Parents of a child with Aspergers watched there kid turn from happy to scared according to a lawsuit they filed against a school district. The lawsuit alleges that the child was tormented to the point of wanting to kill himself.
According to an article by King5 John was repeatedly “hit with books, …. spit on, … [and] punched.” The Mother who works at Shoewater Middle School where the child was being bullied was barred by the school from talking to her kid about it during school hours as it did not teach him coping mechanisms.
The autistic student was later diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder on top of Aspergers Syndrome and transferred to another school, however this school only offered classes through 10th grade. After 10th grade the Tukwila School District demanded he attend their high school along with the other students who bullied him. When the Autistic Student refused truancy charges were filed in court to force him to attend the high school.
The attorney for the parents claims “I don’t think they could have harmed this child more had they tried to do it intentionally. This is reckless indifference. This is callousness. And it’s a total abdication of their duty to protect children”. The school district had no comments due to the ongoing legal situation but stated “We feel that we’ve got the best safeguards here for all of our students K-12″.
The autistic student is now 20 and attends a community college.
How often were you bullied in your school years? Did bullying cause issues for you later in life?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
“How often were you bullied in your school years?
Every single day.
“Did bullying cause issues for you later in life?”
Yes and too numerous to go into any detail.
this is a very valid concern and I am glad the parents are suing the district. We had a non asd teenager commit suicide after a hazing incident some years ago. It’s a very real problem. And I think some districts answer to the problems come quite far from addressing it.
I was never physically bullied, but was ostracized. But then, I was also in a group of honors students, that weren’t about to risk getting in trouble for messing with me. I also had the social skills to find friends who would support me and was in a large enough school that it was possible. Most student victims don’t have this.
How often were you bullied in your school years?
Every playtime of every schoolday from age 5 to 14 then probably only 4 or 5 times a day until my final term age 17.
That was more than 40 years ago and I still resent every moment of it as it was all quite unnecessary.
Stories like this make my blood boil, but do not surprise me at all.
I feel very hurt after I was bullied 1 1/2 years ago at this bad camp I went to. My mom is all like, “Oh, get over it, it happened long ago.” This makes me feel even more hurt.
School should be a place of learning not just merely surviving. I am very bitter against any form of bullying, and if I saw it happen I would probably go to prison for GBH when I may run to protect a victim. Verbal bullying ruined my life.
I’m homeschooling because of things like this. The combination of not being challenged, the teachers not being schooled in all things (any thing) Aspergers, and the knowledge that they like to use the “Resource Room” as a method of getting my son out of their classroom for several hours every day was enough for me. When a child of one of the ‘favored’ families threatened my son, noone wanted to believe it and staunchly defended the other child. I don’t want this to escalate…unfortunate that I have to be the only one to understand this is in the entire school district.
This story represents one of many similar cases throughout the U.S. Recently in FL a boy committed suicide because of the constant harassment and bullying that he had to endure everyday at school at the hands of his fellow classmates. I have 2 sons with Autism, my oldest also bi-polar. He was continuously tormented through middle school and high school, and nothing was ever done to effectively deal with it. He has gotten tougher as his confidence level has grown and now if someone were to even attempt to try and bully him or his brother he would level them. My middle son doesn’t understand things being said about him but if someone tried to physically bully him they would get hurt. But he has suffered at the hands of good-for-nothing sorry excuses for human beings teachers and staff at a couple of FL high schools that caused him to refuse to go to school for 1 1/2 years. I think anyone who bullies or demeans or criticizes or in anyone treats another human being in a condescending manner should be forced to endure the same treatment by someone bigger, badder, and meaner than they are. They should know what it feels like to regret your own existence and fear just being alive.
Don’t take this problems easily.Let put our hands together to get rid of the bullies.