Happy Ending to the Slapping Incident

 In The Politics of Autism, I write about the everyday struggles facing autistic people and their families, including violence against autistic children.

A previous post discussed Alfredo Morales, a homeless autistic child who touched the hood ornament of a Mercedes.  The driver slapped him.

Ashley Mackey at KABC-TV:

Earlier this summer, a shocking video of a man slapping a young boy with autism in Arleta sparked outrage. Since then, the community has rallied behind the child and his family, showing them love and support.

Then on Monday, the family received a big surprise after they came across some issues with their truck.

The team at Airport Marina Ford surprised Alfredo Morales and his family with a brand new 2023 Ford Explorer.

"If there's a child involved in a situation like that, and the condition of living in the other vehicle, and trying to survive out of that, and then that vehicle being as bad as it was, it was just the right thing to do," said Dan Theroux, the general manager at Airport Marina Ford.

The video of the incident quickly went viral in June. It shows 10-year-old Alfredo sitting on a bus bench with his older sister when the upset man, identified as Scott Sakajian, slaps him. The boy reportedly damaged the Mercedes emblem on the front of Sakajian's car.
The video player is currently playing an ad.

A man became upset by what a boy with autism allegedly did to his vehicle, but his response, caught on video, is drawing heavy criticism.

Sakajian has since been charged with willful cruelty to a child and battery on a person.

The team at Airport Marina Ford said when the family brought in their 2010 Ford F-150, the initial plan was to try to repair it, but it was in bad shape.

They said it needed a new transmission, engine, and the interior would have had to be completely taken out.

"Dan got the Ford to come into the dealership. We saw it on the flatbed and we were like, 'Uh oh, this needs more than just a repair,'" said NOARUS Auto Group President Jamie Bishton.

The vehicle also comes with a Gold Certified warranty, which means if the truck ever gives the family any troubles, they can take it to any Ford dealer to get it fixed.

Since the incident, a GoFundMe set up to help the family has raised nearly $100,000.

In addition to a brand new SUV, Alfredo now attends a new school that specializes in working with children with autism.

"Amazing. I don't have words to say," said the boy's father, Miguel Morales. "It's crazy. I don't have to say nothing. I don't have words, just say thanks. You know, thank God."

Report: Autistic Jewish Student Had Swastika Carved in His Back

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

People with disabilities are victims of violent crime three times as often as people without disabilities. The Bureau of Justice Statistics does not report separately on autistic victims, but it does note that the victimization rate is especially high among those whose disabilities are cognitive. 

 Minyvonne Burke at NBC:

The FBI said it is in contact with authorities in Las Vegas after a woman said her Jewish son, who has autism, had a swastika carved onto his back.

"We are aware of the incident and are in regular contact with local authorities. If during the local investigation, information comes to light of a potential federal civil rights violation, the FBI is prepared to investigate," the agency said in a statement Saturday.

The woman told COLlive.com that her son, a student at Clark High School, came home on March 9 with the hate symbol etched into his skin. The woman, who told the outlet that she wanted to remain anonymous, said the 17-year-old is nonverbal, uses a service dog and has someone to assist him at all times.

"My son is the only student I know of who wears a Kippah at the school," she told the outlet, referring to the cap worn by Jewish men and boys.

The mother said she emailed the school about what happened and then filed a report on March 13 with the Clark County School District Police. She also alleged that her son's service dog's equipment bag had been tampered with, COLlive.com reports.

The school and the district police could not immediately be reached by NBC News on Saturday. School officials told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a statement that police conducted an investigation which included interviewing staff and reviewing camera footage and found "no evidence that would indicate the origin of the injuries."

Vicious Beating of Autistic Teen

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

People with disabilities are victims of violent crime three times as often as people without disabilities. The Bureau of Justice Statistics does not report separately on autistic victims, but it does note that the victimization rate is especially high among those whose disabilities are cognitive. A small-sample study of Americans and Canadians found that adults with autism face a greater risk of sexual victimization than their peers. Autistic respondents were more than twice as likely to say that had been the victim of rape and over three times as likely to report unwanted sexual contact.

 Emma Seiwell and Thomas Tracy at NY Daily News:

Detectives have identified the three teens who allegedly beat a 15-year-old autistic boy in an upper Manhattan subway station as others yelled the n-word at him in an attack that police are investigating as a possible hate crime.

The three teens hadn’t been arrested by Tuesday, as community activist groups decried the sheer viciousness and flippant racism seen in the video.

The boy, sporting glasses and a blue hooded sweatshirt, was pulled off a northbound A train at the 181st St. station near Fort Washington Ave. in Washington Heights around 5:30 p.m. Friday, cops said.

Video taken of the attack shows one teen handing the victim off to a teenage girl who grabs him by his sweatshirt and forces him to walk down the crowded platform.

“Walk!” the girl screams as her frightened victim tries to get back on the train. Commuters stare as she force-marches the boy down the platform..

After being shoved down the platform, the teen tries to break free, but the girl grabs his sweatshirt tighter.

“You runnin’!” she screams. “Why you runnin’!”

As a crowd gathers, several onlookers start screaming “N----- alert!” as the victim, who is Black, tries to break free one more time and jumps back on the train.

UPDATE:

 

Cops arrest 14-year-old boy they say took part in hate-fueled beating of 15-year-old autistic boy in Manhattan subway station, police say

Investigators charged him with misdemeanor assault, aggravated harassment and menacinghttps://t.co/wydZmRE0Lh

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) March 15, 2023

Bullying

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss challenges facing autistic adults and children.  One is bullying.

Evelina Käld and colleagues have a research letter at JAMA Pediatrics titled "Exploring Potential Modifiers of the Association Between Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Risk of Bullying Exposure."

Children with a diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) are more likely to be bullied than their neurotypical peers. This exposure to bullying may predispose children to subsequent emotional1 and behavioral disturbances.2 Individual attributes that can modify the association between NDD diagnosis and bullying exposure may shed some light on targeted prevention programs. However, the roles of sociodemographic factors in bullying exposure remain inconsistent across different populations.3 Furthermore, little is known if these risk factors interact with the diagnosis of NDD to affect the risk of bullying exposure. The goal of this study is to understand which factors may modify the association between NDDs and the risk of being bullied ,,, The 2 NDDs that had the largest association with bullying exposure were ASD and ADHD.

An Autistic Student Killed Herself. She was Ten.

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

Almost 40 percent of youth with an autism spectrum disorder never get together with friends, and 50 percent of never receive phone calls from friends. These figures are higher than for peers with intellectual disability, emotional disturbance, or learning disability. When school ends, many adults with autism have grim prospects. Though evidence is sparse, it seems that most do not find full-time jobs. Compared with other people their age, they have higher rates of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and suicide attempts.

One recent victim was just ten years old.

Jordan Miller at The Salt Lake Tribune:

The Davis School District “will be bringing in an independent investigation” to look into the bullying of 10-year-old Izzy Tichenor, who died by suicide last weekend, according to a news release.

According to the statement, the investigation will also review the district’s “handling of critical issues,” like bullying, so that it can provide a safe environment for students.

Izzy’s mother, Brittany Tichenor-Cox, said Monday that she reached out to the district several times to discuss Izzy’s treatment from teachers and classmates, but the abuse of her daughter for being Black and autistic was allowed to continue without intervention.

Just a few weeks before Izzy’s death, a report from the U.S. Department of Justice showed the district had intentionally ignored hundreds of reports of racial harassment, including incidents where Black students were called slaves, the N-word, and threatened that they would be lynched.

“The death of Izzy is tragic and devastating,” the district said in a statement. “Our hearts continue to be with the family, friends and community who are grieving this loss. The well-being of our students will always be a priority, and we are committed to preventing this from happening in the future.”

According to Fox 13, Gov. Spencer Cox said he would be meeting with the Davis School District and other districts to discuss bullying.

The district will also be providing resources to community members who are struggling with the loss. Trained and licensed therapists will be available to help children and parents facilitate conversations about feelings of depression, bullying or isolation, according to the statement.

“The tragedy of suicide can be far-reaching, and it’s not uncommon to feel grief for the loss of someone you have never met, especially if there’s a feeling of shared commonality,” the district said in the statement.

Individuals can contact the district’s Student and Family Resource Department at 801-402-5155.

Facebook Takes Down Videos Targeting Public Health Officials

In The Politics of Autism, I look at the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms have helped spread this dangerous myth

Kevin Baxter at LAT:

Facebook, facing a boycott from advertisers and growing pressure from employees over the posting of material that incites violence, has removed at least four videos targeting public health officials who have called for people to stay home and wear facial coverings to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has long resisted calls to regulate political content on the popular website, which has more than 221 million users in the U.S. But the stepped-up rhetoric of content on the website and an expanding advertising boycott that added Verizon, Unilever, Hershey and Coca-Cola in the last two days has forced Zuckerberg to back down.

Facebook stock fell seven percentage points Friday.

“If we determine the content may lead to violence …. we’re going to take that content down no matter who said it,” Zuckerberg told CBS News.

The inciteful videos Facebook removed Thursday were from a group called the Freedom Angels Foundation, which is known for its opposition to California’s efforts to mandate vaccinations. CNN, which reviewed the videos, said the posts make a number of false claims, including that children are being removed from their homes because of the coronavirus, face masks cause people to pass out, and COVID-19 is not a virus.

Anti-Vaxxers and Anti-Maskers

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Hannah Wiley at The Sacramento Bee:

At every stage of the pandemic, California’s anti-vaccine activists have foreshadowed what their fight against a future vaccine to prevent COVID-19 could look like.

“If we can’t win the mandatory mask argument, we won’t win the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination argument,” Larry Cook, founder of the Los Angeles-based group Stop Mandatory Vaccination, wrote in a June 21 tweet. “They are 100% connected.”

Trump's "Operation Warp Speed" is giving antivaxxers an opening.

“I’m already hearing some states talking about pushing a vaccine mandate for the coronavirus, even though it hasn’t been developed yet,” said V is for Vaccine leader Joshua Coleman.

Coleman’s group coordinated a rally at the Capitol Tuesday for “ex-vaxxers,” or people who no longer vaccinate their kids, to protest what they consider censorship of their perspectives. Registration for the event cost participants $42.

“I’m worried that (the coronavirus) issue is going to be used as an excuse,” Coleman continued, “that the ‘antivax community’ is being careless and it’s time to censor them completely and remove them from social media platforms.”

...
State Senators Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, and Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga, also spoke at the event and were honored for voting last year against Senate Bill 276, a vaccine crackdown law that Democrats approved and Newsom signed.

...
The protests and social media posts haven’t necessarily surprised Leah Russin, founder of pro-vaccine and parental advocacy group Vaccinate California, but they have worried her.

Russin has worked for years against California’s anti-vaccine lobby to get immunization laws written by state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, passed at the Capitol. Senate Bill 277 four years ago eliminated personal beliefs from the list of reasons school kids can skip their shots. SB 276 last year increased oversight of doctors who issue high numbers of medical exemptions for students.

At STAT, Senator Pan rites about the anti-vaxxers:

Since mid-April, 27 state and local health leaders across 13 states have resigned, retired, or been fired, some citing threats and pressure from outside groups.

..
The attack on public health goes all the way to the desk of President Trump, who recently retweeted a post with the hashtag #FireFauci.

Politicians who politicize the coronavirus pandemic are emboldening extremists who target public health officers like Dr. Nichole Quick, the chief health officer of Orange County, Calif., and Dr. Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Health Department, both of whom recently resigned their public health posts. At an Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting, an anti-vaccine extremist threatened Quick and announced her home address, inciting protesters to visit her house. In Ohio, armed demonstrators marched outside Acton’s home. These missions were straightforward: Bully public health officials into supporting their demands.

...

California is not the only state where legislators and public health advocates have been threatened. Similar intimidation tactics were used in Oregon, Washington, New York, New Jersey, and Colorado. Physicians such as Paul Offit, Todd Wolynn, and Nicole Baldwin have endured personal attacks, including fake practice ratings and death threats, for supporting vaccination. Parents sharing stories of their children who died of vaccine-preventable diseases have faced heartbreaking hatred and bullying from the same extremists, as have individuals who speak out in support of vaccines.

The extremists are crowing about their success in forcing the resignations of Quick and Acton, and are planning to target more public health officers.

Public Health Under Siege

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Alan Greenblatt at Governing:

Across the country, health officials have been met with armed protesters at their homes and been subjected to anti-Semitic or transphobic slurs. On social media, they encounter posts that include phrases such as “let’s start shooting” and “bodies swinging from trees.” As the nation faces its gravest health challenge in more than a century, many leaders in public health are reluctantly leaving the field.
...
It’s true that there have been protests over health policy questions before, from abortion to the Affordable Care Act. Death threats have also become a fact of life for prominent physicians promoting vaccine use, given the virulence of the anti-vaccine movement.

But anger has never been so deep in so many places as during the coronavirus pandemic. Health officials, who have possessed shutdown authority in many jurisdictions for more than a century, haven’t had to use it for decades. People aren’t used to having their freedoms impinged upon so widely or for so long.

“People are enormously frustrated and angry and worn down, and so they lash out,” says Paul Offit, an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. “You shoot the messenger. What you really want to shoot is the virus, but instead you shoot the people who tell you about the virus.”
...

[Georges] Benjamin, the APHA director, notes that public health decisions are often controversial enough to meet with protests. Big, burly men might show up at a hearing to express their displeasure about having to wear motorcycle helmets. Abortion opponents have bombed clinics and murdered physicians. Anti-vaccine protesters have targeted lawmakers with death threats and other intimidation tactics.

But protests targeting individual health officials have reached a new level. “It’s true we’ve had protests,” Benjamin says. “We’ve had offices taken over by AIDS activists, but I don’t think anyone felt threatened. They told us they were coming.”

Facebook Has Failed to Act against Abusive Antivaxxers

In The Politics of Autism, I look at the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms have helped spread this dangerous myth

Elizabeth Cohen at CNN:

Nine months after Facebook vowed to investigate abuse by anti-vaxxers, no users have been penalized.  

As detailed in a CNN report last year, anti-vaxxers have posted violent, horrific comments and death threats to vaccine advocates -- including mothers who've lost their children -- calling them the c-word and telling them they deserved to have their children die.

One mother who lost a child, Catherine Hughes, says she received thousands of abusive comments, including death threats. She was called a whore and told to kill herself. CNN shared some of these comments with Facebook, and Facebook agreed they were in violation of community standards. Still, Facebook took no action against those users, or others who tormented vaccine advocates, according to a Facebook spokesperson.

"It feels like Facebook doesn't care, like they think this is not their responsibility," said Hughes, who lost her infant son, Riley, to whooping cough in 2015, before he was old enough to be vaccinated against the disease.   

Biden on Disabilities

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential campaigns.

Earlier in the race, Biden received criticism for lacking a disability plan.  Now,Biden has released his full disability plan:

Read Joe Biden’s plan to support people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic at https://joebiden.com/covid19-disabilities/.

Joe Biden believes that everyone should be treated with dignity and have a fair shot at getting ahead. This year, on July 26, we will mark the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Thanks to the leadership of people with disabilities, disability advocates, and their allies, we have made progress towards the goals of this law—“equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency” for people with disabilities. But, there is much more work to do in order to ensure that all people with disabilities are able to participate fully in our communities and enjoy the same kinds of choices and opportunities that many Americans take for granted.
...

To accomplish these goals, as President, Biden will:

• Ensure full inclusion of people with disabilities in policy development and aggressively enforce the civil rights of people with disabilities.
• Guarantee access to high-quality, affordable health care, including mental health care, and expand access to home and community-based services and long-term services and supports in the most integrated setting appropriate to each person’s needs and based on self-determination.
• Expand competitive, integrated employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
• Protect and strengthen economic security for people with disabilities.
• Ensure that students with disabilities have access to educational programs and support they need to succeed, from early interventions to post-secondary education.
• Expand access to accessible, integrated, and affordable housing, transportation, and assistive technologies and protect people with disabilities in emergencies.
• Advance global disability rights.

Some specifics:

Work with Congress to pass legislation ensuring adherence to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision. The Olmstead decision requires government programs to provide people with disabilities the choice to “live, work, and receive services in integrated settings” appropriate to their needs. The Obama-Biden Administration made enforcement of Olmstead a top priority. As President, Biden will ensure every agency aggressively enforces Olmstead’s integration mandate, including in housing, education, health care, employment, and transportation. As President, Biden will work with Congress to ensure that people with disabilities no longer have to wait for decades to access community-based services.

Safeguard against efforts to weaken the ADA and push for strong ADA compliance. Although much progress has been made in achieving accommodations for people with disabilities through the ADA, Biden will continue to advocate for stronger ADA enforcement. He will support the Disabled Access Credit Expansion Act, which will increase tax credits for small businesses to improve accessibility and comply with the ADA.

Nominate judges who support disability rights and reflect the diversity of our country. Biden will nominate individuals to the judiciary who are committed to the rule of law, understand the importance of individual civil rights and civil liberties in a democratic society, and respect foundational precedents including Olmstead v. LC. Biden will also make it a priority to appoint judges who reflect the diversity of our country, including people with disabilities.

Direct the U.S. Department of Justice to review guardianship laws, with an eye toward ensuring that citizens with disabilities are able to exercise self-determination consistent with the ADA. And, the Biden Administration will promote efforts to provide people with disabilities viable alternatives to guardianship if they need decision-making assistance, including supported decision-making.

Protect the parental rights of people with disabilities. Many states have laws that allow a parent’s disability to be considered in making a determination regarding their fitness to be a parent. Biden will ensure that child welfare agencies and family courts do not violate the rights of parents with disabilities and that they have appropriate training to fairly assess parental capacity in a non-discriminatory manner.

...

Expand access to high-quality early childhood supports and education. Biden will fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), including Part C, which provides resources and support for infants and toddlers with disabilities, and Section 619, which provides resources for preschool children with disabilities. Biden will direct his HHS to ensure that all eligible children receive Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) services and address the challenges outlined in GAO’s 2019 report. IDEA Part C, Part B Section 619, and EPSDT services are critical in identifying potential vision, hearing, developmental, and other issues and providing needed supports and services for children. For example, language deprivation for children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing in the early years of life can have lasting impact on a child’s language and cognitive skills. Biden will provide parents, health care providers, and early childhood professionals the resources needed to support these children, including access to Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and language-rich environments, and work with the community to develop development milestones. He will ensure that early intervention professionals provide equitable resources to support language learning to parents of children aged 0-5.

Support students with disabilities in elementary and secondary school. Biden will ensure that no child’s future is determined by their zip code, parents’ income, race, or disability.

He will:

• Fulfill IDEA’s promise of free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment for students with disabilities. Biden will fully fund and enforce IDEA and triple Title I funding to increase resources available to educators to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Biden will ensure that schools provide students with disabilities appropriate support, including sign language interpreters, readers, door-to-door transportation, computer-assisted devices, augmentative and alternative communication, as well as braille materials. He will also increase funding for Parent Training Centers.

...

• Address the disparities in school discipline, including suspension, expulsion, and segregation. Biden will fully implement the special education significant disproportionality regulation that the Obama-Biden Administration put in place and support the passage of the Keeping All Students Safe Act, which will end the use of seclusion and prevent and decrease the use of physical restraints in schools.
• Ensure that students of color are not inappropriately identified as having disabilities, while also ensuring that students of color with disabilities have the support to succeed. African American students are 40% more likely to be identified as having any disability, and twice as likely to be identified as having certain disabilities, such as emotional disturbance and intellectual disabilities. The Obama-Biden Administration issued regulations to address racial disparities in special education programs, including disproportionate identification. The Trump Administration attempted to illegally delay the Obama-Biden Administration’s regulation. Biden will fully implement this regulation and provide educators with the resources they need to provide students with disabilities a high-quality education.

...

Working to ratify the Disabilities Treaty. The United States in 2009 signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a treaty which reflects the principles of the American with Disabilities Act. Biden will work with the Senate to ratify the Disabilities Treaty and regain our global standing as a leader on disability rights.

Celebrating the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities, every December 3, to recognize the accomplishments and challenges of persons with disabilities in the U.S. and around the world and amplify the mantra of the disability rights movement: “Nothing About Us, Without Us.”

Antivaxxers Harass Pediatrician

In The Politics of Autism, I look at the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms have helped spread this dangerous myth. Measles can kill.

Too often, antivaxxers have resorted to bullying and harassment.

Erin Glynn at the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Nicole Baldwin, a pediatrician working in suburban Cincinnati, posted a TIkTok video encouraging vaccination on Twitter Saturday evening [Jan 11].

It took less than 24 hours for the video to go viral on both TikTok, a video sharing app, and Twitter – and just another 48 hours before Baldwin was facing backlash from hundreds of thousands of people associated with the anti-vaccine movement.

The video shows Baldwin dancing to "Cupid Shuffle" and pointing to diseases that vaccines prevent. It ends with her pointing to the words "Vaccines don't cause autism."

... 

Commenters across Baldwin’s social media platforms insulted her, referred to vaccines as “poison” and suggested Baldwin was being paid to promote vaccination. One commenter wrote, “Dead doctors don’t lie.” People then flocked to her Yelp and Google Review pages, leaving one-star reviews in an attempt to sabotage Baldwin’s ratings.

...
By Tuesday, people started calling Baldwin’s practice and harassing the staff. When a woman called on Wednesday threatening to “shut the practice down,” the office had to call the police. Deerfield Township police, where Baldwin has a satellite office, said they're investigating.  

Baldwin reached out to Todd Wolynn, a colleague she had met a couple of months earlier at an event in Columbus and CEO of a pediatric practice in Pittsburgh. Wolynn had dealt with his own intense online backlash from the anti-vaccine movement two years prior and started the organization Shots Heard Round the World as a result.

Study of Bullying

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss challenges facing autistic adults and children.  One is bullying.

Danequa L. Forrest, Rhiannon A. Kroeger, and Samuel Stroope have an article at the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders titled "Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms and Bullying Victimization Among Children with Autism in the United States."

The abstract:

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience more frequent bullying victimization compared to their neurotypical peers. This study used the 2011 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services to examine associations between six Children’s Social Behavior Questionnaire (CSBQ) subscales and bullying victimization among 1057 children with ASD. Bivariate results showed significant correlations between each CSBQ subscale and more frequent bullying victimization. Yet results from multinomial logistic regression models indicated that after adjusting for all CSBQ subscales and covariates, two of the CSBQ subscales remained significantly associated with greater risk of bullying victimization: not being optimally tuned to the social situation, and resistance to changes. Implications for future research and efforts toward reducing bullying victimization among children with ASD are discussed.

From the article:

Interventions for school bullying may be especially effective to reduce and prevent bullying victimization. In addition to the safety, health, and academic impacts of bullying on children who may already face significant life challenges, school districts receive funding based on student attendance, which can be low in schools where bullying is common due to children feeling unsafe in their environment. For example, California school districts lose roughly $276 million a year due to students not feeling safe and staying home (Baams et al. 2017). Schools have an economic responsibility to address bullying. Research has found that parents and teachers generally support the idea of bullying prevention programs, and they are more likely to approve such programs if they have witnessed a child being bullied (Gradinger et al. 2017). The effectiveness of anti-bullying programs on reducing victimization is directly related to teacher involvement (Li et al. 2017), suggesting that reducing bullying goes beyond initiating programs and extends to supporting teachers as they implement programs. Interventions on average decrease bullying by 20–23% and victimization by 17–20% (Ttof and Farrington 2011). If effective, interventions could ultimately help decrease violent offending and drug use in perpetrators of bullying (Farrington and Ttof 2011) and prevent health problems such as depression associated with bullying victimization (Farrington et al. 2011), with implications for individual, school, and community well-being

Bullying of Students with Disabilities

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss challenges facing autistic adults and children.  One is bullying.

The National Center on Education Statistics has a new report on bullying.

Among students who reported being bullied: Perceived relationship of bullying to

Race .........................9.5%
Religion ..................  4.5
Ethnic origin .............7.3
Disability ............7.3
Gender ......................7.5
Sexual orientation ... 3.6
Appearance ...........   29.7

Antivax Grifters and Bullies

In The Politics of Autism, I look at the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism.  Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms have helped spread this dangerous myth.

Anna Merlan at Jezebel:

A deep dive into the world of Generation Rescue has revealed that the organization doesn’t just promote ineffective or medically unproven or downright debunked treatments for autism (all of which has been demonstrated before): The organization and the people associated with it profit from them, too. In two cases, Generation Rescue has heavily promoted products owned by past board members, at the time they served on the board: hyperbaric oxygen chambers and B12 lollipops, both of which have been presented on GR’s website as near-miraculous treatments for symptoms of autism.

In another case, Generation Rescue has lavishly praised and promoted products made by a corporate sponsor—the maker of a ionic footbath that supposedly “cleanses” “toxins” from the body—without directly revealing the company’s business relationship with GR. Families can also apply for “grants” from Generation Rescue, which funnels them into receiving treatment—and buying more products—from handpicked naturopathic doctors and GR partner organizations. (As of March 2019, Generation Rescue says on their site that applications to the grant program are temporarily closed while they update “critical pieces” of the program.)

Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonifield, at CNN

Interviews with mothers who've lost children and with those who spy on anti-vaccination groups, reveal a tactic employed by anti-vaxers: When a child dies, members of the group sometimes encourage each other to go on that parent's Facebook page. The anti-vaxers then post messages telling the parents they're lying and their child never existed, or that the parent murdered them, or that vaccines killed the child, or some combination of all of those.

Nothing is considered too cruel. Just days after their children died, mothers say anti-vaxers on social media called them whores, the c-word and baby killers.

The mother in the Midwest, who wants to remain anonymous, isn't alone.

Jill Promoli, who lives outside Toronto, lost her son to flu. She believes the anti-vaxers are trying to silence the very people who can make the strongest argument for vaccinations: those whose children died of vaccine-preventable illnesses.

Abuse of Children with Autism and other Disabilities

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

People with disabilities are victims of violent crime three times as often as people without disabilities. The Bureau of Justice Statistics does not report separately on autistic victims, but it does note that the victimization rate is especially high among those whose disabilities are cognitive. A small-sample study of Americans and Canadians found that adults with autism face a greater risk of sexual victimization than their peers. Autistic respondents were more than twice as likely to say that had been the victim of rape and over three times as likely to report unwanted sexual contact.

The UN Population fund has a study titled Young Persons with Disabilities: Global Study on Ending Gender-Based Violence, and RealisingSexual and Reproductive Health and Rights 

Children who are deaf, blind, or autistic, have psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, or have multiple impairments are most vulnerable to all forms of violence. Studies have found that children with intellectual disabilities are five times more likely to be subjected to abuse than other children are and are far more vulnerable to bullying.

Jones, L., Bellis, M., Wood, S., Hughes, K. McCoy, E., Eckley, L., & Bates, G. (2013). The State of the World’s Children 2013, Children with Disabilities. Essays. Focus: Violence against Children with Disabilities. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/sowc2013/focus_violence.html; Lisa Jones, et al. (2012). Prevalence and Risk of Violence against Children with Disabilities: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies, The Lancet 380, 899–907; United Nations (2017). Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and young women with disabilities, A/72/133; Meer, T. & Combrinck, H. (2015). Invisible Intersections: Understanding the complex stigmatisation of women with intellectual disabilities in their vulnerability to gender-based violence, Agenda 29(2), 14- 23; Braathen, A., Rohleder, P. & Azalde, G. (2017). Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Girls with Disabilities: A review of the literature. 18-19. 66 Jones, L., Bellis, M., Wood, S., Hughes, K. McCoy, E., Eckley, L., & Bates, G. (2013). The State of the World’s Children 2013, Children with Disabilities. Essays. Focus: Violence against Children with Disabilities. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/sowc2013/focus_violence.html; Spencer, N., Devereux, E., Wallace, A., Sundrum, R., Shenoy, M., Bacchus, C. & Logan, S. (2005). Disabling conditions and registration for child abuse and neglect: a population based study, Paediatrics 116: 609–613; and Sweden, The Swedish National Institute of Public Health (Folkhälsoinstitutet) (2012). Health and Welfare of children and young people with disabilities (Hälsa och välfärd hos barn och unga med funktionsnedsättning). 39 and 50; as cited in European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2015). Violence against children with disabilities: legislation, policies and programmes in the EU. Retrieved from http://fra.europa.eu/en/ publication/2015/children-disabilities-violence.

A Community Responds to Bullying

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss challenges facing autistic adults and children.  One is bullying.

At KABC-TV in Los Angeles, Rob McMillan reports on a Colton, CA middle school student with autism.

"Every time when I start school, I've been bullied," Samuel Aragon, 13, said. "I just want the bullying to stop."

Aragon's mother, Desiree Reyes, said her son was particularly troubled by a recent incident, in which her son's Nike shoes were stolen. The black and white Air Jordans were allegedly stolen from his locker by a classmate.

"It's not fair for kids who don't speak up, or can't speak up, because their voices can't be heard," Reyes said.

Furious, Reyes posted a request for help on Facebook, alerting parents to what happened.

But what happened next was a surprise. The community raised $215 to buy her son a new pair of shoes. The effort was spearheaded by Colton resident Daniella Chavez.

Study of Bullying

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss challenges facing autistic adults and children.  One is bullying.

At the Journal of Child and Family Studies, Lydie A. Lebrun-Harris and colleagues have a study titled "Bullying Victimization and Perpetration among U.S. Children and Adolescents: 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health."

Bullying is a serious public health issue among children and adolescents in the United States. Existing national data sources provide limited current information about involvement in bullying among youth. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of parent-reported bullying victimization and perpetration among U.S. children and adolescents ages 6–17 years using nationally representative data, and to examine health-related factors associated with bullying experiences. We conducted secondary data analysis of the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health, and stratified the sample by age (6–11 years, 12–17 years). We performed bivariate analyses to examine prevalence of bullying experiences according to demographic characteristics, health conditions, health behaviors, health services, and family environment. Using multivariable logistic regressions, we assessed the association between these factors and bullying experiences. Results showed that 22.7% of U.S. children and adolescents were bullied by others and 6.4% bullied others. The rate of bullying victimization was slightly higher among 6–11 year olds than among 12–17 year olds (24.1 vs. 21.1%, p = 0.011). The rate of bullying perpetration was 7.2% among children and 5.6% among adolescents but the difference between age groups was not statistically significant (p = 0.086). Several health conditions and health services factors were associated with either bullying victimization or perpetration, including special health care needs, internalizing problems, behavior or conduct problems, speech or other language disorders, autism, and unmet need for mental health treatment or counseling. Bullying victimization was also strongly associated with bullying perpetration.

From the article:

This study is consistent with others (National Academies 2016) in highlighting the need for universal prevention efforts and targeted services for children and adolescents to address bullying, Findings from this study suggest that such efforts should begin at young ages and address the needs of those who are at greatest risk of being bullied, including those with special health care needs, internalizing problems, behavioral and conduct problems, autism, and speech or other language disorders. Results also reveal opportunities to improve access to mental health services for youth experiencing bullying. Efforts should be made to target Journal of Child and Family Studies bullying prevention strategies where children and adolescents at higher risk are served, such as during health care visits and mental health visits. Parents, educators, speech and occupational therapists, coaches, and other adults who are in frequent contact with children and adolescents, should be offered training on bullying, who is at the greatest risk, and prevention and intervention strategies