Boy with autism allegedly hit by school bus driver - Are our children safe in schools?
This blog is inspired by the article below:
$10M lawsuit filed by mom of boy with autism allegedly hit by school bus driver
Let me first say my heart truly goes out to number one the child, his mother and the family. As no family should have to go through this. Secondly, as you will find as you continue to read this article this problem is not new and unfortunately not a “one- off” case.
America - we have a problem.
Autism Parents such as myself have many things to worry about in regards to our Ausome children.
We worry about their development.
We worry about their communication skills.
We worry about their compulsive nature.
We worry about their diet.
The last thing we want to worry about is their safety at school or on buses.
We just like every other parent want the very best for our babies and we want to do everything within our power to ensure their safety.
At the end of the day we just want them to be ok; ESPECIALLY when we’re not around - WE WANT THEM TO BE AND FEEL SAFE. We have a hard time trusting as it is; just anyone to watch our babies - we should be able to trust our school system to protect our children since we’re regulated by the government to have our babies in school.
In some cases our babies are non-verbal and I can speak for myself here but one of my biggest fears in life is that someone is harming my baby and he won’t be able to tell me what’s happening. Unfortunately this is happening in real time for Detroit Mother Talysha Oldham who is having to deal with the reality that her son was not safe and through no fault of her own she or no other adult was there to properly protect him.
THANK GOD for cell phone video taken by a fellow student.
“A video shot by a fellow student made its way to Facebook and alerted Talysha Oldham that something had happened to her 6-year-old son, Adriel, the lawsuit states.
In the video, the boy’s screams can be heard as a staff member and bus driver, according to the family’s attorney, punches, throws, and ultimately, sits on the boy.
When Adriel came home that day, his mother said she knew something wasn’t right.
“He was lethargic,” she said. “He didn’t want his afternoon snack. He slept for four hours, and he never does that.”” - Local 4 - ClickonDetroit Article
One of our worst nightmares come to life. One of any parent’s worst nightmares come to life but imagine it happening to your child and they can’t even tell you what happened and if it weren’t for the cell phone video taken by a fellow student - we still may not have ever known what happened.
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More must be done to protect our babies. More must be done to protuect our babies. On YouTube alone a single youtube search of “Autistic boy beaten on school bus” brought up more than 30 results or videos unrelated to this story and what’s even more shocking is that many of the assaults within the search were of F****** adults abusing autistic children across the United States.
AMERICA WE HAVE A F****** PROBLEM and best believe I will not sit here quietly and pretend this is not happening. Are you F****** serious?
1.Video shows Iowa school bus driver hitting special needs student
2. School Bus Aide Accused of Assaulting Autistic Child
3. Video shows student with autism being attacked at Aldine ISD middle school while 3 employees watch
4. The family of a Utah girl with autism is suing the bus driver who grabbed, punched her
5. Autistic Girl's Family Releases Video Of Bus Driver's Alleged Abuse
6. Student with Autism Beaten at Bus Stop
7. KING 5 Investigators: Special Ed Bus Attacks
8. Boy with autism beaten by Lynchburg school employee on school bus, mother says
9. Autistic boy allegedly molested on school bus by 19-year-old student
10. $10M lawsuit by mom of special needs boy claiming he was beaten by bus driver
I’M DISTURBED.
Our President should be disturbed.
Our government officials should be disturbed.
There needs to be parental outrage because this is not just happening to Autistic Children. All childrent are impressionable. All of us have shy innocent children who are being victimized by untrained adults who are hired in and completely unqualified to be around our children. Where’s the supervision; where are the observations of the staff to ensure that they are meeting quality standards by their supervisors. How is it that so many of our school districts have people capable of hurting our children working around our children?
Not to mention just the standard bullying that occurs that is also an issue. Above you also see there are many incidents where children are bullying and abusing / beating other children as well.
AMERICA - WE HAVE A PROBLEM. Now the real work is WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
Hire / Train more qualified individuals.
Pay our school staff / workers more.
How can we expect teachers and or staff who have to work more than one job to make ends meet to be physically and mentally in shape to help with our children and have qualified paraprofessionals or a qualified adult just one should do; on the bus to protect our babies. And have supervisors ride along once a week to monitor, observe and give feedback.
Parents - Teach your kids not to bully / fight: We have to in home teach our children not to bully and if you see something say something to protect all of our children. Take the cell phone video - like the child did in the case of Talysha Oldham but more than just taking the video actually turn it in to a school official and show it to your parents.
GOVERNMENT HELP!!!??? - Help problem solve/ have a meeting; do something - Because this is heartbreaking.
It takes a village to raise a child. We are the village and right now we are failing our children - why - because if this is happening to one of our children it’s happening to all of our children. This could’ve been any of our children; special needs or not. We trust adults with our children and many of our children are taught to respect the adults in their life especially at school; this is why we have cases of abuse against any and all children. And even one case of abuse of a child is one too F****** many.
We have to do something.
We have to do more.
I’m pissed. We need to brainstorm a solution. We need to do something cause right now I’m like a dog with a bone and I’m not letting this go. We can’t just keep reporting stories, we can’t just talk about what’s happening - we need solutions AND WE NEED TO CARE MORE.
What’s going to change so that we don’t have stories like this again in 2030. Because right now I’m seeing stories from 2017, 10 years ago, 3 years ago, 11 months ago and they’re all saying the same thing - my child was beaten, or abused, or molested in schools.
Are our children safe in school?
Signed, An Ausome Parent
Jennifer Owens
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https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/7-steps-take-stand-against-bullying
https://www.healthline.com/health/autism/fears-of-autism-parent
Abuse of Special Needs Kids in Schools -
https://www.mentalhelp.net/blogs/abuse-of-special-needs-children-in-our-public-schools/
https://www.wikihow.com/Identify-Abuse-in-Special-Education