safety
Violence and Bullying: What happened to Sean Carter
Published July 25, 2009 @ 02:18PM PT
I wrote yesterday about school abuse and before that about sexual abuse: Safety has been on my mind a lot and then one reads about a 14-year old boy on the spectrum, Sean Carter, who was severely beaten on his face and back. Sean's father, Ron Carter, claims that an organized gang in west Clacton is responsible, as reported in yesterday's Gazette (UK). Now Sean is
“.....literally frightened to leave the house.”
Mr Carter no longer wants to send Sean to school because he is too afraid. He hopes to move out of the area.
He said Sean had been tormented by his peers, who took advantage of his autism ever since he moved into a new class at the town’s Bishops Park College in September.
Dora has posted about violence and abuse and particularly noted the "complexity of power imbalances" in such situations. She and I have both posted about bullying -- it sounds as if this had happened to Sean prior to being beaten. What did or didn't school authorities do, if anything? Even if there were anti-bullying programs in place, these are not enough. As a commenter wrote yesterday on a post about school abuse and the call to form a group to create a new statewide policy on reporting abuse in the school system by Georgia governor Sonny Perdue:
It's not just that they help some but not enough, it's that those people who work for these agencies don't really have the opportunity to say how their agency is really failing. They end up protecting the agency by continuing to sacrifice the rights of the victims.
There are a lot of subtle as well as overt ways that staff members in these agencies are allowed to discourage those who have been abused from reporting it. It's important to remember that no matter what type of abuse it is, the victim first has to deal with their own shame. That's what abuse does. It makes the victim feel ashamed.
That means that the opportunity to report what has happened to them won't be enough. They need to be in an environment where they are encouraged and empowered.
Here's hoping that Sean can find a better place to live and attend school that is such an environment where he is "encouraged and empowered," and accepted.
Longterm Care: A Longterm Issue
Published July 23, 2009 @ 02:26PM PT
In Derby in the UK, the City Council is planning to turn a former Viking village into a day center for adults on the autism spectrum. As reported in yesterday's Derby Telegraph, plans are in the works to close two smaller centers and use the funds from selling them to renovate the Viking village. On the one hand, the opening of a new facility that might offer better options seems hopeful, but locating it in a site meant for tourists (and a "failed tourist attraction" at that) has some unpleasant connotations. Will the new facility be integrated into the surrounding community, or is it set apart and separate?
Here in New Jersey, Disability Rights New Jersey is suing the New Jersey Department of Human Services on behalf of the family of a 41-year-old man who lives at the Hunterdon Developmental Center in Clinton, yesterday's Star Ledger reports:
Rosamund and Daniel Caliendo of Hampton said they arrived at the Hunterdon Developmental Center in Clinton for a holiday party on Dec. 1, 2007, to find their son, Damian, in his electronic wheelchair facing a wall with the chair's front wheels suspended in the air and the tray table jabbed into his stomach.
Their son, who cannot speak and is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a seizure disorder and other medical conditions that required neck surgery a year earlier, "was scared to death he was going to fall," his mother said. No one at the party came forward to explain what happened to Damian, who has lived at the institution for 30 years. The family believes an employee placed him in an unlawful restraint to punish him. They filed a complaint and demanded an investigation.
The Caliendos were only given a summary of the report.
I'd be tearing my hair out if that was all I was told I could know about such a document regarding my son.
And on the other other hand, it's possible that the new center in Derby might be better than alternatives. The July 20th Disability Scoop reported that some two dozen families in Canada have had to relinquish their parental rights and, in effect, make their children with severe disabilities wards of the state.
We've got too long a way to go to figure out appropriate, safe, sufficiently staffed and well-supervised options for individuals with disabilities who need this care, and to make it clear, families and caretakers must be included in every way.
Sexual Abuse and Safety
Published July 22, 2009 @ 02:23PM PT
Three recent stories about sexual abuse of individuals on the autism spectrum and/or with intellectual disabilities: a woman on the autism spectrum (in the Droitwich Spa Advertiser); a "mentally retarded" woman who is now 19 weeks pregnant (in The Hindu); twin autistic boys who were 4 at the time of the assaults (in C and G News).
And the really sobering thing in reading these stories---along with the fact that caretakers committed the abuse in at least two of the cases---is that there are probably many more than go unreported and are simply not known.
A recent New York Times article noted that not all teaching assistants---hired independently with funds raised by parents---are fingerprinted. Teachers and aides at public schools in New Jersey are fingerprinted and backgrounds checks are done before they're hired. While being all too aware of the need for adequate staffing (and also of the fact that the NYT article is not about aides for students with disabilities), safety will always be a topmost concern in the care of my son and for students and individuals with disabilities.
Financial Abuse
Published July 14, 2009 @ 04:00PM PT
Abuse most commonly conjures images of physical or sexual violence or verbal taunting. But there are many types of abuse, and one that's come up here before but never in its own post is financial abuse.
In Austin (TX), a woman who ran several group homes has been accused of exploiting residents by opening up credit card accounts in their names and using those accounts to make her own purchases. The woman, who has a list of prior convictions mostly for theft, is still at large.
This has echoes of the woman who stole thousands from the people she "helped" with their finances, local to me (OR). That woman was convicted and sentenced to a year in jail.
Such things don't only happen to people who are unable to manage money independently either. One of the panel speakers at the Megaconference personal care assistant session is completely capable of managing her own finances under typical circumstances. But a PCA once feed her double medication until she became so disoriented that the PCA was able to extort literally all of her money. The speaker ended up having to file for bankruptcy.
What to do about this? Especially for those of us who have no clue how to tell if finances are being managed properly or not?
A background check of the sort that any federally run service organization requires would have helped out with the woman in Austin. But not with the woman in Oregon who had no prior crimes and worked for a reputable service organization.
What else can we do to protect ourselves?
Monday Autism News Potpourri
Published July 13, 2009 @ 09:49AM PT
Updates:
1. Fight Club
In bad news for the residents, the actual fight club videos are currently not being allowed as evidence in the trial. This decision is currently under appeal. The defense is asserting that the cell phone with the videos was stolen and illegally accessed by police; the prosecution is asserting that the cell phone was in fact abandoned in a public place (the story as it originally broke btw makes this assertion). The trial will continue regardless of the outcome of the cell phone appeal, however the video is, obviously, a very strong piece of evidence for the defense.
2. Psycho Donuts
On July 25 - 26, a representative each from Psycho Donuts and a mental health organization will discuss the issue of stigma on TV. Some of the donuts are described in the post, and yeah, they are pretty offensive,
"Should my friend, who suffered major head trauma after a drunken driver hit him two weeks ago, enjoy the doughnut M.H.T., for massive head trauma - a doughnut with an X for each eye, a frown and a smudge of red frosting on the side of the frosted face?" writes Stapleton [a staff writer for Palm Beach Post]. "I am not laughing."
Um. Yeah. Me neither.
Broadcast details: Channel 2 KTVU Saturday July 25 at 6:30 a.m.; KICU TV36 on Sunday July 26 at 9 a.m.; Comcast on Demand the week after July 26.
Actions:
1. Matthew Shepard Act
Very soon, as early as this Wednesday, July 15, the Senate will vote on the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This act has already passed in the House. Now is the time to get loud and get personal--call or fax your Senators and urge them to support this very important piece of public health and safety legislation.
2. Judge Sotomayor
For anyone who is in a position to do so and is so inclined, a letter of support of Sotomayor to be signed by disability organizations is available. If interested, here is more information and the text of the letter with some signatures.
Safety and the Abuse of Trust
Published July 11, 2009 @ 04:42PM PT
Safety---along with sensory processing and communication---was the third of "the top three areas people [on the autism spectrum who are now adults] wished they'd received help with as children" noted by parent and professional Chantal Sicile-Kira in her book Autism Life Skills: From Communication to Safety to Self-Esteem and More---10 Essential Abilities Every Child Needs and Deserves to Learn. A news story from the July 10th Peninsula Clarion reminds me of why safety may be the third area mentioned, but it's as important as the other two.
The Peninsula Clarion reports that a former church youth leader, 47-year-old Richard J. Wagner, has been sentenced to 13 years with 8 years suspended, plus three months hard jail time for sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy between November 2007 and April 2008, and for possession of child pornography. The boy is on the autism spectrum.
As a person with autism, the boy "longed for a friend ... someone he could trust," said his mother in a statement to the court.
She said she and her husband would have preferred Wagner remain in jail for 10 years, at which time her son would have entered into adulthood.
Kenai Superior Court Judge Carl Bauman also stated that
"Where you had a position of authority in the church, this comes in the classic definition of hypocrite."
And all the more with a child "longing for a friend."
Hate Crimes vs. Regular Crimes and Issues of Reporting
Published July 08, 2009 @ 04:00PM PT
From BBC News, a charity in Wales has been investigating hate crimes against disabled people. The conclusion: more hate crimes happen than are reported, hate crimes are less often recognized for what they really are, and people who have committed hate crimes are getting lighter sentences than they deserve. Sound like some common themes from this post, and this post, and this post, and this post?
From the story it sounds like Wales (and if anyone more local to Wales is reading this please correct me if I'm wrong) has a much better anti-hate crimes policy than the U.S. (hopefully we'll have better soon). And yet, this has done little good when violence or abuse are not being reported as hate crimes, even when they are being reported at all. Hate crimes as in the abuse was done specifically because the person has a disability.
Some reasons for this cited in the article are the difficulty in recognizing that abuse was done because the person is disabled, lack of the victim being able to report the abuse as a hate crime, and lack of hate crimes education on the part of law enforcement.
Of course it would be best if the reasons for hate crimes would go away and there would be a greater acceptance of diversity in the world. However, until then, in addition to solid anti-hate crimes legislation, we need solid education for both potential victims and law enforcement of what hate crimes against people with disabilities look like.
