Signs of Strife in Nephi

It was Darren Galbraith of Nephi, Utah, who put up the “now-famous, politically incorrect and mispunctuated sign — “CAUTION RETARD’S IN AREA,” as an article in today’s Daily Herald puts it.

Galbraith and his wife, Kallie, say they’ve seen Colton almost get hit by cars, expose himself in public and poke neighborhood dogs with sticks, and they went to the police with a report that he threw rocks at their daughter and bruised her.

And the real frustration, they said, is that Colton’s mother goes ballistic on anyone — adult or child — who makes so much as a perceived slight against her son.

Carrie Heaton, mother of 13-year-old Colton, says that her son does not do the many things—entering people’s houses and eating their food, throwing rocks—he is accused of doing; people, she notes, use him for a “scapegoat.” Nephi police chief Chad Bowles notes that:

“We’ve never had anyone so ignorant as to do something like that. You’re deeply wounding all those people who have special needs children and you’re offending the whole town. I guarantee you, that sign will not be going back up.”

And offending an internet-wide community of autistic people and families.

Go here to read Signs of Strife: An autistic boy’s behavior sparks neighborhood warfare.