Autistic students have died, been assaulted in bus incidents
ASPartOfMe
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Ann Arbor's school district was thrown into turmoil over the summer — with the superintendent ousted — after a video showed a bus aide smacking and restraining a 7-year-old boy screaming in terror. A lawsuit claims his mother was kept in the dark about the incident for five weeks. The district has defended its handling of the case, and a spokesman said the aide involved was removed from service when the incident was observed on video.
The Free Press identified a string of incidents on Michigan school buses involving autistic children reported by media outlets over the past five years, several leading to lawsuits against school districts and the third-party companies often tasked with transporting students. Advocates and experts say these incidents, while likely not widespread, are a problem that needs addressing through better training and hiring, particularly when the job of a bus driver or aide can be extraordinarily demanding and involve children who require specialized support.
University of Southern California researchers noted in a 2017 report noted increasing media reports on incidents in which autistic children were lost, injured or even died. The researchers wrote that there is a "critical need" to address shortfalls in transportation that put vulnerable children at risk.
"That transition is from leaving the comforts of their own home and getting on these commercial vehicles that are driving around town and taking them to a place where there's high demand," Mulick said. "There's a lot of people, there's a lot of stimulation, and there's high expectations."
Across metro Detroit, parents of children with autism have raised alarms about bus safety. Among them:
A mother in Dearborn told the district's school board in a May 2022 meeting that her 13-year-old son, who is nonverbal, was choked by his harness on the way to school. "By the time they got to school, his lips were blue, his eyes were red and he had red spots on his face that were a result of lack of oxygen," she said. The mother said two weeks passed and she still hadn't received answers from the district about what happened and that other parents had experienced problems with the third-party company hired by Dearborn. "The district is committed to addressing the safety needs of all current and future students and our HR department launched an investigation the very next morning to gather the facts surrounding this event," David Mustonen, a district spokesman, wrote to the Free Press in May 2022. Last month, Mustonen confirmed the district no longer contracts with the bus company district officials said was involved in the incident.
A Detroit mom settled a lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court claiming that her 6-year-old son was restrained by a bus driver in late 2021. A video showed the driver sitting on the child, according to the suit. The driver, with a company contracted by Detroit Public Schools Community District, told the mother that her son was being "aggressive" on the bus, according to the lawsuit. The mother claimed Detroit Public Schools Community District administrators did not immediately share details of the incident with her but did open an investigation into the incident. The mother instead discovered the details after a video from that day was posted on Facebook. ABC Transportation, the bus company, in court filings wrote that it is "not liable for the criminal actions of its employees." Parties reached a settlement in the case for an undisclosed amount in July.
Through his family, a then-13-year-old Walled Lake Consolidated Schools student with autism sued Dean Transportation after he was attacked by another student in September 2017 on the way home from school. The student who attacked him gouged his face and thrashed at his head. A bus aide and driver ignored his screams and didn't contact his parents, even though he walked off the bus with blood running down his face, the lawsuit claimed. A jury found that the transportation company was negligent, awarding $10,000 in the student's favor.
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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
I'll tell you about something that happened in Sweden.
Even if I have more than one from that country.
We were on the bus.
The mother of this autistic boy with a special mind, although he has difficulty expressing himself, and sometimes makes noises loudly.
In Sweden we took a bus I think in Karlstadt, the shortest of us was taller than them.
The mother of the autistic boy is also six feet tall, blonde with green eyes.
He has similar features, and is almost six feet tall.
The boy started making sounds: in Sweden you wouldn't expect there to be ignorance about autism.
Do you know what happened?
They started making fun of him.
The mother and I, not seeing the driver tell us to stop, started speaking in English, and we talked about them, about how they were mentally and socially involved, and how their behavior was unacceptable.
Imagine the whole bus going silent and just listening to us, we were talking loudly on purpose.
They stopped bothering him.
At the exit of the bus, they lined up like Ruby players do, leaving us free passage, but looking at us in an extremely aggressive manner.
They didn't dare to do anything, also because this boy's mother and I looked them in the eyes one by one.
They were afraid.
They didn't do what they wanted to do.
(Swedish Courage)
<>
For me looking into the eyes is a rare thing.
I do it but when I'm very in tune and relaxed.
Because my gaze is very intense and in any case creates a sense of enormous discomfort in me.
This hostile attitude often occurred in transportation.
Once in Stockholm a girl of about 25 wanted her numbered seat at all costs.
Too bad the guy had already sat next to me.
It took me 20 minutes to reply in English to every one of his statements.
He answered me so he understood very well.
After 20 minutes of traveling like this I told her that our dialogue would end immediately.
He didn't continue.
If he had taken his place he would have gone into meltdown.
I wanted to avoid this.
But then I couldn't take it anymore.
And I thought: come on, try to make it move!
The free seats were almost all the others.
She was just obsessed with that place.
Only the ticket agent smiled at us in a very kind manner.
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CockneyRebel
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NibiruMul
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The scary thing is, when an autistic child is killed, it doesn't make headlines as much as it should. I remember I once read about an autistic 13-year-old who was killed by police and, while there was outrage, it was pretty much swept under the rug after a few days. Meanwhile adults are killed by police and there's outrage and protests that go on for months.
Then again, neurotypicals are afraid of breaking the status quo with autism. People aren't afraid to change it when it comes to race, gender, or LGBT issues, but with autistic people the status quo gets preserved. During the George Floyd protests, there was no reckoning for how autistic people and other people with disabilities were treated. In fact, things for disabled people got worse, what with Sia's Music being released and Madison Cawthorn getting elected. People ultimately forgave Sia for Music and she got off easy for it.
funeralxempire
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Then again, neurotypicals are afraid of breaking the status quo with autism. People aren't afraid to change it when it comes to race, gender, or LGBT issues, but with autistic people the status quo gets preserved. During the George Floyd protests, there was no reckoning for how autistic people and other people with disabilities were treated. In fact, things for disabled people got worse, what with Sia's Music being released and Madison Cawthorn getting elected. People ultimately forgave Sia for Music and she got off easy for it.
Did people forgive her, or did she just fade back into her usual level of obscurity? She was a nobody before Music came out, she's still a nobody after it came out too, only now most autistics hate her.
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CockneyRebel
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NibiruMul
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Then again, neurotypicals are afraid of breaking the status quo with autism. People aren't afraid to change it when it comes to race, gender, or LGBT issues, but with autistic people the status quo gets preserved. During the George Floyd protests, there was no reckoning for how autistic people and other people with disabilities were treated. In fact, things for disabled people got worse, what with Sia's Music being released and Madison Cawthorn getting elected. People ultimately forgave Sia for Music and she got off easy for it.
Did people forgive her, or did she just fade back into her usual level of obscurity? She was a nobody before Music came out, she's still a nobody after it came out too, only now most autistics hate her.
Sia was rather famous in the mid-2010s due to her songs "Chandelier" and "Titanium" becoming very popular. She kinda fell out of the limelight after that, but Music brought her back into the limelight for a short time. She's actually been active since the late 90s, but until 2013 almost no one had heard of her, and even in her home country (Australia) she wasn't that famous.
The reason why I said "forgive" is because while she did get a considerable backlash, she still had a music career to fall back on, and there were some people who even defended her. She hasn't been blacklisted or anything like that. Sometimes celebrities are blacklisted for things that weren't even their fault, like Janet Jackson was after "Nipplegate".
Last edited by NibiruMul on 19 Dec 2023, 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
funeralxempire
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Then again, neurotypicals are afraid of breaking the status quo with autism. People aren't afraid to change it when it comes to race, gender, or LGBT issues, but with autistic people the status quo gets preserved. During the George Floyd protests, there was no reckoning for how autistic people and other people with disabilities were treated. In fact, things for disabled people got worse, what with Sia's Music being released and Madison Cawthorn getting elected. People ultimately forgave Sia for Music and she got off easy for it.
Did people forgive her, or did she just fade back into her usual level of obscurity? She was a nobody before Music came out, she's still a nobody after it came out too, only now most autistics hate her.
Sia was rather famous in the mid-2010s due to her songs "Chandelier" and "Titanium" becoming very popular. She kinda fell out of the limelight after that, but Music brought her back into the limelight for a short time. She's actually been active since the late 90s, but until 2013 almost no one had heard of her, and even in her home country (Australia) she wasn't that famous.
So, if I understand correctly she's a two-hit wonder who made an indie film that didn't perform very well?
Would describing her as a D-tier celebrity be fair?
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NibiruMul
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_a ... ved_by_Sia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sia_discography
She's actually pretty far from a D-lister. I'm not defending her, I'm just pointing out who she is. I'm guessing you didn't know who she was before Music.
ASPartOfMe
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Then again, neurotypicals are afraid of breaking the status quo with autism. People aren't afraid to change it when it comes to race, gender, or LGBT issues, but with autistic people the status quo gets preserved. During the George Floyd protests, there was no reckoning for how autistic people and other people with disabilities were treated. In fact, things for disabled people got worse, what with Sia's Music being released and Madison Cawthorn getting elected. People ultimately forgave Sia for Music and she got off easy for it.
Did people forgive her, or did she just fade back into her usual level of obscurity? She was a nobody before Music came out, she's still a nobody after it came out too, only now most autistics hate her.
Sia was rather famous in the mid-2010s due to her songs "Chandelier" and "Titanium" becoming very popular. She kinda fell out of the limelight after that, but Music brought her back into the limelight for a short time. She's actually been active since the late 90s, but until 2013 almost no one had heard of her, and even in her home country (Australia) she wasn't that famous.
So, if I understand correctly she's a two-hit wonder who made an indie film that didn't perform very well?
Would describing her as a D-tier celebrity be fair?
It turns out she she has been recently diagnosed with level 2 autism.
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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
funeralxempire
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sia_discography
She's actually pretty far from a D-lister. I'm not defending her, I'm just pointing out who she is. I'm guessing you didn't know who she was before Music.
No, based on the articles her music wouldn't be appealing to me at all.
But, even after reading the articles she's not exactly a huge artist. She's not a completely obscure nobody, and two albums with 3 million copies each is good, but big pop artists often move two or three times that many albums.
I'd be curious how many normies would recognize a photo of her, or a clip of one of her songs.
Unfortunately for the people who want to accuse her of faking, they're informed by their prejudices so new information likely won't convince many.
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