,971

24 Feb 2017, 11:28 am

First time I've heard of the "wear blue for autism" thing actually being used to support an autistic person instead of oppressing them. Nice!

And typical CYA from the school: "We didn't ask him to leave, we asked him to change." What if he couldn't? What if that was the fanciest dress he could handle wearing? It's so classic - bureaucracy offers false choice of "do something your disability prevents, or get left out". Ugh.



The_Dark_Citadel
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

Joined: 20 Jul 2016
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 339

24 Feb 2017, 12:28 pm

Yay, discrimination. Also, what if someone was too poor to rent a suit? They knew of his disability and decided to target him when I'm sure there's others there wearing revealing attire and other dress-code violations.


_________________
If I were a knight, my name would be Sir Stimsalot.


Private Idaho
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 31 Jul 2016
Age: 61
Gender: Male
Posts: 271
Location: USA

24 Feb 2017, 12:35 pm

Of course they should have let him in the dance, but mom should have called the school in advance and informed them of her son's attire and the reasons he was wearing sweat pants. Doesn't seem like anyone intentionally wanted to hurt his feelings.