10 year old autistic arrested at school

[Guest guest]

Well, I must say this has been the worst week of my life. Our 10 year

old Asperger's son was at the after school program at his school on

Monday. Normally, he doesn't attend the after school program, only

the morning program. However, they had 1/2 days M-W and then T-F were

fall break. Anyway, I sent him to the after school program because I

don't have many days left to take off from work. By the way, the

employees of this 'daycare' at school know our son is autistic.

These bright people at the after school program decide to do a pinata

and give these kids big bags of candy. Yeah, that's what a bunch of

cooped up kids need, a pinata to whack on, and then gobs of candy.

Oh, but they're not allowed to eat the candy until they go home, they

just get to carry it around.

Well, as I'm sure you all can guess, some girl took my son's candy and

was teasing him. He asked her for the candy, but she wouldn't give it

back so he pushed her. Needless to say, he got the time out, but not

her. They wouldn't even listen to him about why he was upset. He was

crying and talking to them trying to explain. They didn't listen.

During this very short time out, he never got to tell them what was

wrong, so he never calmed down. When he came back from time out, he

took his candy bag and whacked this girl upside the head with it and

told her to leave him alone. As we all know, Aspie's are so literal

and do not ever understand why anyone is picking on them. They just

know they need to make it stop and they don't usually ask for help.

That got the after school 'camp counselor' upset with him again and

When she approached him about it he was scared and angry with her and

swung his arm out. He hit her in the face with the back of his hand.

She called us to come pick him up and then she called the school

police. The school police called the county sheriff(which they say

is 'policy'), and they arrested this 10 year old little boy.

They charged him with 2 counts of battery, 1 count of disorderly

conduct, & 1 count of resisting law enforcement. The last 2 charges

were because he lay down on the floor and was crying because he was

scared. They took him to the juvenile facility and kept him chained

to a bench with 15, 16, & 17 year old kids. We waited for 5 hours for

them to release him. When these other kids were coming out

of 'lockup', all we heard about was this little boy in there crying.

We are making him responsible for his actions - it's NEVER ok to hit,

he has to tell an adult, etc - and we had planned to punish him

ourselves. I just can't believe this would escalate to the point that

anyone would ever think its ok to arrest a 10 year old child!

My husband arrived in time for them to walk him out and put him in the

paddy wagon. It nearly broke him in two to see that.

I've never been so afraid, angry, and sad at the same time, ever. The

probation officers at the juvenile facility said none of them could

believe that he got arrested. The arresting officer was told he was

autistic, but his arrest report didn't even mention it so the juvenile

facility didn't know until we told them!

Well, now it's in the prosecutor's hands. We'll know Monday if they

intend to drop the charges or proceed.

We need prayers and we need help. Does anyone have any ideas on how

we should proceed?

This shameful incident occurred in n County (Indianapolis)

Indiana.

Thank you for listening to my long story.

Sherry