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According to media reports, police recently shot (with a taser), a 12-year-old boy with Autism when he assaulted school personnel. I recently read a letter to the editor in response to this story. The author of this letter, while not condoning the incident, seemed to think that students with autism should be held accountable for their behavior in the same manner as other students and that treating them differently was enabling their challenging behavior. He's exactly right. And wrong. Read More
Reference for this Post
I forgot to list the news article reference for this blog post: "Parents of autistic boy who was Tasered question police actions"
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-taser3-2009mar...
Nicole Caldwell, M.Ed.
http://www.PositivelyAutism.com/
Impressive posting
A posting of exceptional emotional insight. Obviously one of your intellectual gifts. Sincerely,David
I think this is a very
I think this is a very important topic. Thank you for posting it.
I have been torn on this topic, and I have seen it discussed on Aspie forums in much the same way, where there have been cases of Aspergers being used in the defence at a trial - OOH we are impaired and that should certainly be taken into account, OTOH some of us are uncomfortable with using it as a get-out-of-jail free card.
The other issue is when people who DO NOT have Aspergers try to claim that they do in order to avoid jail, much as some criminals try to claim mental illness etc. I don't know if this is actually happening, but it's a concern. I think someone could be coached to fake mental illness, and they could probably be coached to fake Aspie body language and other deficits etc.
However someone faking Aspergers to avoid jail may not be able to fake the advantages of Aspergers. After all it's easy to fake deficits, just pretend you can't do it. You'd need to test them on the areas that Aspies do better on. e.g. see how well they do on the block design test. It's a lot harder to fake that positive skill.
It depends on the individual child, look at the evidence
You can not make a blanket generalization about all children with autism spectrum disorders and whether they should be held accountable for their behaviors. Some high function autistic persons or persons with Aspergers Disorder can lead organizations, meet with the President of the United States and carry out sophisticated media campaigns.
Some persons with Autistic Disorder also have serious intellectual deficits that would preclude their being competent to understand their behaviors in a societal or legal context. In the recent Sky Walker case, the 18 year old young man was found not competent to stand trial for the homicide of his mother.
It depends on the individual child, look at the evidence
You can not make a blanket generalization about all children with autism spectrum disorders and whether they should be held accountable for their behaviors. Some high function autistic persons or persons with Aspergers Disorder can lead organizations, meet with the President of the United States and carry out sophisticated media campaigns.
Some persons with Autistic Disorder also have serious intellectual deficits that would preclude their being competent to understand their behaviors in a societal or legal context. In the recent Sky Walker case, the 18 year old young man was found not competent to stand trial for the homicide of his mother.
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