Protecting a child with ASD from danger and abuse is not always in the control of the parents. In the community and in the public school setting, our authority, instructions, and opinions can be overruled by the police and by school employees that do not have the training and experience to deal with behavioral issues that may be associated with autistic children.
Recently, Dylan Gaspard, a 12 year old boy in Sumner County Tennessee had a melt down at school. This occurrence led to the child being arrested and sent to jail for biting and scratching his teachers. He was later hospitalized to receive the help he needed. An 8-year old girl, Evelyn Towry, with Asperger’s was arrested for wanting to go to a Christmas party wearing a cow shirt. Her teachers would not let her. When Evelyn tried to go anyways, the teachers physically restrained her. This led to Evelyn having an outburst that resulted in kicking, spitting and pinching. The police were called and Evelyn was arrested, handcuffed and taken to a local juvenile detention center.
These two stories are not exceptions. They are the rule. Many school officials either are not given the necessary training to deal with these situations or they prefer to call the police and let them deal with the child. The majority of police officials are not trained to deal with autistic children and must apply the same rules for an ASD child as they do with any other child.
It is extremely important that an ASD child have a behavior plan spelled out in detail in the child’s Individualized Education Program. This should be done before the child attends school. School personnel should be trained to respond appropriately to situations that will arise when interacting with a child with autism. One basic fact that can be applied to the majority of individuals with autism is:
Do not try to physically restrain an ASD child that is not harming him/herself or others. To do so may lead to the child losing control and becoming physical.
Some police departments make autism training optional to their personnel. There are programs that the police can implement in their departments that will help the police better handle a situation involving an autistic individual. Pennsylvania has the Premise Alert System. This program allows parents and relatives to go to the police department to fill out a form about their family member. The information in the form will allow the police to know what the individual’s diagnosis is and what kind of special handling is required.
If your local police department does not have a similar program in place, I suggest contacting the police department and arranging a meeting with their media representative to determine their policy when responding to a call from a school that involves a child with autism. Also, find out what their policy is when confronting an autistic child in the community. If you are in the community with your child when a meltdown occurs, the police can override your authority and place your child under arrest.
The police and school personnel are not the enemy. Many are working with the tools, training, and experience that are available to them. Parents need to take a proactive approach to advocating for their child. Make sure your child’s IEP is up to date with current behavioral issues. Insist that all personnel that work with your child at school know what is in the IEP and have been trained to work with your child. You can also put together a packet of information about autism for your local police department. The following are a list of sites that you can download information from for your local police department:
1. Police and Autism http://www.policeandautism.cjb.net/
2. Autism and Police Officers http://www.dol.net/~srz/police.htm
3. Autism Risk Management http://www.autismriskmanagement.com/
4. PA Premise Alert http://www.papremisealert.com/id70.html
Become involved with your state Autism Society. Laws need to be changed to benefit children with Autism. Parents need to be active in bringing about those changes or nothing will happen to improve this situation.
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