Dec 5, 2018, Phoenix, AZ, ABC15: Glendale teen fundraises to fill sensory room for special needs students https://www.abc15.com/news/region-west-valley/glendale/glendale-teen-fundraises-to-fill-sensory-room-for-special-needs-students
GLENDALE, AZ - A West Valley student is reaching out to the community to help special needs students at her high school.
Lexi Von Hatten is a senior at Mountain Ridge in Glendale and what started as research for a volunteer challenge has inspired her to launch a campaign to help a teacher who isn't even hers. …
Von Hatten decided she wanted to do something to help special needs students. She discovered that her school has a sensory room, a place where kids with a range of disabilities can go when they need to calm down, prevent an outburst and keep them focused on learning.
"We get angry... we're able to let it go. Our special needs students really aren't so they need something to throw down or release their anger," said Von Hatten.
… the one at Mountain Ridge isn't given a budget and is rather empty, so any equipment has been donated or the special education teacher has crafted it herself.
Von Hatten wants to change that and fill the room with the proper tools to help those students succeed. …
"My greater hope is this will cause a ripple effect," said Von Hatten, "so that having a sensory room becomes the norm in every school."
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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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