http://specialchildren.about.com/b/2009/03/27/autistic-kids-violent-adults.htm
This article stemmed from the one on The Salon a few years ago by Ann Bauer, which detailed her horror of living with a full grown and violent awtard son. I couldn't get that full article to download or I would have made that the subject. However, this one here refers to it and has dozens of comments from other parents of violent awtards. Like when Travis the chimpanzee reached puberty and ripped off Charla Nash's face and bit off her hands, many awtard boys turn violent as well after they mature. Yet, they continue to lobby for them to be "mainstreamed" and to interact with the general public at large "
Autistic Kids, Violent AdultsThe Monster Inside My Son." That's the title of a Salon article in which writer Ann Bauer
pours out her anguish at the violent turn her son's life has taken since he stopped being a beautiful mysterious child with autism and turned in to a hulking aggressive adult. Though she had brief hopes of his cure in the middle-school years, and
disregarded warnings that his life might come to this, the monster could not be stopped. "I would hack off my right arm in return for something as simple as cancer," Bauer writes.
"The flickering beauty of a sad, pure, too-early death sounds lovely." To think the awtard cases are steadily increasing, many are enrolled in public schools, and society is continually leaning towards mainstreaming them, is especially troubling.Does that mean all kids with autism are doomed to a future of menace and manacles? It's easy to feel, when your child suffers a tragedy, that it is part of a larger truth and something others must be warned about. Writes Bauer,
"Autism does not always equal violence. But I do believe there may be a tragic, blameless relationship. ... Circumstances, neurology, size and age combine to create the perfect storm." It's that "perfect storm" that has me concerned. Common sense dictates the more awtards created, the more violent ones will come along with that increase.Though there's not much as parents we can do about neurology, size, and age, circumstances are to some extent under our control. Bauer describes her son as "living daily in a world where everything hurts and nothing makes sense," and that's a concern for children with autism and other special needs as well.
Making the world less hurtful and more sensible for our kids is a challenge that can't always be met -- but as I look at my growing, growing boy, becoming stronger and heavier by the minute, it seems like a pretty urgent priority. If they become psychotic and violent awtards, then "making the world less hurtful and more sensible" isn't going to make a dent in the problem. Prevention is the best option at least until the medical community can figure out why violent awtards are increasing in number. I doubt they'll stop cranking them out though because there's not a moo alive who would be willing to miss out on the attention, festivities, and showers that come along with birthing that cuddly little violent tard to be. There about 100 comments, but I just skimmed the ones below off the topHere's an excerpt from the article I couldn't fully download:"...On Feb. 14 I awaken to this headline: “Professor Beaten to Death by Autistic Son.â€I scan the story while standing, my coffee forgotten. Trudy Steuernagel, a faculty member in political science at Kent State, has been murdered and her 18-year-old son, Sky, has been arrested and charged with the crime, though he is profoundly disabled and can neither speak nor understand. Sky, who likes cartoons and chicken nuggets, apparently lost control and beat his mother into a coma. He was sitting in jail when she died.
This happens to be two days after my older son’s 21st birthday, which we marked behind two sets of locked steel doors. I’m exhausted and hopeless and vaguely hung over because Andrew, who has autism, also has evolved from sweet, dreamy boy to something like a golem: bitter, rampaging, full of rage. It happened no matter how fiercely I loved him or how many therapies I employed. Now, reading about this Ohio mother, there is a moment of slithering nausea and panic followed immediately by a sense of guilty relief.
I am not alone...." Not by a long shot is she alone, which is the most troubling part!:headbrick
Comments-Many from Parents/Family of Violent AwtardsLet the village fix it-after telling how she knows awtards that got nicer after youthful tendencies towards violence "...There are so many things we need to worry about as parents, but I think violence in adulthood is not one of the most common concerns. It just causes so much anguish when it does happen that it gets a lot of focus. I also think that as society becomes more understanding, new treatments develop, schools and supported employment programs learn new methods, better communication skills are taught, etc., that fewer and fewer kids will have to endure the level of pain and constant frustration that can lead to violence. At least I want to believe this."
See a tharapist-Not all Awtards are bad philosopherWouldn’t this mother be better off speaking of her troubles with a therapist. I sympathise with her situation, but she does more harm and creates negative stereoptying of people with autism. The “World is Flat†histeria for mothers of children with autism. This story could be written by mothers of children who have schizoprhenia, Bipolar 1, personality type disorders etc. I reiterate Nancy Deren’s comment that people with autism vary greatly in personality as do non-ASD people.
Moo of Violent Awtard Tells it Like it isWell, obviously the rest of you have not had to endure the violent behaviors of a autistic child. Why don’t you volunteer to keep them for the weekend and then let us know what you think! It’s very easy to judge when you are not the one experiencing it.
My son has turned very violent due to the school locking him in a room during this past year. Now he scratches, bites, punches, etc.. anyone at any time. There are no defining triggers. Three years ago, the teacher was holding face down on a bean bag with her foot while she sat in a chair. The school system has moved him to another school.
Yet he was an angel until the school caused his problemsMeanwhile,
I’m left over the summer with bloody hands and face from him scratching and biting me; hitting me in the face and pulling my hair; and now he’s throwing everything around in his room. He cannot speak and this frustrates him and us (the parents) even more. You cannot calm him down when he’s like this, and then when he’s calmed himself down, approaching him to try and talk to him sets him off again.
He is fed via a G-button (feeding tube) and won’t let me near him during the day to try and feed him or change his diaper — he’s 11 years old and still is not potty trained. This can create a huge mess.:smn
He is almost the same height as I am and
can now pin me to the ground when he gets violent. I welcome any of you to come and keep him for while I “observe†how you handle this.
NO THANKS!:bedmadelie
The Hulkette Awtardressmy sister has an autistic 9 year old she beats the heck out of my sister she has so many bites on her arms breast back so forth.I dont know why my sister tolerates that violence. the child even hurts other children at school.she is allways so angry.im so afraid for my sister
.i hate to go to her house . this child picks up tvs and toss them. unbelievable strength.
I WOULDN'T go to her house!Monster He-Tard Mauls Grandmoo on a Regular BasisI am raising my nonverbal grandson who has autism and bipolar. Bipolar and ADD/ADHD happen to run on both sides of his family. I have raised this boy since he was less that 3 and he is almost 16 now. He is also over 200 lbs and moving past 6 foot. When he is upset, hungry, hurting, or frustrated he goes for me. I am 67 now and 5 foot.
That boy might kill that woman one day. WHY doesn't she ship him off to a home?At school he was long ago moved from a class with women instructors to a class with males. At 85 lbs he could take a female teacher or aide down.
He is also on medications as are his bipolar brothers and mother. We have to take into consideration what might be causing his aggression. Is his allergies giving him a severe headache or maybe is it past dinner time for him?
His last ones were caused by pain of an abscessed tooth! No one should judge the families of a nonverbal child with autism or even a bipolar child unless they have lived with that child.
The WHOLE famblee is fucked up! If the least little thing sets him off to attack grandmoo now, at age 16, it's only a matter of time until she's got a one liner on Headline NewsI hope our boy can stay at home forever because we are willing to understand and work with him and it scares me to think what could happen to him in a group home with constantly changing personnel.
She WANTS him to stay at home? I guess she isn't concerned about her own life then, assuming anyone could call what she's living a "life"WAY Out of Control Teen AwtardMy 14 year old son has turned very violent towards me in the last year or so. He is about 5′11 and weighs about 170. I am 5′5 and weigh 117. He is unbelievably strong. I’ve recently had to withdraw him from school to homeschool him.
Our problem isn’t so much people trying to put constraints on him but him trying to manipulate his environment. It can be something as ridiculous as wanting lunchtime to be at 8am or wanting it to be time to go pick up his little brother from school well before school lets out. While I know I could give him “lunch†at 8am to avoid a confrontation, I wonder how much good it does him to learn that my fear of him can get him whatever he wants. In my mind, that will only make things worse.
This one has learned he can manipulate by intimidation and threat of violence and he's only 14We are like the grandmother a couple of posts up in that he always goes for me when he’s angry.
He has actually pulled balled spots on my head and scratched my face up. Sometimes I think I must deserve it since I have had to be the disciplinarian in the family. I’m the one who sets the rules and who ran his ABA therapy for years when he was younger so I think he views me as the person in the home who controls everything. Maybe I was too hard on him earlier on but I thought I was helping him.
He was always well behaved and mild up until he hit puberty. I hope this is temporary but I’m afraid he’s going to kill me. AND he certainly might since he appears fully capable of it, even now.Baby Sitter of a Violent AwtardI am a babysitter for a severely autistic child.
Today, though, he attacked me and the other people around us while we were on an outing. He reached out and slapped a man on the subway train, grabbed fistfuls of my hair while kicking me in the shins, and generally lashed out. Unprovoked. Long story short, it was a mess. The police showed up. Some stranger approached us to give him a hug and tell him that it was my fault–that I’d done something to make him that way. Once I’d wrestled him outside and isolated him from pedestrians, I couldn’t help but cry.
He's gonna slap the WRONG man one dayI love this kid. I spent hours agonizing over a Christmas present for him (and his parents, and his sister…) I am so exhausted by this encounter, but grateful for the fact that I can go home at the end of the day.
What happens if he attacks his younger sister? I ended the day with bruised shins and less hair, but she could have fared much worse, had she been with us. (And to that guy who got slapped by C., I am so so sorry. I’m not sure if I said it in the moment.)
She needs to QUIT this job ASAP.------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
If YOU are the "exception" to what I am saying, then why does my commentary bother you so much?
I don't hate your kids, I HATE YOU!