The News Not Fit to Print
August 19, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
I was watching the news with friends who are visiting us down here at the beach. Charlie was up in his room, listening to (per his request) Jimi Hendrix; I had forwarded the CD to one of his favorites, “Little Wing.” The TV had been turned on to the Mets playing the Nationals and our friend flipped the station to the news: a building on fire in lower Manhattan and two firefighters dead; Hurricane Dean; the continuing investigation in the killings at a school in Newark; the weather.
Autistic woman beaten in group home, flashed the next headline.
A 5o-year-old autistic woman was beaten with a wooden coat hangar and a shoe by at least four workers at the PLUS Group Home Inc in Uniondale, Nassau County, on Long Island.
The room was silent, aside from the sound of the TV. Commercials followed.
“Something else to worry about,” I said and my friend and I both glanced upstairs to where Charlie was sleeping, curled up in his fleece blankets, the CD still playing.
Some of the comments arent fit to print too… where did that race angle come from???
The news is not good in Coventry either
“Man jailed for abusing autistic boy”
http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_method=full%26objectid=19618540%26siteid=50003-name_page.html
A COVENTRY man has been sentenced to 20 months imprisonment for sexual activity with a boy of 13.
James Bradley Thomson, aged 34, of Chace Avenue, Willenhall, had admitted the offence at Coventry Crown Court.
Robert Hodgkinson, prosecuting, said Thomson met the boy, who is autistic, and his mother when the boy asked him for directions.
The youngster asked if Thomson wanted to go to his home for a drink and, although initially apprehensive, his mother agreed.
Mr Hodgkinson said Thomson stayed at their house for the rest of the day and was left downstairs to sleep when they went to bed.
But he said: “The defendant went into the boy’s bedroom, got into bed with him and made thrusting movements with his pelvis into the boy’s body.”
The boy told him to get off and Thomson left the room. He stayed in the house until the following morning.
That day the boy told his mother about what had happened and she alerted police.
In a police interview, the boy told how Thomson, who has four previous convictions for sexual offences committed in Scotland, touched his “unmentionables”.
20 months does not seem a very long jail sentance for what are clearly repeat offences.
Kristina…I “happened upon you” a week or so ago, and am now hooked…I like how your mind works. I have a story to share and have been looking around for the proper place to post it. As there is no “Other Ways Our Kids Get Taken Advantage Of”, this shall be it, for me. I will keep it as short as possible. We moved to this house 3 years ago. My youngest was 5 then and dx was PDD-NOS, and as is not unusual, had a difficult time with “friends”. Always liked the older kids, they irritated him less, pushed his buttons less. Family next door had 2 kids, one, a 12 year old boy. Neighborhood “gossip” had it that said boy, though very polite, had “issues”… an IEP, no friends…just kind of “odd”. So, as is my style, I reached out. Fast forward. We had a bbq in their yard one night, then strolled down to the other end of the street for a nightcap at some other neighbors house. Standing in their foyer, saying our “good nights”, I felt a little tug from Matt. Assuming his comment would be like, the typical, “Mom, can we go now…it’s kind of loud?!”, I bent down and was told that he was very embarrassed. I assumed it was because he needed help putting his shoes on, and even THAT embarrasses him to no end, and standing there with us were 2 teenage boys whom Matt adores and I suspected he didn’t want THEM to know about the shoe thing. Instead, I was told this. “Mom, I’m just so embarrassed…I hope you don’t tell the boys this, but xxx(12 year old boy, whom we had earlier dinner with) had me lick and suck his pee pee after we ate. He told me not to tell anyone or else he would tell them he hears me fart alot.” Suffice it to say, it was a long night for all of us. Yes, police were called, yes, I went next door with the claim, yes, xxx deniedit, yes, it was blamed on Matt being autistic and lying. Point is this…Matt doesn’t know what a friend is. He idolozed this kid….it was like Christmas morning when this kid would come ring our bell to see if Matt could shoot some hoops. I have shared this with many, and my reason being this…we all teach our kids about not letting someone touch them on their privates, to run and get help, etc. But , as alot of kids with ASD are so literal, we must also tell them that this includes Uncle Bob and their best friend who lives next door. Thank God he told me that night…thank God he has a voice. Another story..friend has a son with autism, in the public schools. School decided to pair him up with a typical “buddy” at lunch time. Mom noticed money missing from her wallet on more than one occasion. One AM, her son came to her crying,”I need a 10, I need a 10!!!”. Long story short, “Buddy” had been requesting a 10 every Friday to buy a video game. Her son was so devastated that his had to end…”But Mom, you don’t undertand….HE”S MY FRIEND AND I LOVE HIM AND HE ALWAYS TELLS ME ABOUT HOW MUCH FUN HE HAS PLAYING THESE GAMES THAT I BUY HIM AND IF WE STOP GIVING HIM YHE MONEY HE WON”T BE MY FRIEND AND THEN I”LL HAVE NONE!!!” He missed a week from school, devastated at losing his “best friend”. Sigh. Even the good guys can be bad. While we certainly had the wind let out of our sails for a good long while, I am back at it again. One person at a time, one neighbor at a time. Always looking for good people to surround ourselves with, yet often times coming up short. Yet still seeing our glass as half full.
Just one more incident that prevents parents from breathing easy. I worry all the time about what will happen to my 12-year old aspie son if he cannot work and live an independent life. While there’re no siblings, my family is supportive but you never know.
I’ve met adults aspies who’re doing just fine and others who’re not. Where we live in France, there’s little provision for adults on the spectrum so most of the caring is left to tired, exhausted families. Things are changing slowing for the better since new laws were voted in 2005 and 2006 but good, trained, caring workers don’t come cheap.
From the news report, the workers seem to be (mostly) African-American? Responding to violence with hate is no solution…..
Ill-treatment of vulnerable people is wrong, no matter what the race.
Absolutely, I was just surprised to see it, is all. Its not often (for me, here, in the UK) one sees such open and uncalled for hostility, and people tend to get sat on pretty fast if they try. Of course this doesnt mean such attitudes dont exist.
A is dual heritage himself, British-African, so I dunno, those sort of comments really rankle.
It has been my professional experience that law and justice are seldom served at the same time.
It is also my observation that inmates in jails go very hard on people who commit certain kinds of crimes-particularly those that involve children ect.
I would be willing to bet that the women who beat the autistic lady is going to have a rough time in the slammer-she is going to meet women who will beat her constantly…..and worse.
States have very different laws for sex offenders and as a result there is a Federal push for mandated sentences for sex crimes. Find out what politicians in your municipality support longer sentences for sex offenders and get them in office.
~Sarah
I entirely believe this. The bullies don’t stop when they get older, they can always find another vulnerable victim. Look at what happens with the elderly….
Candy – I think you and I must have had some parallel stuff going on. While we did not have oral sex issues with some older kids, when Bug was in 2nd grade we were at a friend’s house, he was exposed to porn…. he was upstairs with my friend’s 7th grade boy and some of his friends. And’s it’s been a real biotch to get the stuff out of his head. Not that I want him to not be sexual one day, just that he should be Ready for it…
My son also had kids take advantage of him at school for money. I hope Candy was able to take care of it with the kid’s parents, or at the school. We did. If the school can’t protect our kids while they are there, then the school needs to be sued. It’s really that simple, and there are plenty of lawyers who would gladly take it on. These schools all preach Zero Tolerance – so let’s hold them to it.