Tim Barrus: The New York Times
Tim Barrus: The New York Times
(for those of you who are telling me that the New York Times would never publish my experience/opinion – eat shit) http://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/nyregion/suicide-school-overdose-deaths-ny-family-foundation.html?comments#permid=28470036
Institutional Abuse of Children With Autism
I worked in a school for children living with autism, and saw the most shocking, egregious, abuse stuff.
The school was a “treatment” center for children with autism. They were fragile children to put it mildly.
I had been through this very same nightmare as a teenager myself. I understood exactly what was going on.
Finally, I saw two children with autism under a blanket having sex while a staff member watched.
Mid-level employees in the trenches are to blame, too. They almost never quit their jobs. They go along with the torture, and often they are the ones who carry it out. They work with blinders on and know the value of having a job. Any job.
Even if it’s one that overtly damages children.
One of my students had to be carried out on a stretcher because she had been raped.
I quit. I went to the police.
I wrote letters to the mayor. I wrote letters to Social Services. I wrote letters to the federal government.
The mayor ignored me. The state conducted an investigation, but did nothing. The police interviewed me, and did nothing. The feds called me on the phone and did nothing. Everyone acted terribly concerned. It was a dog and pony show.
The urine-soaked time out room could get real crowded.
These abusive places are almost never shut down. There was nowhere to put these children.
I went to a little local paper and they printed what I had to say.
The paper was courageous.
They investigated and corroborated what I was intent to change.
Anyone with autism does not deserve to be punished. The staff member who watched disabled children having sex should have gone to jail.
Nothing happened because nothing ever does.