Nov 27, 2017, (Ontario, Canada) Hamilton Spectator: ‘You can’t discipline autism out of a child’: Mom and student protest suspension https://www.thespec.com/news-story/7967408--you-can-t-discipline-autism-out-of-a-child-mom-and-student-protest-suspension/ The 12-year-old is serving a five-day suspension for slapping an educational assistant in the face and punching a teacher in the shoulder last week. Ivan isn't your average student. He has autism, obsessive compulsive disorder and Tourette's syndrome. … Ivan and his mom led a rally near the school Monday to protest his suspension and show support for other special-needs kids. He is among the 25 per cent of the public board's roughly 49,000 students receiving special education services. The board has dedicated $77.9 million to special education out of its overall annual budget of $540.7-million. The demands for special-needs education have increased in recent years with more families moving to Hamilton to access its excellent medical services, Figueiredo said. Reports of physical aggression against educational assistants in Hamilton public elementary and secondary schools have also spiked. In the 2015-16 school year, there were 1,621 reports involving such outbursts as pushing, pulling, head-butting, scratching and kicking. In 2016-17, there were 2,239 reports, according to union figures.
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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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