Community Chat

[hyacinth003]

A 14 year old boy in New York has been missing for about 12 days. He is severely autistic and non-verbal. He is said to function around age 7. He left his school one afternoon and has not been found yet. He is part of a program to "mainstream" special needs children into regular schools.

Since my daughter has an autistic disorder and we went through the whole IEP process, this story got my attention. I have often had questions about the wisdom of the mainstreaming process.

The boy was last seen on surveillance video in school running in the hall, which was something they were going to work on. He was seen by a security guard, but still got out an unalarmed door.

I have an instinctual dislike of seeing people with attorneys! The mother was quite articulate, and didn't need a spokesperson. The attorney was "disturbed" about it taking 45 minutes for the school to notify the mother. Since my daughter took off from school one day, I am well schooled in what goes on in the school trying to locate their student. They were probably looking for the boy instead of thinking of calling the mother.

Although the school procedures need to be looked into, I just see attorneys and think lawsuits - neither of which will help find this missing child.

Hyacinth