8-year-old with Asperger’s arrested at school
January 14th, 2009
Girl was cuffed, led away by police; Parents consider legal action
From ABC News:
Eight-year-old Evelyn Towry was arrested and charged with battery after a scuffle with teachers in her northern Idaho elementary school. Prosecutors dismissed the case Tuesday, and her family says they are considering legal action against the school.
Spring Towry (above, with Evelyn) said her daughter was physically restrained to the point of causing bruises and is now tormented by memories of the incident.
Towry said Evelyn, who has Asperger’s syndrome and weighs 54 pounds, had been refused entry into a school party because she refused to take off a hoodie with cow ears and a tail. She said Evelyn had been put in a separate classroom; when she tried to leave, the adults physically restrained her and she reacted in a violent way.
(Photo from ABC video)
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August 30th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
It is not improbable – it is how it is done in many districts. Ours was arrested two times. Once when she was 10 and once when she was 11. The second was for a felony. Both times she threw a book at a teacher. Both times she was provoked and her IEP was violated. Both times the teacher was not hurt. The district takes no accountability and blames the child. It is a very effective way of getting rid of these kids who they don’t want to educate. I know of at least 4 others in the same boat. All autistic, all charged with crimes and in all cases no one was hurt. Thanks Frisco ISD.
Do some research it happens every day and is well known amongst lawyers, advocates and government agencies.
February 15th, 2009 at 4:13 am
As a mentally and disabled man, I can tell you that almost anything can happen when an institution is involved, be it a public school, a hospital, a university, a corporation, a police department, a hotel, etc. Things happen every day to disabled people that are criminal on the part of institutions and businesses and their employees who are all too often rigid, incompetent, prejudiced, ignorant, malicious or all of the aforementioned.
I am NOT saying that all institutions are totally untrustworthy, but many are because of who is employed and who is in charge. This arrest of an 8-year-old with autism is inexcusable, and to make a claim that this was improbable is correct, but not because of the parents of the child, who are already dealing with their child’s autism on a daily basis.
It should be completely understandable that public schools in particular should have their ALL their employees totally up to snuff on disability issues with the increasing numbers of disabled children.
Aren’t schools supposed to be there for education? This one sounds like it was made up of ignorant monsters with narcissistically controlling egos with very little patience and understanding.
January 17th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
What a horrible story. I feel for that little girl. What is wrong with those teachers? They need some training to deal with children on the spectrum. You may find my blog interesting. I have an eight-year-old child with Asperger’s syndrome.
January 16th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Anyone who has worked with a spectrum child knows that it is quite easy to provoke a reaction and cause that child to go into “vapor lock”. So why did the school choose to pick this particular battle over attire? Clearly, we do not have the entire story. The end result of arrest was extreme. But if both the parents and school were working as a team, I find the entire sequence of events improbable.