Just in case you didn’t notice, it’s 2010. The first decade of the new millennium is over. After Mike’s recent post, Autism Personality of the Year, I kept thinking about who I would consider stand-out in the autism communities. Yes it is rather presumptuous for me as a non autistic parent whose child wasn’t even born at the turn of the millennium. As you can see, I’m not letting that stop me.
Time Magazine set a good standard with their “Person of the Year” category. “Person of the year” isn’t necessarily an honor, or a statement that the person was a force for good. That opens up a lot of possibilities when considering the past decade, and given that you can probably guess at a number of the people I considered.
A lot of money has been pumped into autism research in the last decade. There are a lot of excellent research teams. There has been a lot of excellent work done, but to my recollection nothing stands out as truly breakthrough. I am quite open to being corrected on that opinion, though.
When I ask myself, who really has made a difference in the quality of life for my autistic kid, it isn’t the researchers, the advocacy groups or the “personalities” in the autism community that I can point to. What has made a difference are the efforts of a group of therapists and teachers who have devoted themselves to low pay and hard work.
Unfortunately, all is far from perfect in special education and it is the bad stories that make the news. Stories about abuse, seclusion and restraint, bullying and the like are the stories that get discussed on blogs like this one. Add to that school administrations that are underfunded to the point of sometimes making some very bad decisions. But those stories reinforce the fact that good placements and good teachers are worth their weight in gold.
Left Brain Right Brain 
I meant to get this out last week to be more timely with new years day but a few things popped up.
I agree. I have been so lucky to have such wonderful therapists and a really great (public school) teacher for my son Logan. I can not even begin to tell you what there constant support has meant to us. We are very blessed.
URGENT, PLEASE HELP! URGENT, PLEASE HELP!!
Hello,
In the past, we’ve written to you about advocacy issues relating to the rights of adults and youth on the autism spectrum. Our voices have made a difference on all manner of policy concerns and have sent a clear message that those who seek to deprive Autistic people of any age of their rights will have our community to answer to. Now we’d like to ask you to help us take action to help protect an 11-year old Autistic boy in Arkansas named Zakhqurey Price, currently being charged with felony assault after fighting back when two staff members restrained him in response to behavioral challenges. The school has ignored repeated efforts from Zakh’s grandmother over the course of the last five months to obtain needed IEP supports to improve his educational options and manage his behavioral difficulties.
According to the suspension notice, the restraint was in response to Zakh destroying school property – something beyond the scope of what would be allowed under recently introduced federal civil rights legislation around restraint and seclusion in schools. Disability advocates, including ASAN, are fighting to pass this crucial legislation that would broaden the protections available to students like Zakh as well as those with other disabilities and with no disability at all. We have asked for your help in passing this important legislation, and together we can succeed in bringing proposed civil rights protections into law – but not in time to help Zakh. That is why we need you to take action now. Find out how below:
School Principal:
Pam Siebenmorgan (One of the charging parties in Zakh’s felony hearing – polite but firm calls and e-mails encouraging her to drop the charges would be helpful)
Phone: 479-646-0834
E-mail: psiebenm@fortsmithschools.org
School Superintendent:
Dr. Benny Gooden (The Superintendent runs the entire school district – polite but firm calls and e-mails communicating how this situation is damaging Fort Smith Public Schools’ reputation would be helpful as well)
E-mail: bgooden@fortsmithschools.org
School Board Office: 1-479-785-2501 Ext. 1201
We recommend that you both e-mail and call if you can. If necessary, e-mail is the preferable option. If you would like your e-mails to be passed along to Zakh’s grandmother, please bcc: info@autisticadvocacy.org. Please stress the importance of Fort Smith Public Schools taking the following steps:
-Drop the charges against Zakhqurey Price
-Work with his grandmother to put in place an IEP that will fulfill Zakh’s right for a Free and Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment
-Improve training for school personnel to prevent future such incidents and to ensure that students on the autism spectrum as well as with other disabilities are included, supported and educated in Fort Smith Public Schools.
If Zakh is declared incompetent as part of the hearing scheduled for January 12th, state law requires that he be placed into a mental hospital for at least 30 days. Carole’s grandmother fears that, due to the negative repercussions of being taken out of the community and being forced into an institutional setting, Zakh may lose skills in such an environment and not be returned to her indefinitely. That is why we need you to act now. Please distribute and repost this action alert. Thank you for your time and your advocacy, and as always, Nothing About Us, Without Us!
Regards,
Ari Ne’eman
President
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
info@autisticadvocacy.org
I apologize in advance to any who take issue with my decidedly non-autistic parent point of view in this post. If you have a different perspective, I’d be glad to hear other ideas of people or groups that have made a positive impact to the various segments of the autism communities.
While I cannot agree more that therapists and teachers of children with special needs do fantasic work. Let’s stop to recognize the people who implement the directives from the afformentioned in the school systems. One on one aids for students with special needs are often over look and are remarkably underpaid. These aids often not only implement directives but foster relationships with families and their students. In my work I see these individuals undervalued at every turn. The term “paraprofessional” is used and seems to me almost derogatory. These individuals are professionals and are the glue often that holds teams together.
Jessica
I could not function a a special needs teacher without the other professionals on my team. I agree, “paraprofessional” does them a disservice. Though for some reason here in the UK “paramedic” does not have any negative connotations.
Support staff who are not professionally accredited should not be called professionals. Not being a professional is not a sign of lack of knowledge or expertise.
I’m rather worried that we seem to have this need to label non-professional people ‘professionals’ to assign them respect and validity, when such should be given (asumming it’s deserved which is not true in all cases – our Best friend for example has been or is employed in a support capacity) on the basis of the work that many of us/them do.
Give support staff respect for being support staff. Don’t re-inforce the professional/non-professional divide by giving them a false title.