Dec 21, 2018, Dallas/Fort Worth, NBC5: Teen With Autism Charged With Making Terroristic Threat in Collin County https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Teen-with-Autism-Charged-with-Making-Terroristic-Threat-in-Collin-County-503289921.html An 8th grader in Collin County is facing serious charges after police say he threatened to shoot up his school. The student is diagnosed with autism and his parents say what happened is all a big misunderstanding because of his condition. Cole McLain, 13, who has autism, spent 44 days in a juvenile detention center in McKinney. It’s been an agonizing month-and-a-half for his parents Lori and Parish McLain, eager to have their son home for the holidays…. How he ended up behind bars begins in Frisco in October when Lori says a classmate reported Cole had developed a "kill list" of students and staff at Maus Middle School. He was arrested and a district investigation determined his behavior to be "a manifestation of the student's disability."… According to a district police investigation summary, Cole became agitated when a teacher at Edge Middle School told him he was sitting in the wrong seat. … As class began, the report says Cole looked at the teacher and said, "We'll shoot this school too." He was questioned and days later arrested again…. But when it comes to children with autism, experts say it isn't clear cut. “They don't understand what they're saying,” said Leigh Richardson, clinical director of Brain Performance Center in Dallas. … His parents say he could face 12 months on probation.
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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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