That poor mom. It sounds like she doesn't have a lot of support as it is. Now they're going to toss her in jail because her son is severely autistic and has trouble with morning routines. *shakes head*

Just wait till they change his environment and he doesn't sleep through the night and starts having temper tantrums.

Who'd have thought truancy would be a problem at a MISD school.

/it's right there! In the name!

Hey, I don't feel tardy!

*looks over shoulder for the po-po

/wtf, jail? Really?

"Some days he will just shut down on me and not want to go," Andria says.

I don't think she should go to jail for her kid missing school. She could go to jail for being a bad mother.

/not really

'Tard thread!

FTFA: "Sixteen days off so far this school year - made up of some 10 minute tardy's, and sick days have added up to possible jail time for the mother of an autistic 9-year-old boy."

Who the hell wrote that sentence, the autistic kid who won't go to school? Why is that dash there? Why the comma after tardy's? And does the author not know how to pluralize tardy??

Anyway: "Some days he will just shut down on me and not want to go," Andria says..

He's 9. Either drag him bodily or figure out how to homeschool.

I think this should be HOTY just so subby will get outed at the end of the year.

Honestly we should just shoot the parents of Autistic kids when they refuse to go to school, myself included. Mind you its not all the catch all "autism", my boys real diagnosis he wont receive until he's 16, state law or some other bullshiat. Thats when they bump him from "autistic" to "Schizophrenic". So yea most days he'll go to school, other days you cant even get him to put clothes on, or he'll shiat his pants in the car so he can go home, or he'll just collapse on a puddle on the floor and scream and kick if you go near him. But yea, jail time, not really a fix for the problem. But a shot to the back of the head, or gut if it makes you feel better yea, that would probably be for the best. You can borrow one of my guns, just get a court to sign off on it and make it all nice and legal.

farking do it you farking pussy ass pieces of shiat.

/not bitter.

jumac: as a father of an 11 year old speical needs child and a step-father of a 7 year old one ya. Even if you drag the kid kicking and screaming to school 9 out of 10 times with in 10 mins of you getting home you got a call form the school telling you to come pick the kid up.

Oh so much of farking this than you can possibly imagine.

start of the year: Oh we can handle anything, we have seen it all!
Three weeks later: OMFG pick him up he's bleeding/stabbing and running off campus while laughing omgomg the cops are freaking out!!!11one!

Had to have a private off the record sit down with the new teacher a couple months ago, let him know he was about to get farking hurt. Was a wake up call for him, not nearly as much so as when he got assaulted a few days later.

Nope cant fix it, bad parent, go ahead and shoot when ready. I'm sure you can do better.

Surly U. Jest: I have a 9 year old son in the spectrum. We have been through this too. It is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. Fighting the school system to get the appropriate services is exhausting. They didn't want to test to see what his problem is. We did that out of pocket, and then they wanted to dispute the diagnosis we got from the experts (Kennedy Krieger Institute CARD) because the school psychologist thought we were stupid and were just bad parents. Knowing our rights and what the law says helped us a lot. Eventually we were able to get a valid 504 plan together and get everyone on board with my son's needs.

I pity this mom. Doing this on her own is practically impossible.

And to those who say just drag him to school or homeschool, that doesn't work. Trust me, I know. It is much harder that you could ever imagine.

Hmmm, now I'm nervous about my son's upcoming, $600 evaluation. Even with two previous diagnoses and a 504 from his previous school, my kid's school refuses to provide services until I get the new evaluation.

He's almost 9, 4'9" and 97 lbs., not to mention an athlete. There is no physically forcing him to do anything, so I totally relate.

Just remembered that in my state's special needs policy, tardiness can be excused if a child has time/behavioral issues. I wonder if that's true for the mom from TFA.

Firethorn: It's certainly possible. If a kid's disabilities include violent tendencies, what are you supposed to do?

We got the private "your so farking farked" speech from the mental health deputies more than once. At this point is more about damage control. Whats worse is our 8 year old is showing signs of PTSD from all of this. Our oldest is on the list for group homes, had a call from another one a couple weeks ago that got my hopes up but they had 1 opening and 32 applicants. We have been interviewed by dozens of placement facilities and we always get the same story, he's too dangerous for them, they are afraid he might hurt their gang bangers and drug addicts.

NightOwl2255: orclover: Had to have a private off the record sit down with the new teacher a couple months ago, let him know he was about to get farking hurt. Was a wake up call for him, not nearly as much so as when he got assaulted a few days later.

Are you saying your child actually presents a danger to teachers?

We have said it, the teachers have said it (then retire), his psychiatrist has said it his psychologist has said it. It doesnt matter, Texas does not have a support system for this issue. Well I guess they do, its called the Texas Criminal Justice system. Eventually he will be in prison or a group home if he's lucky.

wambu: orclover: But yea, jail time, not really a fix for the problem.

But that gets you some 'alone time' if your beat on a guard, so not all bad.

/gotta think positive

Oh we dream of that believe me, but we got the 8 year old to think of. We've come close to divorce a few times just to get the kids separated for his safety. If not for the meds keeping him somewhat manageable we would/will have to take that option to keep him safe.

/would happily take a bullet to the head to fix all this.

RedVentrue: brigid_fitch: FTFA: "Sixteen days off so far this school year - made up of some 10 minute tardy's, and sick days have added up to possible jail time for the mother of an autistic 9-year-old boy."

Who the hell wrote that sentence, the autistic kid who won't go to school? Why is that dash there? Why the comma after tardy's? And does the author not know how to pluralize tardy??

Anyway: "Some days he will just shut down on me and not want to go," Andria says..

He's 9. Either drag him bodily or figure out how to homeschool.

You don't seem to understand that when a 9 year old autistic kid has decided to kick your butt at 6:30 A.M., then that is how it's gonna happen.

namegoeshere: Someone here doesn't understand Tard Strength.

Yeah, but "deciding to shut down" isn't flailing & kicking your butt. I have a severely autistic 9-yo nephew who can barely communicate, so I've witnessed Tard Strength first-hand. His grandmother, a retired social worker, homeschools him as best she can. I figure the kid in TFA is just sitting like a puddle in the middle of the floor, not taking a fit & beating the shiat out of the mother, otherwise the mother would have said as much. In that case, yes, pick him up & get him the hell to school.

And I know I'm going to incur a LOT of wrath here, but I have an extremely skeptical view of autism diagnoses. Yes, there are absolutely cases and it's a shame there isn't a better support system to help those children and their parents. But for every one of those truly afflicted kids, there are 3 or 4 who are diagnosed within the ever-broadening spectrum that are just complete brats or whose parents have no parenting skills. Autism has become this decade's ADHD--a "catch-all" diagnosis to explain why a bratty, uncontrollable kid won't do what he's told or isn't performing to his parents' expectations. Not saying that's the case in TFA--just saying that the term is tossed around a lot and even very few of the actual cases are of the screaming, flailing, pant-shiatting kind.

/Former teacher