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 the first place. Usually, this happens during crisis situations, when the only alternative would be admission to a psychiatric hospital. However, when these children are stabilized on Risperdal or a similar drug, behavioral intervention and parent support should start to enhance the family’s and child’s coping strategies. Then, children should be taken off antipsythocis as soon as possible to prevent serious side effects such as weight gain.

As a person who takes an antipsychotic, I agree to some extent. I agree that antipsychotics are no substitute for proper support, but I have had enough experience of long-term insufficient support to know that I, for one, would not quit my medication anytime soon. For children, perhaps better services are available. If this is the case, indeed, families should be steered towards services rather than having their kids on antipsychotics long-term. But I still wonder whether the current services will suffice for the most challenging autistic children and adults. This is not advocating more medicating, but even better services.

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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 punishment. Despite these rules, teachers in three school districts have used restraint or seclusion inappropriately. In one case, a student was strapped to a chair because his aides were absent. In another case, someone was physically punished for disruptive behavior.

Disability advocates call for better training of school personnel. Parents want to know the rules, too, so that they can stand up for their children. I agree to both of these, but I also think an attitutde shift is needed, from repression of undesired behavior to individualized intervention. It is shocking, to me, that apparently belting a student to a chair is seen as an appropriate substitute for two aides. Even in unforeseen circumstances – I will assume this was a one-time incident -, this is unacceptable.

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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 article, he apparently needs a holiday, too. Of course, that is nonsensical: sex work is illegal in the UK and legal in the Netherlands, so that’s why he needs to travel here.

I have mixed feelings about this case. First of all, I think sex work ought to be legalized in the UK so that people don’t need to travel abroad to visit a sex worker. Secondly, yes, I do feel that disabled people have a right to access sex workers if they cannot get sexually satisfied any other way. I am not so sure whether I think this sex should be taxpayer-funded, but am not radically opposed to the idea.

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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. There were, after all, warning signs that Ms. Hawks was suicidal and depressed. There were also numerous other circumstances, including an imminent divorce, threat of job loss and financial problems.

None of these excuse the murdering of another person, and none of these circumstances make it less sad that someone committed suicide. It is also stigmatizing to assume that this is an automatic consequence of Ms. Hawks’ mental illness or of her son’s disability. It is not. It is, however, true that circumstances influence people’s actions, including murder-suicides. Without excusing the killing of other people, these circumstances need to be taken into account in preventing further tragedy. If there are warning signs that someone is suicidal, appropriate action needs to be taken. Same if there are warning signs that someone will kill someone else.

I advocate more social services to families in such difficult circumstances as this family. However, tragedies like this one, do not guide my advocacy. One shouldn’t need to commit suicide and murder one’s son before having one’s needs recognized, after all.

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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 want normal children.” As if those don’t cause stress.

I am fine with it that the high stress levels experienced by parents of autistic children are covered in the media. I advocate for more supports to families, so that they can more easily navigate the complex system they will have to work with. But please, can we pay attention to these issues outside of the scope of terrible homicide cases? First of all, many more parents are in need of help than those who will eventually kill their children. Do we wait until someone kills their child before we advocate for support? Secondly, many people who kill their children, have other reasons to do so. Lastly, stress is simply no excuse for murder, period.

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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 checking online – I do research professionally – and discovered that he is a female-to-male transgendered individual. I then ended our relationship. He and I live in Orthodox Jewish communities.  (I believe he converted shortly after he became a man.) I think he continues to date women within our group. Should I urge our rabbi to out this person? NAME WITHHELD, N.Y.

Mr. Cohen’s response begins:

There are two questions here: What must close companions reveal to each other?And what may they reveal about each other to outsiders?

Basically, then, he says that the trans man should’ve outed himself before their first kiss, and that it is fine if [name withheld] discusses this incident with her friends, but that she should not urge the rabbi to out the trans man. It is not said whether she can out the trans man to the rabbi himself.

Well, first off, being trans is compared to having an STD, which is already transphobic. Secondly, would you disclose your STD status before your first kiss? I wouldn’t. Anyone can have an STD, whether they are aware of it or not, so the safest course of action here would likely be to get tested if or when the couple becomes intimate enough for there to be a potential risk of transmission.

With regard to being trans, the issue is even less of a potential partner’s business, because it doesn’t put the partner at risk. It would be something I’d want to know about my partner if we were in a serious relationship in which we were confident enough to disclose important details of our past, but it would be a matter of establishing an emotional bond. If my partner didn’t feel comfortable sharing such a sensitive issue with me yet, and I was committed to the relationship, I would give them the room not to disclose. Of course, I’d eventually find out if we were going to be sexually active, but I am assuming here that a trans person would not be sexually active in a relationship without being comfortable that their transness were accepted. Correct me if I’m wrong here.

Cohen goes on to advise that [name withheld] is free to discuss the incident with her friends. Does he mean that she can out her former partner to her friends? I hope not. In a society that is dangerous to trans people, outing a trans person can be that person’s death sentence. No mattter how accepting you think your friends are of trans people, you can never be sure. Besides, judging from the letter, it seems [name withheld] wanted to warn her friends.

One last thing I noticed in the letter, which I want to comment on, is [name withheld]‘s doing an online backgroudn check on her date. This, I would say, is pretty unethical. Of course, in my own case, my relationship started online, so my boyfriend had been able to do a background check on me before we even dated, but when you get to know each other via other venues, it is unethical to use lack of information about a person’s past as an excuse to google them. Again, there was probably a good reason they were hiding this information from you for now.

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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, because it indicates babies are shaken at least regularly enough for doctors to invent a separate syndrome for the resulting disabilities. Think of that for a moment.

The father, Brett Walsh, agreed to give up his parential rights to his son Viktor. Mr. Walsh is scheduled to plead guilty to first and second-degree child abuse tomorrow. Viktor is in foster care, where he continues to get worse neurologically. My heart goes out to him and to all the people who love him dearly.

Now on to the tiny detail they had to throw in, without which this story would never have caught my eye: Viktor’s mother, Suzanne Fox, who is also charged with child abuse, has Asperger’s Syndrome and is in therapy to improve her parenting skills. It is not said whether Fox was involved in the shaking of Viktor – the child abuse charges suggest that she was -, but she most likely knew. I do not know what improper parenting skills or Asperger’s have to do with child abuse, since obviously it doesn’t take parenting skills or social skills to know that there is no good reason to shake a baby. However, if a connection to Ms. Fox’s disability is found to the point where Ms. Fox had limited capacity for responsibility, I hope she will get the proper help. If, more likely, no connection is found, I see no reason to mention this at all other than for the media to perpetuate the myth that only parents with mental health problems would abuse their children.

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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 spectrum of sentences for manslaughter.

This is a complicated case, in the sense that we do not know to what extent each factor in the mother’s circumstances was exactly discounted towards this low sentence. If, for example, she committed the crime during an episode of her bipolar disorder, and if it can be established that it was the bipolar disorder that “made” her do it, treatment, especially medication, can alleviate the risk of her committing a similar crime again. It would then be understandable that she’d be given a low sentence because of insanity with a low risk of recidivism. There is, however, no indication as far as the media report goes that Ms. Peng suffered from a bipolar episode at the time of her crime. Furthermore, if I’m correct, the McNaughton test is used in the Canadian justice system, so it would be very unlikely for someone to be considered insane even if they committed a crime during an episode of mental illness. Mental illness, after all, doesn’t mean automatic insanity.

I fail to understand how the child’s autism contributes to the mother being given a lower sentence. Of course, having your child diagnosed as autistic is a stressor, but everyone experiences stress at some point. Unless the stressor exacerbated the mother’s mental illness to such an extent that she had diminished capacity for responsibility, there is no reason to consider this factor in a diminished sentence. To me, it almost sounds like: “If Ms. Peng just doesn’t get another defective child, she won’t do it again.” I am even afraid that the mother’s bipolar disorder was insignificant in the crime, but just used to give her case more of the pity factor. Everyone can see how parenting a disabled child – oh wait, being alone with a disabled child for three hours – would turn a crazy woman into a murderer. Even I find myself being compelled to have sympathy for Ms. Peng, and this is as I try to write a balanced, anti-ableist post on the case. Isn’t it wonderful the way the media reinforces stereotypes of mental illness and the burden of caring for disabled people?

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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 to care for a disabled child. That doesn’t make this story less ableist: instead of focusing on Rylan’s possible autism, the reporter focuses extensively on Ms. Rochester’s apparent depressive and suicidal symptoms, including what prescription medication she was given for it. Now of course it is necessary that, if Stephanie is depressed, she be provided with adequate mental health services while in custody. Also, if her depression played a part in the crime, this should be acknowledged and taken into account. But that doesn’t seem to be the interest of the reporter: this crime must be blamed on either the victim’s presumed disability or on the murderer’s poor mental health.

This crime is horrible. I am concerned about the people who loved Rylan and mourn his death. Of course, Ms. Rochester’s circumstances should be taken into account in court, but when does the media finally learn to focus on what a crime actually is? Homicide happens way too often. Acknowledge that. Please stop blaming “crazy” perpetrators or “defective” victism for it.

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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, is that Ms. Wzorek’s abusive behavior is once again excused by the fact that she allegedly didn’t receive proper training, guidance and support. It doesn’t even matter, but is interestingly ironic, that she worked with disabled children for decades. Regardless, she should know that hitting a child or pulling their hair is abuse. It doesn’t require formal training on how to handle autistic children to know that. If this case had not been about disabled students, the teacher’s “proper training” would not have been an issue; it is expected to be common sense that in no circumstances do you slap a child across the face or duct tape them to a chair.

In fact, I wasn’t able to make out from the article whether criminal charges have been pressed, and, if so, how they came out. It is said that Wzorek spent six weeks in prison in 2005. If that is the jail time one can negotiate oneself into for such grave abuses, I have to nuance my opinion that the United States Justice system sentences too harshly. I might hope that in the Netherlands you wouldn’t get away with this.

Nonetheless, I am glad Ms. Wzorek had her teaching license revoked and that the children are being compensated monetarily. Too bad that money will not heal their undoubtedly severe emotional wounds.

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