Principals Behaving Badly…

We’re in the thick of a battle with my son’s school… they retaliated and claimed that it was justified but they held us to a higher standard than they hold their own superintendent… Trying to be careful to avoid the wrath from the good old boys club but, we can’t let them get away with retaliating against parents when they get mad at IEP meetings…

I’m looking for information about temper tantrums thrown by the principal of Chippewa high school (Doylestown, Ohio) between 1999-2003. There are rumors of him throwing furniture at students and threatening staff… apparently the police were called but no charges pressed so I’m going to go look for police reports.If you’re willing to share your story, please email me at afraidofstandingstill@gmail.com
anonymous stories really won’t help…We’re fighting a civil rights retaliation battle… so I need this information as soon as possible. (January 2012)Thanks!

Posts I Forgot to Publish 1

Rally to Restore Sanity (and/or Fear) 2010

I can say that I was there when Stewart and Colbert taught us their new ditty– “The greatest, strongest country in the world and there’s no one more American than We”… and, I am American.

(My son and his earplugs did GREAT! Held up his sign “God Bless the Whole World– NO EXCEPTIONS!)

I was born in Trinidad and Tobago, raised in Brasil. I am a Christian who works with Muslims, Catholics and Jews. I am straight but my first husband is gay. I am married and my neighbors are single parents. I am the mother of a child with autism who plays with a bi-racial little girl. I am American.

From bad to worse

We sent our son to 4th grade last year and he ended up with a 2nd grade “education” and PTSD.

Python at the Ohio Statehouse

Today, 3.30.11, Republican Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives (Batchelder) and the Citizens who he represents clashed over SB5… (Paraphased interaction)

Batchelder:  Shut up!  Will you shut up!

Citizens: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.

Batchelder:  Shut up!

Citizens:  Oh!  Come and see the violence inherent in the system! HELP! HELP! I’m being repressed!

Batchelder: Bloody peasant!

Citizens: Oh, what a giveaway.  Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh?  That’s what I’m on about — did you see him repressing me, you saw it didn’t you?

Happy Birthday, Healthcare Reform!

My amazing boy who has a “pre-existing condition”– autism– has insurance thanks to the hard work, and courage of good people like John Boccieri. I will always be thankful to him, his staff and his family for all they had to put up with because of people who didn’t understand the benefit of passing this into law.  Thank you!

This means more to me then you’ll ever know…

WI HS students call for National Walkout

Friday, March 11, 2011

2:00 PM

I’ll be picking my son up at school (he’s in 4th grade) at 2:00 tomorrow. J needs to learn that his voice can be– should be– heard. It’s important for us to teach our children to speakout for what they need and to stand with those who help them– teachers, firefighter, police… are all under attack in Ohio (and 16 other US States) and the time to stand up for them is now.

Child Caught in Political Crosshairs

The 9-year-old was identified as Christina Taylor Greene. CNN affiliate KVOA said family members described her as “excited” about the political process, and that the desire to learn more about it had motivated her to go to the Gifford event for constituents.

Christina was born on September 11, 2001, the affiliate reported.

From CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/08/arizona.shooting.other.victims/index.html?hpt=T1)

This hits close to home.

During the Healthcare debate and subsequent election, my son attended a number of events for our Congressman– who is also on Sarah Palin’s “crosshairs” list.

At best Palin (Angle, Limbaugh, O’Riley, Jesse Kelly (http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2010/06/jesse-kelly-event-is-this-wording-intentional.html) and so many others) were childish and irresponsible… at worst, they should be prosecuted under the Fighting Words Doctrine.

The fighting words doctrine, in United States constitutional law, is a limitation to freedom of speech as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In its 9-0 decision, Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942), the U.S. Supreme Court established the doctrine and held that “insulting or ‘fighting words,’ those that by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace” are among the “well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech [that] the prevention and punishment of…have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem.” From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_words)

While we don’t know the shooter’s motives  for certain or the influence of those who use reckless language on him, we do know that hate-filled, violence evoking language does result in harm… real harm… irreversible harm. It’s past time to tone it down!

I’ve always encouraged my son to have an opinion– to fight (politely!) for what he needs… to be involved. I can’t ask him to do that anymore.

When my son and I left one of the debates our Congressman held with his opponent, I felt well…  uncomfortable and decided that my son was done with politics until he can make an intelligent, informed choice for himself. While there were no threats, there was animosity towards him. (See 10/18/10 post)

Christina’s murder is too close to home… my heart aches for the Greene family and I know that there, but for the grace of God, goes my son… and my Congressman.

Anything But Typical (Book Review)

 

“How do you show appreciation? Appreciation is an emotion. It’s a feeling. You can’t draw a picture of it. Why do people want everyone to act just like they do. Act like they do.

And if you don’t — If you don’t, people make the assumption that you do not feel what they feel.

And then they make the assumption– That you must not feel anything at all.”

 Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin, a Schneider Family Book Award winner, is wonderful in a confusing sort of way. It’s a story for adolescents written from the perspective of a 12-year-old on the autism spectrum.  It addresses friendship, outbursts, sensory issues, family dynamics and a boy’s first crush.

It deals with bullying.

“…He is laughing more. Louder.

‘You want to know what her name is?’ he is saying.

…My hair hurts. My chest is tight.

‘I bet her name is Retardo Girl,’ the boy says.

No, I am thinking. Her name can’t be Retardo Girl.

Can it?

‘And I bet she rides the little bus to school’

And then I figure it out. He is just being mean. When a dog gets mean and bites a person, it’s the law that they have to put that dog to sleep. This boy is being mean. He is lying. He doesn’t really know PhoenixBird. I have nothing to worry about. For some reason my head is still shaking.

But I can breathe.”

 This isn’t a pity party or some veiled attempt to explain to neurotypicals (NTs) what it’s like to have autism– although I think it does.

“My head exploded.

There was no way to stop all the molecules that started penetrating my skin.

My hands flew off my body.

My body flew into a million little pieces.

I could smell the fresh coffee that Aunt Carol and my mother had put up for desert as we hurried out the front door. I could smell the pastries she would have put out, and I wanted one.”

Anything But Typical is a story in its own right whose main character is an individual with his own history, his own likes and dislikes, his own wants, tastes and fears. 

It’s given me some insight into my 10-year-old and cautioned me about making emotional demands. I wouldn’t say that Anything But Typical is a must-read– but, it’s a good read that made me think.

A Kleenex for Dry Eyes

Our dog died. As my husband and I cried for our loss, our son studied our faces… he worked to imitate us and even took a kleenex to wipe his dry eyes. 

J’s speech therapist and teacher are working with him on acting skills. He has to learn to function in a “typical” world so learning social cues, facial expressions, spoken expressive language will help him. He’s going to have to function in sensory difficult situations… he’s going to have to learn appropriate responses to words and emotional cues.

We’ve all heard people say that if you’ve met one child with autism– you’ve met ONE child with autism, and it’s true. Autism is so intertwined in social expression that it would be easy to think that the emotion or thought behind the outward expression is part of autism– but, it’s not. The responses may be colored by sensory issues or lack of language fluency– but the underlying sentiment, the interest or emotion is all theirs…  individual.

There are several publicly outspoken adults on the autism spectrum who refer to the world as “yours”… They understand what is expected but it doesn’t come naturally– or without difficulty.

I know that J loves our dog and feels the loss. I know that he needs to learn socially expected emotional responses in order to fit into this “typical” world. I just wish he could be accepted and understood for who he is– the underlying emotional, thoughtful, spiritual part of him– without having to work so hard to appear “typical”…  I wish Berlitz could teach me to understand him.

Olbermann

Keith Olbermann was suspended today for making a donation to a Democratic candidate. In 2006, Joe Scarborough was forgiven for the same “infraction” because he isn’t a newscaster… he’s a commentator– or so said MSNBC’s spokesperson.

I miss the days when journalism had integrity and you actually had to treat news as appointment television. Those days are long gone– unless you’re my mother and McNeill Lehrer is on… We are inundated by opinion that is portrayed as fact. We are lied to regularly by the media– who cite each other as the source of their information.  (By the way… the President’s trip to India isn’t costing more than the Afghanistan war… )

MSNBC needs to be consistent. If they had suspended Scarborough for donating to a Republican it would be fair to suspend Olbermann for donating to a Democrat– since they didn’t– they shouldn’t have. This action against Keith reeks of partisanship.

Please sign this petition to get Olbermann back on the air… I don’t think I can take Anderson Cooper’s perfect hair for very long… http://act.boldprogressives.org/sign/petition_olbermann/?source=typ-fb&referring_akid=2630.279311.HsNjil