Increasing Numbers of Children Take Antipsychotics

In the Netherlands, between 2008 and 2009, the number of children taking antipsychotics increased by 14%, according to a Dutch news report. The main reason children take antipsychotics, particularly Risperdal, is autistic irritability. The problem, according to a child psychiatrist cited in the article, is not that these children are put on these drugs in [...]

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Despite Rules, Restraint and Seclusion Problem Persists in Iowa Schools

In 2008, new regulations took effect in the state of Iowa limiting the use of restraint and seclusion in schools. The regulations determine how and under what circumstances students can be restrained, how long a student can be locked up into a time-out room, and specifically state that seclusion and restraint cannot be used as [...]

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Intellectually Disabled Man to Visit Sex Worker at Taxpayer Expense

In today’s Daily Mail, there appeared an interesting opinion piece on taxpayer-funded sex for a man with intellectual disabilities. The man apparently needs to visit a prostitute in order to enhance his independence or dignity, as the article words it. He will be traveling to Amsterdam to see the sex worker, because, according to the [...]

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Depressed Mom Kills Autistic Son, Self

In Howard County, Maryland, a mother killed her autistic son and herself last June. Harold Doherty of Facing Autism in New Brunswick has some commentary. From the media report, it can be deduced that this was not an ableist “mercy killing”, but a murder-suicide in the context of the mother’s depression and other adverse circumstances. [...]

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CNN: Stress Excuses Murdering of Autistics

CNN last Friday tried to raise awareness of the high stress experienced by parents of autistic children. Unfortunately, they chose a bad reason for their awareness raising: in Texas, a mother had just killed her two autistic children a few days earlier, telling the 911 operator that she’d strangled them because they were autistic. “I [...]

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Bad Advice on When to Out a Trans Person

In the July 5 edition of The New York Times’ The Ethicist, Randy Cohen gets the following question: I am a straight woman, and I was set up on a date with a man. We got along well initially, but I grew concerned about how evasive he was about his past. I did some sophisticated [...]

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Father to Plead Guilty to Shaking Baby

This is horrible. A father shook his baby at least 50 times in the first three months of his life, thereby causing what will likely be lifelong disabilities from so-called Shaken Baby Syndrome. Go figure, there’s even a specific name for the damage caused by a very specific, horrible kind of abuse. That is sad, [...]

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Thirty Months in Prison for Mother with Bipolar Who Killed Autistic Child

Six years ago, a mother who suffers from bipolar disorder drowned her autistic child. Now, she was sentenced to five years in prison. Because she had already served thirty months in pre-trial custody, she was given two-for-one credit for time served and released immediately. Five years is, in Canada, at the low end of the [...]

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“Crazy” Mother Kills Presumably Autistic Son, Media Reports

In Colorado, Stephanie Rochester killed her infant son. Rochester, who works with autistics as a mental health counselor, feared 6-month-old Rylan would be autistic. This story is different from most of the reports on parents killing their (presumably) disabled children, in that, this time, the emphasis is not placed on how hard it would be [...]

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$5 Million Settlement in Abuse of Autistic Students

In a federal lawsuit concerning an abusive former special education teacher in Pennsylvania, a $5 million settlement has been reached. Seven autistic children were badly abused by their teacher, Susan Wzorek, between 2001 and 2003. The abuse included hitting, pulling hair, and duct taping children onto chairs. What I find most alarming about this story, [...]

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