Violence against autistic teen

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This happened not far from me. While I've read before of situations where an autistic teen brought a weapon into a conflict and was killed in the scuffle of attempting to use it, this is another matter. This child had had police called on him repeatedly for what sounds like everything from violence to what sounds like much less serious issues, and had been tasered in a situation where he fled the scene of a domestic battery.

My heart is breaking over this situation, where it seems this boy wasn't getting the help he needed from either the "system" or from his family. I'm also quite upset that the department released a statement that their officers had "received autism training" and knew the correct approach, because what I'm reading sounds all wrong. This sounds like the stuff in France that's being discussed.

Is there some kind of best practices system for emergency responders?

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012 ... ers-autism

This is my worst nightmare, and why we finally decided to homeschool. When DS was flipping out so bad at school, that he ended up in the middle of a busy street, I realized we were at a life or death moment.

He's a big guy and once in a meltdown, isn't gonna stop just because a cop tells him to.

My heart breaks for that boy and his family.

I can't blame the police for what they did because the kid was a threat and being violent so they defended themselves. If a disabled person was attacking me, you bet I would defend myself. I would hit or kick or scream, whatever to get the person off me to get away. Even if they had a knife was was trying to stab me with it, you bet I would defend myself even if it means killing him for self defense. No one should let a disabled person kill them because they weren't allowed to defend themselves because of the person's disability.


The article just infuriates me because it looks like they are saying when a child , is disabled, you are not allowed to defend yourself if your life is in danger so you must let them attack you even if it means they kill you. Really, people need to drop the disabled card. I suppose if some ret*d person tried to rape me so I attacked him to get him off me and I ran, I bet I would be seen as the bad guy because how dare I attack a mentally disabled person and he didn't know any better what he was doing. Actually ret*d people have gone to prison for rape and murder. Sorry, I think when someone's life is in danger, they have the right to defend themselves, disability or not. If your kid is so violent, send them away for treatment and it be for their safety and yours.


Just a sick world out there.

Last edited by League_Girl on 02 Feb 2012, 3:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It sounds like he had something else going on in addition to AS.

League girl, I agree with you up to a point. If this had been as simple as individual attacks police, (as it was in a situation my MIL panicky-emailed me a while back, where a child had brought a bayonet to school and tried to kill the school security guard) then I'd be less frustrated with this situation. You are right, police have the right to defend themselves against an attacker, autistic or not.

However, I don't like the way police refer to this boy (Who really "likes" to fight with police?) and the fact that they had been called to this home nearly once a month for the last year, at least one other time involving a knife. I guess I wonder why police didn't bring a tazer to this particular incident, when that is how they resolved things in the past (not that I necessarily agree with that, either - but I can see where they may not have a better tool to address the situation.

Most importantly, what is missing from the police statement is what steps were taken, what services were contacted, what supports were offered to this family after they had been called to the house more than, say, two or three times.

What makes you say that? (I am not trying to be rude or challenge you, I want to know what you are seeing.)

I read this in the Trib today and it made me cry. This could have been my family during our darker times.

From what I understand, all police depts in IL have at least one officer that is trained to deal w/ mentally disabled/disturbed children. I can't remember what they call the officers. You are supposed to call your local police department and notify them of your child's violent behavior and mental condition so if/when they are called to your house, they know what they are dealing with. They know they aren't dealing with a drugged up violent teen, but rather a mentally challenged teen/kid, and can handle it differently. It sounds like the family did everything they were supposed to do. I can't believe this happened and it scares me. What if that's us one day? I can't imagine the parent's grief over this. I hope that the police officers involved are charged, although, you know how it goes in Chicago....

I have AS and although meltdowns can be violent (I throw things, not hurt people, and I don't have them very often anymore, mainly when I'm extremely frustrated and stressed out over a long period of time) I've never had a meltdown that caused me to attack someone. I am speaking from my own perspective here though.

I think he may have had some undiagnosed mental illness that caused him to become violent. It sounds like becoming violent was common for him. There are many things that can cause that.

I also wanted to say that when the cops said he "likes to fight the police" that thats just a term they use for someone who is combative with cops. It doesn't mean he enjoys it, just that he tends to fight the cops when they are trying to diffuse the situation.

My thoughts on that comment...many parents of ASD kids have never dealt with the violence part of the disorder that is often a result of pent up frustration due to sensory or inability to effectively communicate, so they might assume there is other stuff going on instead of it being a side effect of the disorder.

Or maybe she means he has a mood disorder or bipolar in addition to what the ASD.

In our case the docs labeld my son Mood Disorder-NOS and clearly stated it is hard to tell if this condition is caused by complications of ASD. In other words, once ASD is treated, the mood disorder may go away. Hard to tell.

You must not be from Chicago...unnecessary violence from police is common here. It's hard to comment on if the police did what they should have because I wasn't there. I don't know if they sent their trained officers or if these particular officers had been at the residence before. I do know that the way to deal with a mentally challenged violent person is to remove others from the situation if you can't remove the attacker. They should have gotten everyone out and closed the door to prevent anyone else, including themselves from getting hurt. Another option was a taser.

There's a big difference between being an unarmed civilian being attacked and being a trained, armed, police officer and being attacked. You really cannot compare the two.

I agree that the police didn't intend that statement to mean they thought he actually enjoyed fighting. I also think it was a wildly inappropriate choice of words in a professionally prepared statement for the general public, as the phrase implies blame, as though the boy deserved what he got. To compound that, nowhere in the news reports (I haven't been able to find the actual press release) did the police express compassion, condolences to the family, or regret about the situation which led to the need for deadly force (all of which they can do during an ongoing investigation without admitting fault.)

Here's another news article on the subject, with some more information - http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-calumet ... 7680.story

I'm sorry -

NOT ACCEPTABLE TO SHOOT A DISABLED KID IN THE HEAD.

Worst case scenario, they could have tased him and even that should be unnecessary with proper training.

League Girl - your single perspective, is just one person's perspective. It is very common for folks in a meltdown to panic so badly they are violent. So, maybe there was something else going on, maybe not BUT the police had advance warning and they killed him anyway. How did 5 cops get cornered by a juvenile with a knife, please - gimme a break.

I live in a country where police officers are not routinely armed, so if a similar incident had occurred here this child would not have been shot.

I find it shocking and very disturbing that this situation was allowed to end this way, with a 15 year old child being shot in the head by a police officer who should have been able to use other non-lethal ways to end the stand off.

In reading the 2nd article, the father says it was a butter knife.

This totally shakes me up because I could so see this happening with my son. One time he broke a window and "went for" a large shard of glass that had fallen. He was in school at the time and in such a panic, that I feared that if they called the policy something like this could have happened.

Now that he's home, he doesn't have these kind of meltdowns anymore. They said it was something else too, but as soon as we dealt with the anxiety and communication issues, the meltdowns are gone. So, it's possible that there is something else - but possible there's not.

Having AS doesn't make you unable to understand a situation. It can effect how you react to it, but not your understanding of it. Yes, we have trouble with some things, but I'm sure the cop told him that nobody was going to hurt him. If he didn't understand that, then there was something else going on that caused him to react the way he did.

I do think the cop was wrong for shooting. Especially in the head. Especially with, as another poster pointed out, a butter knife was all he had on him. I don't see how the cops couldn't physically take down someone with a butter knife. Even if it was a sharp knife I don't see a reason to shoot, unless the kid was coming at them with it trying to attack them. In that case I would say shoot to wound. That was a pretty big kid and the head is a small target. I would have had thought that if they had to shoot, they would have aimed lower. Leg maybe. Where were the rubber bullets too? It's a kid, even though he was the size of a grown man, a rubber bullet would have done just as well.

I agree that it was excessive force. What I don't agree with is that it's only AS. If he had something else going on along with the AS, it would be easier for him to lose control.

But AS doesn't make you unable to understand a situation. Especially a situation with cops when you have been in situations with cops before. Screaming and yelling, standing there waving the knife, throwing things, hitting things, but not attacking cops with a knife (even a butter knife). Just because he had AS doesn't mean he didn't know not to do that. That's why I think he had more going on with him.

If hadn't read the second article, I would have said in response "Dude, he slashed one of them in the arm with the knife, they aren't allowed to defend themselves?"

But it was a butter knife, not a kitchen knife and butter knives aren't very dangerous.