Autistic child bullied, what's a teacher to do?

Award-winning Author Mary Calhoun Brown answers your questions about autism, Asperger's Syndrome, creative writing and lots more. In this segment, Brown helps a teacher stop students from bullying an autistic peer.

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Education

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• autism
• bullying

[TOMHYLE88]

Picking out the differences of an autistic person, let alone eliminating them is not anywhere near as easy as you make it sound. Autistic people tend to be very logical. Social rules tend to be very illogical. I disagree that the one in the minority therefore needs to be the one to change; the ones in the wrong need to be the ones to change. It may be anywhere between hard and impossible for an autistic to change his behaviors, but even if he does, the bullies will still pick him out guaranteed

[TOMHYLE88]

Once in elementary school a teacher let the other students circle me, throwing things, calling names, and hitting, every recess, right in front of her, for weeks, ignoring my complaints. I'm pretty sure she justified this on the basis that it would make me change my behavior. What it actually did was make me feel isolated and force me to take violent action against my abusers. A kid's head was beaten off the concrete floor 18 times. Was that beneficial? Today a kid would be arrested for that

[TOMHYLE88]

Your proposal that the autistic person needs to be the one to change has some validity to it but is basically very harmful. First this is the very kind of thinking that forms an excuse for bullying and for the allowing of bullying by those who's DUTY is to stop it. Second you can phrase it however you want but it is going to come off as blaming the victim to the autistic child, & may greatly harm his self esteem. Annoyance is not the cause of bullying. Impunity is. Do your job Enforce the rules

[AnElephantThatPaints]

excellent! finally a teacher that makes an effort to understand the student first, and try getting the rest of the students to do the same :)

[TheRealVenna]

@akon898 You should leave people with autism alone then because statistically, they are all probably much more intelligent then you are. If you thought your statement would get a laugh, you are barking up the wrong tree here. Take your trash elsewhere and leave good and caring people alone.

[177metalman]

@akon898 You sicken me

[PinkPunkyKat]

Teachers were my WORST bullies.

[1forestcat]

@akon898 Karma Karma Karma What you do to others will come back to you threefold!

[akon898]

I Love Bullying Retards!

[ChelseaMB21]

Love the idea of changing the climate of the classroom by creating a culture of acceptance. Check out Good Friend, Inc. for more on peer sensitivity training.