Treated as a Prisoner, Not a Patient |
| Published: October 13, 2007, 1:26 pm |
| Tags: crime, legal issues, arson, asd, aspergers, autism, autistic, children, crime, education, family, health, mall, ottawa, patient, pdd nos, prisoner |
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My son Charlie attends a public school autism program. He is in a self-contained classroom and a teacher or aide is always with him. Charlie has plenty of challenges, but there are some advantages—graces, perhaps—to him needing so much supervision. If Charlie were mainstreamed and left more to his own devices, I would worry a lot about him falling in with the “wrong” crowd and getting into serious trouble. What happened to 21-year-old Christopher McGowan confirms my concern. After a three week trial, Christopher McGowan was acquitted this week of setting fire to the Glenwood Plaza in Aylmer (Canada) and destroying 45 businesses, with some $300 million in damage. Christopher was diagnosed with autism and developmental delays as a child and struggled through school; his mother, Gloria Manna, recalled getting called at work every day when her son got into a fight or “acted out” in class. As a teenager, McGowan gravitated towards students who tended to [ Full article ] |
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