We just went and visited our local township community preschool. Out of 400 kids, 100 had a delay of some sort. The classroom they were going to put my son in had 20 kids, 12 autistic - with 1 teacher and 1 aide.

The kicker is they get to call these classrooms "mainstream" and "general education," even though we all know they are anything but. If the ratio is 300 NT to 100 ASD, why are rooms over 50% autistic? Funny.

The point is - even if we are to shove off all these kids into their own special segregated rooms ("developmental preschool") to spare the neurotypical 4 year olds not having as much attention bestowed upon them - it's the same freaking thing. There's TOO many of them. EVERYWHERE.

So my son is going to church-based K with an ABA-trained aide, paid for by ME. My school district told me these were my choices. Put my son in a room with 12 other ASD kids with no structure and no expectations, or pay for something else myself, all while my tax dollars go towards educating everyone else's kids - just not mine.

And if we are going to get honest - *really* honest - I think that's a load of shit. Why do I have to pay to educate your NT kids, and then pay out of pocket for my own just to get him an approprate education? Total crap.

It's a giant, giant mess - and getting worse every single second.

"Johnson & Johnson and the doctors treating Michael killed the father. Put them in jail, make them take the stand, convict them of murder. The boy is about as guilty as the gun."

The crimes of Johnson and Johnson are innumerable...I am damned near certain that their aggressive marketing of Tylenol is what is responsible for the autism epidemic in the first place. And then to make billions off the drug used to "treat" the very problem they themselves created...what a great scam! Lifelong customers, they're making out of our kids.

Risperdal was involved in this case. Even if the boy wasn't taking it at the time- or taking it sporadically- it's definitely a factor.

http://www.wiscnews.com/bnr/news/469880

Records related to a legal dispute between the parents of Michael A. Crisafulli also show the mother once accused the father of withholding medication from the boy.

Prosecutors say Crisafulli, a seventh-grader at Webb Middle School in Reedsburg, shot his father in the head Tuesday as the man reclined in a chair in his rural Town of Delton home.

The boy allegedly told an officer that his "balloon of anger" burst because his father, 55-year-old Angelo D. Crisafulli, was angry with him for being expelled from school that day.

Michael Crisafulli has been charged as an adult with first-degree intentional homicide in Sauk County Circuit Court.

During an effort to gain sole custody of the boy in divorce proceedings, his mother, Kristine Crisafulli, swore in an affidavit that "Michael is on medication, as he is an autistic child."

The affidavit also says "It is believed that (Angelo) is not providing Michael with his medication during his placement which is affecting Michael’s behavior. Counselors are working to try to resolve this issue with (Angelo)."

Medical expense receipts from 2006 contained in court documents show Michael Crisafulli was taking an antipsychotic medication called Risperdal, which is used to control symptoms of a variety of mental illnesses, including behavioral problems with autistic children.

"If he was using it, that is very likely the reason — that he had angry outbursts," said Dr. Glen Sallows, a psychologist and President of the Wisconsin Early Autism Project.

The child psychiatrist who prescribed the medication is licensed to practice in Wisconsin, according to state Department of Regulation & Licensing records.

The dosage increases shown in Michael Crisafulli’s medical documents might indicate that doctors were having trouble controlling his outbursts in 2006, Sallows said.

A placement agreement signed by the divorced parents in July 2005 says Michael had a counselor at the Pauquette Center for Psychological Services, which has six Wisconsin offices, including one in Reedsburg.

The document says the purpose of counseling sessions at the center were to provide Angelo with "an understanding of Michael’s current mental condition."

The agreement goes on to say that Michael "needs structure and close supervision at all times" and that Angelo "needs to be cautious and careful not to instill thoughts or ideas in Michael’s mind that might lead to inappropriate behavior by Michael."

Sallows said children with autism — a disorder marked by odd behavior and an inability to properly use language — sometimes don’t know what to do when they become upset.

That can sometimes lead to violent outbursts or withdrawal, Sallows said. But he said it would be unusual for a child with autism to "pick up a gun and use it," and such an act would indicate the child is a highly functioning autistic.

My fear is that our kids will be seen as a potential threat to physical safety, people will cross the street, or refuse to get on an elevator with a child with autism ... wait that's already happened, wasnt that Insel that wouldn't get on the elevator with Ginger and her child?

My point is soon parents of typical chidreln will become more and more vocal about how 'dangerous" autism is to their child's safety, then where will we be?

Could be that inside a 70 pound government health care document lays a caveat that says children with autism must be medicated to qualify for educational services in mainstream classrooms. Surely there isn't but who knows down the road.

PUBERTY. Despite the cries that autism has always been with us in these numbers, what we're seeing is the effect of puberty on the kids born in the 1990s - and it's ugly for many of them. A sweet kid can turn into a raging teen almost overnight. A boy in my daughters' middle school autism program was just placed out of the district because of his behavior. We have an excellent program with trained teachers and paras, behavior plans, accomodations, everything you can imagine. And yet, this child posed a safety threat to the teachers, paras and other students, including my petite girls who sat in the room with him. I feel sadness and great empathy for him and his family - and yet, I'm relieved he is no longer in the classroom. For him - he could have ended up in juvenile detention had he injured someone. For my girls. For the teachers whom I value so much. Some folks would see this boy as simply a monster - a danger. I see him as a kid trapped in this epidemic.

Honest talk, people. That's what we need. There's no point in trying not to offend any longer. I'm offended every day when I see the media and experts telling me my kids don't matter.

KIM

Meridian, you bring up valid, albeit uncomfortable points. I have three daughters with autism. Our schools have chosen to create specialized training within the district. Many do not. It is up to the SCHOOLS to ask the GOV'T for more funding - and when that fails, which it will - to get at the head of the line to demand why so much of their student population has changed - and become much more difficult to teach. Where is the voice of the powerful teachers union on autism? Why aren't they - the troops on the front line - demanding answers for cause and treatment? Take your fight to them - we're exhausted parents trying to get through the day. We cringe at the thought of our kids causing problems. We sweat out the day, waiting for a phone call about --- an "incident." Don't demonize the parents or worse, the kids - rally behind us so that they system sees the problem. Autism is a raging, roiling catastrophe in America. Media ignores it - candy coats it - derides us for wanting to treat our kids medically. Maybe you can help us - and in turn, help your own kids/teachers by demanding answers.

Thanks - and thanks for commenting. I'm sure you did so with some trepidation.

Kim

I'm sorry but can I be very honest here for a moment, even though I know the knee-jerk reaction will be rage. This is about mainstreaming autistic children in the public school system. We have overburdened school systems as it is. I know there are varying degrees of autism, but schools who can barely keep up with the # of students let alone dedicate special aides to watch over these children are faltering.

My friend has a kindergarten with an autistic child in the class. I volunteer my free time in this class to teach children to read. Out of a class of 19 children the poor teacher dedicates, on most days, nearly 1/2 the school time to just controlling one autistic child. The school day only lasts 3 hours for the kindergartens. The school doesn't have the resources to deal with the child. The "plan" (I'm not sure of the exact name of it) that was given to this teacher is so long and drawn out with how to avoid a tantrum from this 1 child that I literally get to watch the other 18 kids sit there for up to an hour some days doing absolutely nothing but maybe coloring, because you never know when this child is going to lose it. While this 1 teacher tries to deal with this 1 child day in and day out. I can literally see the stress that has put on her and the job that she once adored has become a task to her that she dreads.

The child has his good days. But I am there only twice a week and nearly every time I am there this child is on the verge or in the midst of screaming, hitting, biting and more. This poor teacher is exhausted. She is the sweetest and most patient soul I have ever seen. I've never seen her raise her voice to this child and is always calm by his side. But I see the tired and pained looks she gives as other children try to ask her questions and it just enrages this autistic child when attention is drawn from him. The principal can offer no other resources and the parents INSIST on mainstreaming this child despite the fact that 18 other children sit there the entire day and receive no attention. Besides a few volunteer parents like myself who come in and try to help, but we aren't teachers.

I'm hoping someone here can sense the frustration that I feel. That there is nothing the teacher, the school or the other parents of those kids in the class can do about this. What recommendations do you have? If this is a growing problem what can possibly be done to protect the other kids? I know there are specialized schools and they are expensive but at what point is the majority going to suffer because 1 or 2 students in the class require so much time, attention and resources that an overburdened school can not possibly keep up?

I'm really afraid this is the tip of the iceberg and the "new normal".

I grew up a few miles 20 miles south of Lake Delton, WI and all of my siblings an mom live there. I know of many families in the area whose children have varying degrees of autism. Sauk County is just another example of a community under served, and over stressed by autism and all the other "over diagnosises".

The Virginia shooting may be a similar situation.

"Speight had an apparent learning disability and history of mental problems, and 'ran away' from his sister's Georgia home during a breakdown in 2007, Devening said."

http://www.verizon.net/newsroom/portals/newsroom.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=newsroom_portal_page__article&_article=2551837

"Speight had fought learning disabilities for many years, Devening said."

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/state_regional/article/appomattox_rampage_suspect_faces_murder_count/51279/

I don't know how God would judge these individuals. As a child, I would never have been diagnosed with a learning disability (social maybe), but I know how I've felt for the better part of my adult life with increasing exposure to our "environment," a lot of it "health care," and with increasing mental fog, misery, and worse, so I tend to believe they will not be held as culpable as some might think. Exposing an individual to a neurotoxin on purpose (even "trace" amounts)--I'm not sure how to judge this either, but I have no problem considering it a crime at some level.

Harris Coulter's 1990 book, Vaccination, Social violence and Criminality addressed the issue of neurological brain damage and it's relationship to criminal behavior. Obviously the neurological damage can have psychological and spiritual consequences.

St. Edith Stein who died at Auschwitz, wrote her Phd dissertation on Empathy under the famous phenomenologist, Edmund Husserl, a man and his philosophy greatly admired by Pope John Paul II. The most tragic damage of vaccination is the theft of empathy, that is, according to Webster, the projection of one's own personality into the personality of another in order to understand him better, the ability to share in another's emotions or feelings. Edith's reflections on Empathy may cast important light on the journey out of the autistic fog.

Until some genuine research is done on autism mitigation, it will be difficult to say what biomedical, psychological and spiritual techniques provide the best remediation for high functioning children with autism. I know, I have four children in that category. My prayers go out to Michael and his family. I hope that justice is not blinded by the medical profession.

Autism IS deadly sometimes, and not just for the kids. I hate it when people say "I'd rather my kid be autistic than die of some deadly disease."

Personally, I'd rather my kid have measles for a week.

The point is KAD that even those educated in such serious matters, who are the uncles of children diagnosed with autism fail to understand us, the parents.

And no, this "joke" was not related to this murder story it was in relation to the military recruiting teens with undiagnosed or recognized Aspergers.

My fear is that it is possible these "educated" and supposedly informed people who arrest, prosecute and imprison these kids on a criminal level see them as potential assassins, a danger to society, wired to be killers. And if they think this way, what about the rest of those coming into contact with our kids, like the parents of the child my son hit, for no apparent reason, on the playground yesterday. "Sorry please excuse him, he has been diagnosed with autism."

I'd be careful about making any judgements - perhaps Dad doesn't have insurance? Or it doesn't cover enough of the costs. This is an important story for many reasons, but it's a tragedy first and foremost.

Kim

My brother, an FBI National Academy graduate jokingly (to him it was funny) said the other day that autistics would make the perfect assassins. A Manchurian Candidate type personality.

It's not funny at all.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/06/marines-lining-up-recruits-with-autism-chantal-sicilekira-on-huffpo.html

I am sure they will charge him as an adult since he committed an "adult" crime *eyes rolling*

What meds was he on?

Someone should be tracking what medications these kids are taking when they get so angry they kill.