July 22, 2009
Being Prosecuted for Having Autism?
By Toni Lapp
Children with Asperger’s syndrome, on the outside, look like typical children, which can be a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing in that they blend in — at least on the surface — with their neurotypical peers in mainstream schools. The curse is that beneath the surface they are frequently dealing with issues such as depression and ADHD, prompting parents to seek accommodations (hence the term “special needs”).
One of my son’s classmates at Shawnee Mission East, 17-year-old Connor Rice, is an example. Because he’s struggled with anxiety — in addition to having Asperger’s syndrome — his mother, Denise Rice, had obtained an “attendance waiver” to excuse him from excessive absences.
In spite of receiving the attendance waiver, this spring the school filed a complaint with the district attorney’s office for truancy.
Denise says Connor logged 37 absences related to his disability from August 2008 through March 2009. Some of the absences were missed classes when Connor, struggling with anxiety, would go to the library to avoid a class.
“I’m really surprised they took this approach,” she says. As the mother of three children with disabilities, she has executed attendance waivers before without problem.
Although Connor has an IEP, the school has not been willing to provide a para to escort him to class nor was he permitted him to ride the special education bus until next school year (his senior year), Denise says. ”These two things would have greatly reduced the number of Connor’s unexcused absences.”
One option presented to the family was to have a diversion hearing as part of the program Project SKIP.
“This is a teen peer review process where a panel of teens, without any training in autism spectrum disorders or IEP law, would make disciplinary decisions for my autistic son with an IEP,” says Denise. ” I politely declined this option because it’s not appropriate for a variety of reasons.”
Denise says she was also offered the option to register Connor as a juvenile offender and was told that the courts would go easier on him if this were the case.
“I politely declined this option because my son is not a criminal — he’s autistic,” Denise said.
Thus, the district attorney’’s office filed a petition for truancy, requesting foster care and child support, a child in need of care petition, and had a guardian ad litem appointed for Connor.
Assuming that the school and court are motivated out of interest for Connor, is this the best course of action? How can being entered in the juvenile justice system help a kid who struggles with anxiety and myriad other issues associated with autism?
Denise feels that if school officials were truly acting in Connor’s best interest, they could have met with her to develop a modification in his IEP to have better monitoring for Connor.
For the DA’s part, it’s perplexing that putting an autistic child in foster care would be entertained at this stage of the game. The fact that Connor was considered for Project SKIP, which on its own website describes itself as a program targeting low-level truancy cases, should say something. Why should a family already dealing with the stress of coping with a disability be put through the trauma of going to court to hash out issues like this? Could they not be more effectively dealt with in an IEP meeting?
A hearing is set with Judge Michael Farley for tomorrow at the Johnson County Courthouse in Olathe. Please join me in holding the Rices in your thoughts.
