On Autism and Virginia Tech

[Guest guest]

I just received the following email from a specialist in

Asperger's....

Just so you are up to speed! This comes from a very reputable

person and organization. He is in contact with many leaders in the

field and will keep us posted on what others are saying about these

connections (read below to find out connections I am referring to).

Please do not let this make you worried, but just to make you

informed. Honestly, after hearing the Va Tech reports and reports

on Cho, this was my worst nightmare of any connections to an autism

spectrum disorder. I thought….now how will I convince people of

what AS really is? If it does come out to say that he has this

disability too, there are probably other co-morbid conditions of

other things going on as well.

I think 's thoughts below bring up a lot of very interesting

points, and I really hope that you will take the time to read it.

Kerry

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From: MJCarley@... [mailto:MJCarley@...]

Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 12:04 PM

mjcarley@...

Subject: On Autism and Virginia Tech; a letter to our subscribers

Dear all:

In the grand, overwhelmingly sad scheme of things, the following may

not matter one bit. But it appears that there are now credible

reports that the Virginia Tech shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, was at least

once diagnosed with autism (one short report is below my signature).

There appears to have been more than one diagnosis effecting this

man's ability to process life on this earth, but we've received no

word yet as to exactly what co-morbid conditions possibly existed.

When word first emerged of the shooter's " loner " status, many of us

in the community, representing many autism orgs, were looking for

signs of this. We saw the similarities of a life lived on the

outside, we saw a painfully-obvious inability to think clearly, we

saw anger at its most raw, and it didn't take a brain surgeon to

wager that there this young man had been significantly bullied at

one point in his life. But we didn't see the diagnostic criteria

being met, and furthermore, many of the clinicians contributing to

these conversations cited signs of other conditions. We figured he

had something else, or we simply didn't see autism in the mix. We

may have been wrong.

Yet why should we even care what the condition was? In the wake of

30-plus lives lost, are we looking to pass the buck onto another,

more-stigmatized condition such as Schizophrenia or Bi-Polar

Disorder? Is this an extension of the autism world's internal

competition of suffering, branching out to pass off stigma, rather

than eradicate it? Are we more concerned with our precious

reputation than we are with the families of the dead?

Yes and no. This is our job, after all. Monitoring and influencing

how these conditions are portrayed is indeed our responsibility.

GRASP, for instance, did not report heavily on the Massachusetts

teen with AS who last year stabbed a fellow classmate to death. We

did not because not only did we not see any point in reporting on a

situation that we will see again, and that had nothing unique to

offer the world's understanding of the condition, but we also know

that in the media's capacity to over-report on such issues,

demonization of the diagnosis can very easily follow. And we didn't

want to encourage that. Though we do not misrepresent a thing, we

have been working a very long time to improve the iconography

associated with what we have.

Two years ago, when a young man in Los Angeles with AS, threatened

to kill people in an online chat room, and then went out and did

indeed kill two neighbors and himself, we feared the worst. We

figured that the reality of spectrumites being the victim more than

the perpetrator of serious crimes, that this fact would become lost

in the ramifications of overblown and irresponsible media coverage.

And yet, the opposite happened. With the exception of a heinous " Dr.

Phil " episode, the media coverage was exceedingly responsible.

Newspapers and TV reportage consistently framed the young man's

diagnosis in the context that this was the exception, not the norm.

We don't know how this will play out. But we felt a need to alert

you so that you can begin to process what for all of us is an

incomprehensible explosion of sorrow. If this young man was

autistic, then it is clear that his supports were questionable at

best. He certainly had teachers that knew, and acted on, something

being seriously wrong; but that seems it. Though it excuses him not

one bit, he had little support elsewhere.

But are all autistics victims, and everyone else perpetrators? Right

now we might be disproportionately represented in the victims

category, but if things equal out with regard to stigma,

opportunities, and legal protections...Dare I say it, No. If given

an equal slate to stand on, people on the spectrum might very well

carry the same potential for wrongdoing as others. And isn't that

the point of the work we do? To make it so that someday none of this

autism stuff matters? So that Autistic , or AS Jane will have

just as much chance to become a Ted Kaczynski as they will have to

become an Albert Einstein? Until we all have supports for whatever

conditions we have, until gun laws stop being ridiculously lax in

some states, until stigmas are reduced so that families stop running

from these diagnoses and can face them with some guts...we will have

problems. Get used to it. If so inspired, work for change rather

than point a finger. Focus for now instead on the senseless waste;

the incomprehensible cry of " How? " and " Why? " without expecting an

answer; outbursts that will allow release, that will allow others

(and ourselves) to mourn, and that will steer us all away from the

self-corruptable urge to blame.

Yours, y'all,

Carley

Executive Director

GRASP

The Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership, Inc.

135 East 15th Street

New York, NY 10003

646.242.4003

f-212.529.9996

mjcarley@...

www.grasp.org