Oct 29, 2019, KOAT TV, Albuquerque, NM: AG: Police encounters with special ed students is 'black eye' https://www.koat.com/article/ag-police-encounters-with-special-ed-students-is-black-eye/29615489 New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas wants a new state law that mandates all law enforcement officers receive training on how to deal with special needs students. Balderas’ announcement to Target 7 comes in the wake of two separate incidents that occurred in northern New Mexico within four months of each other. In both cases officers are seen on camera fighting with special education students. … The first incident occurred on May 10 when Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeremy Barnes shot a student with a Taser after he refused to allow the officer to search him for drugs. The AG’s office charged Barnes and he was terminated from the Sheriff’s Department. On Aug. 27, Farmington police Officer Zachary Christenson was seen on video wrestling an 11-year-old girl to the ground. The officer had been at the school for more than 30 minutes trying to get the girl to go to the classroom. Christenson resigned while his department was conducting an internal affairs investigation. “Both of these cases have raised the profile of New Mexico and made national news which is a black eye for law enforcement and the education community,” Balders said. “I am convinced that if they had more information and more training these situations might have been a little bit different.” Balderas said he also wants state law to address when school officials should call the police, force school officials to brief officers about the child’s background and have a predetermined plan on what to do when the student is not following instructions. Former New Mexico Department of Public Safety Cabinet Secretary Nick Bakas said there are training gaps that need to be filled….
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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