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For pitaup: I said inclusion was troublesome, at times, for my daughter. There was not enough "right" that the school personnel could have done for her since she began to suffer from psychosis on top of the initial autism label. I do think that there are parents that fall into constantly blaming school personnel - for issues that do not have a perfect fix; I used to be one of them. The other problem is with using the term inclusion, neither of us have defined what we mean by it. I mean that, early on, I was insisting that my daughter be placed in a reg ed classroom at all times so that she might be able to become more normal - that was a bad idea and not good for my daughter. Especially when she could not understand the material in the classroom. It created an atmosphere of stress. The staff and teachers went out of their way to try and facilitate her placement in regular ed. As most schools will for children whose parents advocate for such. There does come a time when the typical kids who are in the classroom need to be considered as well; if the behavior of the autistic child is causing trouble in the classroom so that the others cannot learn or thrive - that is wrong. Also, there are too many children who have been labeled autistic - and their abilities cover too broad a spectrum - to think that one child represents the whole of autism. I did not imply such in my piece and previous things I have written clarify that autism is the biggest mixed bag on the planet. For what it is worth. My daughter, who is just one girl with autism, thrived later in life in a scenario where she attended special education in high school, with participation in regular PE, Music, and Art. It was in elementary school when she had the problems with worsening autism that became a bit more than any teacher would have been able to handle. That required a look by medical professionals...

The school personnel did not do their job properly or have adequate supervision for this child with severe autism, whom was a known runner. Due the school district not protecting this child correctly, does not make inclusion not a good option for many children with autism. Nor does the fact that inclusion did not work for your child, imply that it will not work for other children with autism.

It is irresponsible on your part for even imply such a thing and doing so does a HUGE disservice to all the children who should be included but are not because of such ignorance.

When you have met a person with autism, you have met ONE person with autism. When you see placement for a child with autism, you have seen ONE placement for ONE person with autism. It is wrong to make a blanket statement about what all children with autism need by what one child needs.

Stress does create openings for mental illnesses to take hold, but no one knows what specific stresses do that. It could be a multiple of small stresses or one big one. I'm glad he was found. You can't treat everyone as equal, but you can treat everyone fairly.