Autism Reality: 12 Year Old With Autism Threatens Suicide, Bites Teacher

MSNBC reports that a 12 year old Tennessee boy with autism and borderline mental retardation threatened suicide and then yesterday bit a teacher on the right thumb during the past week. He has been arrested and charged with assault. He is now receiving medical help at a psychiatric hospital.

The boy's mother, Cindy Gaspard, fears her son might be incarcerated and wishes he had received help sooner:

"Last Monday, I was notified that Dylan had threatened to kill himself and ran out the front door of the building and said he was going to get hit by a car .... Dylan should have been taken to a hospital for a medical and psychiatric evaluation for his suicide attempt, rather than charged with assault and taken to jail ..."I'm worried about him going to jail for a behavior that is a result of his disability."

The unfortunate reality is that some autistic children and adults become violent.... because of their autism disorder. This reality is whitewashed by Neurodiversity ideologues who feel offended that any of the behaviors associated with autism might be seen as negative but it is a reality that can only be ignored with serious consequences for autistic children, family members and professional carers and educators.

The serious challenges presented by some persons with autism disorders should be dealt with through treatment not whitewashed and ignored until it is too late.

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Why I Find No Joy In Autism - Biting and Other Self Injurious Behavior

Above are two pictures taken a short while ago. Conor came home from a great day at school. He sat at a computer as he often does to view some of his favorite sites which he has bookmarked. For some reason, slow loading pages perhaps, I am not sure, Conor became very frustrated with the computer, suffered a meltdown and began biting his hand.

There are those who argue we should find joy in autism, we should view our child's autism as part of who he is and not try to cure him of his autism or change his true autistic nature. To me such reasoning is absurd. Not just wrong but absurd. Self injurious behavior, such as the biting shown above is one major reason why I feel that the joy of autism philosophy is perverse nonsense.

My son is beautiful, in Conor I find great joy, but not in his autism, not in his self injurious behavior.

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Autism Biting

Those that glorify autism, that try to deny that autism is a disorder, never mention some of the more serious even dangerous behavioral problems that can occur with autism. There is probably no single behavior that is any more serious and dangerous than biting; self biting and biting others. My son Conor is profoundly autistic. When frustrated, or overwhelmed, he will sometimes bite himself. There are times when he bites others. I have been bitten while holding Conor to get his hair cut. I do not blame him for that behavior but as his father I have to try and teach him not to bite. Conor's biting has subsided considerably but not completely.

In Lab Worker Charged With Biting Boy Arrested Yahoo News reports the story of a former hospital lab technician, Anne McGlorthon, 53, who is charged with biting an autistic boy while holding him as a colleague drew blood from his arm. The lab tech stated that the boy had bitten her first and that she bit him to get him to release the bite on her arm. The boy was left with bite marks on his shoulder and had to take anti-biotics. I do not defend the lab tech, who lost her job as a result of the incident and who now faces criminal charges but her story is not unfamiliar to many parents with severely autistic children - except for the return bite.

Such incidents are part of the realities facing many families with children with Autism Disorder. Such incidents are part of the reason I get nauseous when I read ridiculous Neurodiversity accounts of autism as being nothing more than a trait or personality type.