i had no idea what to call this thread, because it's probably really old news to you all, being that it's your country and so on. This story wasn't exactly made much of in the news i read. I only found it because i was trawling through this other site that i really like (http://www.organicallyinclined.org/) which had this article, http://www.organicallyinclined.org/2008/05/28/alex-barton-my-alex-and-the-autism-prejudice/#comment-871

which was inspired by this story - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/27/earlyshow/main4130288.shtml

While i suspect i should just post this as a personal essay, i felt like going for broader coverage. I'm still stunned.

I think this came up when it happened. It is completely appalling isn't it? I read parents talking about how the move to "mainstream" austistic kids comes without sufficiently educating other kids, other parents, or for goodness sakes the teachers and principals dealing with autistic kids. And that's just completely fucked up. I would hope that with the rising number of autistic kids entering schools things would get better, but I fear parents are instead going to push back against "distracting" kids who take an "unfair" amount of resources.

Oh, not to mention that no school is going to want them if they have any kind of issue that prevents them from doing well on standardized tests.

BoL, yeah this came up when it happened. It's completly ridiculous. I haven't heard any updates lately though. I know at one time the teacher had been 'reassigned', but she should have been fired and beaten, and then beaten some more.

Check this out to see how OS'ers originally reacted... http://offsprung.com/playground/show/5255

If you want more perspective, this lady writes quite eloquently about her son and their challenges:

http://www.squidalicious.com/

and she is one of the brains behind "Can I Sit With You" which has to be read to appreciate. http://canisitwithyou.wordpress.com/

ah the tiny URL thing. It tends to make my IE crap itself, and if i'm too lazy to use firefox for it, i just move on. Also, if i see a thread with a ton of responses, i sometimes assume that everything that could be said has been said, and there's likely nothing more to say. Plus i'm no expert on learning disorders and aspergers, autism, etc., so in this case i really don't have much to add that hasn't already been said. Other than putting it in capitals. to whit: WTF?

yeah McGlory those standardized tests sound more satanic the more i hear about them. seems like a step backward, if you ask me.

Yes, this upset me so much when I read about it. What was even more upsetting was reading all of the comments on the initial newspaper article -- all the assholes who wrote to commend the teacher and blame the kid and the parents. Ultimately, my thought on the issue was that I would really like to move to a country where there are fewer assholes, but I'm not entirely sure where that is.

well it's not here, we have an ample and replenishing supply of assholes.