My autistic son has been very busy with scissor work lately. It’s taken him about 4 years to get the hang of using scissors, and he’s still kind of awkward in the way he holds them. But he’s really starting to do a good job of cutting around an outline. Not terribly close to the lines as yet, but still he’s preserving the general shape of a thing, which is super!

I got a simple scissor work booklet earlier this summer, which my son & his youngest sister have been enjoying these last few weeks. If you are looking for scissor work for your preschooler or special needs child, it’s still available free at CurrClick: Simple Scissor Practice by Middaysnack.com.

Today’s freebie from Homeschool Freebie Of The Day, though, was a neat surprise. It was unscheduled, as the expected download was temporarily unavailable. The replacement, When Mother Lets Us Cut Out Pictures, has lots of really cool outlines for kids to choose from. It’s an early 20th century book that’s been scanned, and all the “patterns” are negatives so kids can colour the plain white interior of their shapes, once they’ve cut off the black exterior. These are more complex than the easy scissor practice, and the book also provides written instructions on how to cut a variety of shapes and objects. This is a good book for older children. It might lead to an interest in papercutting as a craft.

If you want a free copy from the abovementioned site, you must go before the end of today. If you miss it, you can also download it free from the Internet Archive.

Do check out Homeschool Freebie Of The Day, regardless. They offer a new freebie each weekday, and usually one extra freebie per week for their subscribers. (You don’t have to subscribe, but only subscribers get the link to the extra weekly freebie.) I find that I pick up a few neat things every week or so from their site. It’s fun for the bargain hunters and lovers of freebies.

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A recent post on Angela DeRosett’s blog announces that an Ohio radio statio is dumping controversial commentator Michael Savage’s syndicated show, after he made rude comments about autism. I won’t post the entire article here, as you can read it on Angela’s blog. Here’s an excerpt, though:

The talk-show host last week described autism as a racket and said 99 percent of autistic children needed fathers to tell them to stop acting “like a moron.”

Savage, who claims more than 8 million listeners a week, later posted a message on his Web site saying greedy doctors and drug companies were overdiagnosing autism….

[WHK manager Mark] Jaycox decided to yank Savage after receiving about two dozen calls and e-mails from parents of autistic children, who said they were hurt by the remarks.

“I had one dad almost cry,” Jaycox said.

From “Radio station dropping Michael Savage after controversial remarks about autism” (Julie E. Washington, Plain Dealer)

It was also noted that “Savage blamed the prevalence of autism on ‘a racket’ to get disability payments dreamed up by ‘poorer families who have found a new way to be parasites on the government.’” (”Radio host Michael Savage incites protests with autism comments” [Edgar Sandoval and Helen Kennedy, New York Daily News])

In the same article Savage is quoted as saying that he would have been diagnosed autistic as a child because he obsessively lined things up & counted bathroom tiles. He implied that the diagnosis interferes with a person’s functioning, more than does the condition itself.

I’d just like to say kudos to Mr Jaycox for his decision. While there is undeniably a certain amount of uncertainty about whether all conditions now grouped as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD’s) really are autism, and there may very well be an increase in diagnosis that could see some children labelled as autistic who ten years ago would not have been, the comments Mr Savage made are simply ignorant.

Take it from the mother of an autistic child:

1. The main interventions for autistic people - Applied Behaviour Analysis, sensory integration, speech and language therapy, assisted communication, an Individual Education Plan at school, etc. - are based in painstaking and repetitive adaptations that help the child learn all the things neuro-typical children learn with minimal efforts. They involve no drugs; in fact, most professionals are very cautious about prescribing medication. They also generally involve care givers other than doctors. There are no gold mines for the doctors and pharmaceutical companies in this diagnosis, and in many places there are too many kids needing diagnosis & not enough doctors to handle the case load. People are lucky to get a diagnosis: follow-up is even harder to get.
2. A diagnosis of ASD is made according to fixed guidelines laid out in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV,) the fourth edition of a handbook used in the United States and elsewhere by mental health professionals. A doctor can’t arbitrarily decide a child is autistic; usually 2-3 professionals make the diagnosis based on observed behaviour and recognized tools (such as the CARS, ADI-R and Vineland.) There are no whims involved, either on the part of parent or health professional.
3. Most of the autistic kids I’ve known do have both a  mother and a father around. And believe me, if telling our kids to smarten up did the trick, we’d have solved all our problems a long time ago. I don’t know a single parent of an autistic child who doesn’t put in hours and hours of behaviour management, therapy at home, homework help and more. There are countless interviews, meetings and trainings; adaptations to family routines and to the home itself; sleepness nights when the child himself can’t sleep and can’t be left unsupervised; sleepless and teary nights, worrying about what will become of our children; books read, web sites scoured and professionals interviewed in an attempt to find the best care for our kids; complex strategies developed over months, just to be able to do normal things like take the kids to McDonald’s or do the weekly groceries. If telling our kids to just behave themselves could save all this effort, do you not think we’d have kicked them in the proverbial butt a million times over - father or no father?
4. If anyone out there is foolish enough to believe that the meagre disability benefits given for kids with autism begin to cover the damage they do or the adaptations we have to make to our lives in order to keep them alive from one day to the next, let alone paying for the therapy and special equipment that they require - well, I have some nice waterfront property you might be interested in.

One of the things people with ASD are known for is obsessive-compulsive behaviour such as counting things repetitively. Another is a certain aloofness, and difficulty with interpersonal relationships. Autistic people can often seem rude, brusque, outspoken even to the point of disregarding another person’s feelings. Who knows, Mr Savage may well be somewhere on the spectrum after all.

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if he got to have the help he needed learning to live in a society that doesn’t understand him, rather than to be told he’s just poorly mannered and to be punished by losing air time and sponsors when he makes unqualified judgements on the radio? Then again, maybe he’s just getting his just desserts….

Angela DeRossett, whose blog entry alerted me to this news, will be giving a lecture on “Homeschooling with Autism” at the 2008 Heart of the Matter Homeschool Virtual Conference. At the time of writing she is scheduled for 2:15-3:15 pm EST, on July 31st. Those who aren’t able to listen live will be able to download this and other lectures. Click the graphic at right for more information on the conference.

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Further exploration of the death of an autistic boy who had been wrapped in a weighted blanket has yielded much food for thought:

1. The school staff apparently used the blanket to restrain little Gabriele Poirier as a punishment for being too loud. This was not an attempt to calm him - it appears more likely it was done out of anger or spite, or to put the fear of the staff into the child.
2. The blanket used weighed almost 40 lbs - not much less than Gabriele’s own 53 lbs. Did these people not realize he would have trouble breathing with it wrapped around his body and face at least four times?
3. The staff set a timer for 20 minutes and walked away, leaving the restrained child alone. But after his death the school lied to Gabriele’s parents and said he had hidden under the blanket himself. People in situations like this one lie because of one thing: they know they are responsible for something very bad happening, and they don’t want to get caught. If they were untrained in how to use the blanket, they sure found out fast enough that what they did was an abuse. Otherwise they’d have nothing to hide.

What has come to light with this case is that this kind of inappropriate restraint is forbidden by law in our health care facilities, but there is no law that prohibits it in Quebec schools.

Poirier said his lawyer has contacted Minister of Education Michelle Courchesne to request a law be put in place restricting the use of restraints in schools. He said he would also like to see better teacher training. (”Autistic child suffocated in therapeutic blanket: Quebec coroner” (CBC)

(Education Minister Michelle Courchesne can be contacted at ministre@mels.gouv.qc.ca or consult this page for other modes of contact.)

The parents of Gabriele Poirier are filing a claim for compensation from the school board, after the coroner ruled that their son’s death was a violent one which could have been avoided.

Let’s hope we also see disciplinary action taken against any staff who took part in the “punishment” and the later attempts to cover up the truth of what happened. There have been a whole pack of excuses given for these people - they were ignorant, untrained, etc. - but it seems pretty clear to me that no primary aged student should be left in a school unsupervised for a period of 20 minutes, much less a special needs child.

It also doesn’t take much imagination to figure out that when you wrap a child from the tips of his ears to his ankles in a blanket that weighs almost as much as he does, then place him on his belly and walk away from him, he’s going to have trouble breathing. Isn’t that just common sense? Didn’t these folks sit up and pay any attention when kids in Ontario group homes started dying due to improper use of restraint several years back? It’s not as though this is a new issue.

My son is home safe from yet another year in public school, and I am breathing one huge sigh of relief. Even though I know the staff at his school are considerably better trained and supervised than the buffoons at the so-called specialized school that killed little Gabriele, many days I still hold my breath and worry until he gets home. All it takes is a power tripping adult with a little bit of privacy, and all sorts of things can happen to our babies…

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From the CTV evening news:

Report into child’s death

A coroner has ruled that a school south of Montreal acted improperly when it wrapped an autistic boy in a heavy blanket, leading to the child’s death.

Gabriel Poirier, 9, suffocated at a school for handicapped children in April.

Teachers had wrapped him inside a blanket sometimes used to calm autistic children.

In the dark

For a long time, his parents thought their son died accidentally at Ecole Marie Riviere in St. Jean-sur-richelieu after he had become agitated.

But a coroner’s report revealed the boy was wrapped inside the 39-pound blanket four times with his head inside and his arms pinned to his side. He was also left unsupervised.
When his teachers went to remove him from the blanket 20 minutes later, his face was swollen and blue. He died the next day in hospital.

Fallout

So far there have been no criminal charges but the family plans to launch a civil suit against the school. The Commission Scolaire des Hautes Rivieres, which oversees the school, has ordered all its facilities to stop using the blanket until it gets clear directives from the government.

For those readers not familiar with the concept of a weighted blanket, it helps some people with sensory integration disorder (common in autistic kids) to settle down. These kids often have trouble to feel where their bodies are in space, and some crave weight or pressure. They will bump or crash into things (or people) throw themselves to the floor, hit themselves, etc. Sitting under a weighted lap pad or blanket, wearing ankle weights or a weighted backpack, moving around heavy objects, etc. are often therapeutic.

That being said, these are measures usually prescribed by an occupational therapist and people using them should be trained by the OT in their safe and appropriate use. Wrapping anyone up with both arms restrained and face covered falls far short of anything even vaguely therapeutic. Leaving a restrained person alone unsupervised is just plain negligence.

Yes, autistic kids do like to get rolled up in the “kid burrito.” Maybe even a couple turns of the blanket or rug. But one would never wrap a child four times in a 39 lb blanket and then walk away from him. He needs to be able to get free if he becomes uncomfortable.

Fortunately, my son’s OT is the salt of the earth. We’re finishing up our school year, and she’s already planning for his activities & therapies for next fall. The Bug gets great OT care at his school, and we know that nobody lays so much as a finger on him without being properly trained by the therapist. She is ultra-careful, and sets an example the folks at this St-Jean school would do well to follow.

The mother of a young autistic girl was reported to the local Children’s Aid Society by school officials, based on “evidence” gathered from a teaching assistant’s visit to a psychic.

As incredible as that may sound, this did really happen. It broke my heart to hear the news, and it filled me with anger as well. What was going on at this school??

It’s all well and fine that school staff are mandated reporters who must notify youth protection when they have good reason to believe a child is in danger. But since when is the word of a psychic enough to launch an investigation that essentially declares a parent guilty until proven innocent?

What’s really infuriating is that the mother, after being told by the CAS that the accusations were ridiculous & her file had been closed, was made to attend a meeting with school board officials who then lectured her about how the family and the school need to work together for the best interest of the child!

1. Teaching assistant visits psychic & reports the alleged abuse to the school administration;
2. Administration notifies CAS;
3. Mother is sent for and told that a report has been made to the CAS, based on the word of the psychic & some “sexualized behaviour” her daughter had been exhibiting in the previous months.

I don’t see any evidence of the school cooperating with the parent, there!

Interestingly, the school felt that the child’s behaviour was out of place but had not approached the mother about it until the teaching aide visited the psychic. If they had discussed the matter with her, she could have explained that it is common for autistic children to behave in a manner that most of us consider sexually inappropriate, as they reach puberty. They fail to understand most social rules and cues unless these are specifically taught (and then practiced over and over and over!) So they don’t have the same inhibitions as an average child of the same age, who knows that society expects him to keep explorations of his sexuality private.

The school, which runs a special class for autism spectrum students, was seriously lacking knowledge in that aspect of an autistic child’s development. Rather than to seek information from credible sources and work with the family to find positive solutions, they jumped the gun. They decided that the girl’s behaviours must be due to a urinary infection - which of course proved the alleged abuse. And then they called CAS.

It is worth noting that several of the little girl’s classmates exhibit similar behaviours. When asked whether they had received any reports of suspected abuse concerning these children, the CAS replied that they had not.

So, essentially what it all comes down to is that school employees observed the same phenomenon in a number of children, but did nothing to follow up on it until a teaching assistant said her psychic had warned her about a child being abused. Then they took their data, threw some of them out & twisted the rest to fit a superstition (I won’t dignify it with the name “theory” as that would indicate some real, scientific investigation was getting done) and went right past Go, collecting their $200 and declaring for all and sundry to hear that the sky was falling. (Please excuse the mixed metaphors…)

Do keep in mind that, while the girl’s mother is single and has hard evidence to document the fact that her child had no contact with the man the psychic described, it was the mother who was investigated by CAS. Apparently this particular elementary school has no male staff aged 23-26! Not that I’m suggesting the reputations and careers of any teachers or support staff should have been jeopardized over this folly, but it did beg the question of why they weren’t…. Stuff happens at school, it must be because of something that started at home…..

Colleen Leduc has pulled her daughter out of school and is looking for a better arrangement. “I have trust issues now,” Leduc said. “What are they going to concoct next week?”

She has reason to worry, too. And reason to be awfully angry. Even though she was found by the CAS social worker to be a diligent parent, the record of this ill-founded report remains on file. Any time in the future someone else can come up with a similarly ridiculous charge, and if there seems to be a pattern the CAS can change their minds and declare that Ms Leduc was guilty of neglecting or abusing her child.

Is this an isolated case? An Illinois mother whose autistic daughter was in fugue, was forced by the Department of Children and Family Services to permit a private caregiver hired by DCFS to sleep on her couch so the child would receive 24-hour supervision. (How a person getting paid to sleep is providing supervision is beyond me, by the way.) When neither that nor the $5000 of fencing and security measures failed to keep her child safe at home, Kim Cooper decided she’d had enough of cooperating with the authorities. They removed her child from her, to keep the girl safe. When Ms Cooper filed an emergency petition for the return of her daughter & won, she found the girl in the psychiatric wing of a nearby hospital, in a bare room with nothing else but a mattress on the floor.

A couple from Illinois who were falsely accused by a mentally ill foster child for whom DCFS had refused to supply needed medication, fought out their appeal for two years. They won, but not before losing their life savings and the three children they were going to adopt. They have since been able to have a little girl with the help of a surrogate, but live in fear that DCFS will take her away too.

“Kids get bruises and scrapes when they play,” said mother Judi Brunstein… “We are going to be on their radar for the slightest thing. It wouldn’t surprise me if some day they try to get Grace.” (”Guilty until proven innocent”)

While there certainly are cases of real child abuse out there, this wasn’t one of them. DCFS took the word of a mentally unstable child who felt that it was unfair that she had to do her homework and chores, and made a complete mockery of their investigation:

Heineken’s 25-page ruling criticized DCFS caseworkers for basic errors in the investigation and for presenting an abuse case dependent on the uncorroborated word of the 11-year-old.

The judge also chastised the agency’s main expert witness, a Belleville psychologist, who didn’t know the girl was schizophrenic and bipolar because she never checked her medical files.

Heineken said school officials, friends and neighbors “wholly refuted” the girl’s accusations. She also noted the Brunsteins repeatedly asked DCFS to resume supplying the same mental illness medication the girl received when living with other foster parents, but the agency refused.

(ibid, emphasis mine)

The Belleville News-Democrat reports that in 2007 the state of Illinois placed 80,000 names on a central registry of parents who abuse or neglect their children. Over 11,000 have appealed this action, and of those 27% win their appeals. But parent advocates and lawyers are concerned that many people are falsely accused and just don’t have the resources to fight back. Parents are not provided legal counsel in these matters, and if they choose to appeal they face a judge and a DCFS lawyer whose full time job is dealing with these kinds of cases. To make matters worse, once accused parents are presumed guilty. The rules for evidence are softer: in Illinois the state need only present “credible evidence” against an accused parent, whereas the standard recommended by the Illinois Supreme Court is the same as that used in civil litigation: “a preponderance of the evidence.”

Parents, especially parents of a child with special needs, often feel that the goal of the system is less about protecting children, and more about making good parents out to be villains.

There were 8,712 educational-neglect cases reported to [New York] state during the 2006-07 school year, with 36 percent substantiated. The previous year, 8,302 cases were reported, with 42 percent substantiated. (”School Board Reports Mom as ‘Abuser’”)

It would seem, to my mind, that the majority of accused parents are actually innocent. Still, many in the educational and social services field believe that school staff are best qualified to identify cases in which parents are harming or neglecting their children. And most accusations do come from the schools, if the 80% statistic from the Barrie CAS is fairly representative of the trends.

Still, I am less than pleased with the fervour (and perhaps pleasure?) some school administrators display in filing abuse reports. A mother whose son carries a B-average and who has been awarded almost full scholarships for university, was reported for educational neglect after she missed a single appointment to discuss his lack of participation in gym class. Both the guidance counselor and the principal thought that this type of forceful measure was necessary, and called it a “last resort.”

“The school has a responsibility of forcing a parent to attend to a child’s education,” said Bronx Science Principal Valerie Reidy. (ibid, emphasis mine)

Anyone looking for a job? I hear there will be places opening up for Inquisitors soon. There may not be any positions for hangmen this time around, but I hear there is a good market for social workers, lawyers and foster parents, among others.

Are we really concerned with the welfare of the child, or are those in positions of power more interested with justifying their continued employment and padding their pay cheques?

Sources:

“Guilty until proven innocent” (George Pawlaczyk & Beth Hundsdorfer, Belleville News-Democrat)

“The Mother, The Child, The School Board And The Psychic” (CityNews, Barrie)

“Psychic’s charge of abuse leaves Barrie mom fuming” (Raymond Bowe, Barrie Examiner)

“School Board Reports Mom as ‘Abuser’” (Angela Montefinise and Julia Dahl, New York Post)

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!