Teachers may know that a student is diagnosed with AS, but fail to understand that behavior in the classroom is not primarily attention seeking or oppositionality. With both Jason and Bruce, the child’s inability to understand and navigate the social situation was met by the school’s inability to understand and manage a student with Asperger’s Syndrome. This is exactly what happened when the school reported Bruce to the police for making threatening statements again, after a day of what he perceived as harassment from his teachers. The Juvenile Prosecutor agreed to a non-judicial disposition of the charges, taking into account Bruce’s disability, but stipulated that if Bruce faced charges again within the year, the original charges would be reinstated. Bruce was charged with the felony of Risk of Injury to a Minor, as well as two misdemeanors. If I were going to kill anyone, it would be me.” The girl again felt threatened and reported the incident to her father, who pressed the school to file charges. This time, Bruce told the girl nearby, “You don’t have to worry. The next day, however, the teasing started again. Bruce’s mother was told that the school was calling in an expert to deal with the situation so that it would be handled appropriately. When some other students started talking, Jason assumed it was about him, held up the knife and said something that was taken as threatening. A few days later, the same situation recurred. The teacher learned of this gesture and told Bruce not to repeat it. Bruce gestured with the knife to a girl near him. When the teacher left the room, the teasing grew intense. One day, the children were issued Exacto knives for an art project. Behavioral plans focused on eliminating behavior through automatic application of increasingly negative consequences can have the impact of rigidity meeting rigidity, an ineffective way to teach cognitive flexibility and adaptive skills for self-control.īruce was in a 6th art class where several students frequently teased him. To formulate an appropriate response, the behavior needs to be understood in the context of the AS presentation, especially how the child is processing the situation. These children have poor social judgment as well as poor emotional control, so they use threatening language without appreciating the consequences. At times, as in the case of Jason, their emotional dyscontrol escalates to the point of becoming unsafe to themselves and others, by hitting, kicking or knocking over furniture, or by walking out of a building. They may interpret the actions of others as unfair, deliberately embarrassing or threatening and become emotionally agitated over the triggering situation. The police were called.Ĭhildren with Asperger’s Syndrome and other PDD spectrum disorders often overreact to situations, as Jason did. Jason climbed on the couch and tried to pull a large framed picture off the wall. He was escorted to the principal’s office, where he was told he had to write the letter immediately as well as serve a detention and forfeit earned computer time. He yelled at the teacher, called her an obscene name and threatened to throw something. As a result, Jason was given the next level of consequence, placement in the time-out corner of the room behind a screen to write the letter. Jason, embarrassed, refused and loudly justified his behavior. The teacher confronted him, telling him to write a letter of apology as a behavioral consequence. For eighth grade he was placed in a special behavior management school.ĭuring a class in this new school, Jason audibly burped. He became more threatening over time, knocking over furniture, using obscenities towards his teachers and threatening to kill himself when denied computer time. Most episodes were triggered by a teacher demanding/asking for work he didn’t want to do. He had meltdowns, was rude and disruptive and walked out of class. His behavior deteriorated significantly in 7th grade. The mother sued, settling for $350,000 from the school district. Parents need to know their rights to protect their children.įlorida CBS News affiliate WFOR reported in December 2010 that a boy diagnosed with AS was “kicked out of his kindergarten class after the teacher held a vote among fellow students about his disruptive behavior” (His kindergarten classmates voted 14 -2 for expulsion). Students with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) frequently have behaviors that cause problems in school and lead to extreme consequences.
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