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.

CVS Drops Case

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities. 

Michael Roppolo at CBS:

The CVS pharmacy chain has reached an agreement with a coalition of disability rights organizations and dropped a legal case that had made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court was scheduled to hear arguments in the dispute next month, and the ruling could have had far-reaching effects on disability rights.

The company formally withdrew its complaint Thursday and announced a new partnership to work with four groups, including the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund.

"We've agreed to pursue policy solutions in collaboration with the disability community to help protect access to affordable health plan programs that apply equally to all members," a CVS spokesperson told CBS News. "Any further legal proceedings will take place in district court when the case is remanded."

The case, CVS Pharmacy, Inc. vs. Doe, stemmed from a lawsuit filed against CVS by multiple people who take prescription drugs for HIV/AIDS. The plaintiffs objected to changes to the company's terms that meant they could not opt out of mail-only delivery or utilize another pharmacy with experience handling their special medication needs. They argued it had a discriminatory impact on them, even if that wasn't the company's intent.

"When encouraging CVS to withdraw this case, the disability community asked CVS to find a different regulatory or policy venue other than the Supreme Court to address its concerns and agreed to work with CVS to do so," Maria Town, president and CEO of AAPD, told CBS News in a statement.

"A core [tenet] of the disability rights movement is 'Nothing about us without us,' and that's what this partnership achieves," Town added.

Criminal Justice and Autism

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between police and autistic people.  Police officers need training to respond appropriately.  When they do not -- as recent events have shown -- things get out of hand. 

A release from Drexel University:

Across the United States, reports of autistic youth experiencing dangerous, life-altering and even fatal interactions with the criminal justice system are becoming more common. Research suggests that autistic individuals interact with police at high rates and individuals with disabilities disproportionately experience police violence.

Researchers from the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University recently published research that identified the experiences of autistic individuals and their caregivers across their interactions with the criminal justice system through analysis of a statewide survey in Pennsylvania.

The study analyzed free-text responses and multiple-choice questions about types of justice system interactions from the 2018 Pennsylvania Autism Needs Assessment (2018 PANA), a large survey of autistic individuals and their families that included questions about demographic and clinical information, as well as service needs and experiences.

The study sample of 3,902 individuals represents 47% of the full 8,240 respondents to the 2018 PANA. A total of 839 respondents reported information about their criminal justice system interaction through the free-text question.

The findings highlighted the detailed experiences of autistic individuals and their caregivers as victims of an interaction, criminal offenders and witnesses to a crime, with respondents reporting both positive and negative experiences. Researchers also identified an increased risk for interaction with the justice system, including being male and having a co-occurring psychiatric diagnosis.

• Among autistic adult respondents, males were almost twice as likely to be stopped and questioned by police, arrested or charged, while females were at 32% greater odds of being the victim of a crime.
• Having a psychiatric co-occurring diagnosis was associated with about 2.7 times the odds of any justice system interaction and 2.4 times the odds of being a victim of a crime among autistic individuals.
• Among caregiver respondents, having an annual household income greater than $40,000 were protective against being a victim of a crime.
• Living with a roommate or family member was protective against being the victim of a crime among caregiver respondents regarding their autistic child.

Analysis of the free-text responses yielded several themes.

• One-quarter of respondents described being the victim of a crime.
• One-quarter of respondents described being an offender.
• A small number of respondents (1.5%) described being a witness to a crime.
• Almost equal proportions of respondents described a positive perception of the justice system (8%) and negative perception of the justice System (9%).
• Finally, a small but notable proportion of respondents (1.5%) identified having a concern for there being a future interaction with the justice system.

“These findings are impactful because they come directly from the voices of autistic individuals and their families,” said Kaitlin Koffer Miller, lead author of the study and director of Policy Impact in the Policy and Analytics Center in the Autism Institute. “Understanding the type and scope of justice interaction helps to plan for and address issues that could prevent future interactions of all types.”

The research team explained that increasing access for autistic individuals to home and community-based services and supports can prevent or mitigate interactions between autistic individuals and the justice system, both as victims and offenders. It is the hope of the study team that findings from this study will propel policy to increase access to the needed supports to prevent these unwanted outcomes for autistic individuals.

Additionally, expanding pilot justice programs that include mental health professionals in crisis responses, like the co-responder model, will be beneficial to ensure minimal trauma and escalation of a justice system interaction.

The study, “Justice System Interactions Among Autistic Individuals: A Multiple Methods Analysis,” was recently published in the journal Crime & Delinquency. Co-authors include Alec Becker, Dylan Cooper and Lindsay Shea, DrPH of Drexel University.

TSA and Autism

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.  One challenge is that autism is an "invisible disability," which does not have obvious physical markers.  

Joseph Shapiro and Allison Mollenkamp at NPR:

The TSA does measure the growing popularity of its TSA Cares program. People can call in advance and be met by a trained airport agent who will escort people with disabilities through security. There were 14,674 requests for assistance in the program's first year — fiscal year 2015 — and 27,711 requests in 2019.
...

The TSA says the largest number of requests came for people with autism — who can find the noise and chaos of an airport difficult to handle.

Sarah Maxfield says that for her autistic son, going through airport security is "like a gauntlet of everything horrible for him." TSA agents, strangers to him, yell orders, rush him, take his things from him to be screened and separate him from his family. TSA agents, she says, "are not exactly calm, kind, gentle or patient."

There was one exception: an agent who took the time to learn the child's "superhero name" — the name he prefers to be called — "and it made a huge difference."

Sandra Zeigler, an autistic adult, explained that her audio-processing delays can make her slower to respond to spoken instructions from TSA agents. At airports, she's repeatedly "yelled at" and "scolded in embarrassing manners" by agents and sometimes as a result, she believes, is pulled out for additional bag screening.

Now, she wears T-shirts to signal to agents that she's autistic. "Autistic and Proud" says one. Another says "Autistic and Vaccinated" in bold letters and then, underneath, "No Relation."

"The sad thing is that we have to 'out' ourselves to get that sort of understanding in stressful and overwhelming situations," Zeigler says.

Autistic Soldiers in Israel

In The Politics of Autism, I note that we need more study of how autistic people fare in other countries.

Anna Ahronheim at The Jerusalem Post:

After years of exempting them from serving in the Israeli military, the IDF is aiming to recruit some 500 soldiers on the autism spectrum by the end of next year.

The future soldiers will join the army as part of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate’s TITKADMU program which recruits people with autism into the military.

“Today there are 52 soldiers with autism in the program, and by the end of December, we will have 70. By the end of 2022 there will be over 500,” said Capt. Udi Heller.

Heller, the highest-ranking soldier with autism in the IDF, initiated the program which he says gives hope to the thousands of people with autism in Israel.

According to Heller, there’s been an 18% increase year-by-year of those diagnosed with autism in Israel’s education system; 19,500 diagnosed in 2019, 27,300 in 2020, and some 32,000 this year.

Antivax McCarthyism

 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.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.  

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene:

The purge is a critical piece to the Communist Revolution in America.

Purging their political opponents and anyone who won’t comply with their authoritarian demands are essential moves in communist countries.

2/5

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) November 7, 2021 

People such as Greene are reviving accusations of communism, which had largely been in abeyance since the 1950s.  During that decades, right-wing kooks warned that fluoridation, vaccination, and "mental hygiene" were communist plots.  Also, like Greene, who has hinted that the Rothschilds funded a space laser, the 1950s nuts trafficked in anti-Semitism.

 

Police Training in Texas

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between police and autistic people.  Police officers need training to respond appropriately.  When they do not -- as recent events have shown -- things get out of hand. 

Some communities have such training.  The next step is evaluation of what works.

 At KWKT-TV, Jessica Rivera reports:

Crisis Intervention courses help ease communication between officers and people in need – especially in a high stress situation.

On Wednesday evening, officers sat in a Crisis Intervention course – a new way for officers to help those in our community who may have developmental or cognitive challenges.

“So all law enforcement in the last training cycle were required to take the 40-hour course, and we give them this time, where they get to learn specifically about autism,” says Waco police officer Bradley Delange.

For Tres Jackson, it’s important for him that law enforcement gets this kind of training.

“And it’s pretty common that they’re out to people who are like me, because I know some who have been arrested by police because they were doing something they should have done,” Jackson says.

On his driver’s license, it has a notification to alert the Police Department that Tres has communication challenges because of autism.

“It tips off the officer in a really bold way, that we see that on the license. And in addition, when we run that driver’s license, our dispatcher will tell us that that subject has a communication delay,” says Delange.

Last week the District Attorney’s Office donated Autism Sensory Kits to the Waco Police Department.

“Anything in this bag, it’s going to soothe them. It’s going to disarm them. It’s going to de-escalate the situation and help me connect,” says Anne Jackson, ADA with the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office.

Jackson and her son Tres travel all over the Central Texas area to give presentations for law enforcement on the importance of proper communication between officers and those who have special needs.

 

Independent Study Litigation

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families. Those challenges get far more intense during disasters.  And coronavirus is proving to be the biggest disaster of all. 

Carolyn Jones at EdSource:

Sudents in special education who had been denied access to independent study won their first round in court Friday when a judge ordered those students’ school districts to reinstate their remote learning plans.

Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court in Northern California granted a temporary restraining order to a dozen students who were part of a lawsuit over California’s independent study program. The suit, filed by disability rights groups, claimed that the state discriminated against disabled students by not allowing them to participate in independent study this school year.

“I’m so happy. I’m looking forward to Liam being able to learn again and get the services he needs. That’s really all we’ve been asking for,” said Kirsten Neilsen, a parent in Long Beach whose son was among the plaintiffs in the complaint. “The judge’s ruling just shows what a strong case we have.”

When Assembly Bill 130 passed in July, California schools were required to offer in-person classes to all students except the few who qualified for independent study. Some students in special education — such as those with severe cognitive or developmental disabilities that prevent them from wearing masks, or students who were especially vulnerable to Covid — could not attend in-person school for health reasons, but were shut out of independent study because it wasn’t specified in their individualized education programs.

SCOTUS Case on Disability Law

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities. 

Michael Roppolo at CBS:

The Supreme Court will hear a case next month that could have far-reaching effects on disability rights. The question at the heart of the case, CVS Pharmacy, Inc. vs. Doe, is whether claims of unintentional discrimination against people with disabilities are allowed under federal law.

At issue is language in Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act — language that is used in two other landmark laws: the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Affordable Care Act, protecting against discrimination for those with preexisting conditions. Section 504 bars "criteria and methods of administration that have the effect of subjecting" disabled people to discrimination on the basis of disability.

The Supreme Court case stems from a lawsuit filed against CVS by multiple people who take prescription drugs for HIV/AIDS and say changes to the company's terms now meant they could not opt out of mail-only delivery or utilize another pharmacy with experience handling their special medication needs.

They argued that, even if unintentionally, the company's policy had a discriminatory effect. The suit was thrown out, with the trial court ruling that the problems they described did not violate federal disability laws.

When they appealed, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the unnamed plaintiffs, known as the Does. CVS then appealed to the highest court in the land, saying in court filings the ruling would "upend insurance plans and skyrocket healthcare costs nationwide."

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a brief supporting the Does.

The Supreme Court justices will hear arguments in the case on December 7.

Advocacy groups are sounding the alarm, with organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), and The Arc of the United States filing briefs in support of the Does.

Letter to the Board of Directors of CVS Health

Re: CVS v. Doe, 20-1374 (U.S.)

Dear Members of the Board of Directors of CVS Health, including President Lynch:

We are members and leaders of the disability and HIV communities, and we write to urge CVS to remove the CVS v. Doe case from review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The brief filed by CVS attacks the very foundation of disability rights law. The argument asserted is not necessary to address the facts of the case and has far reaching implications setting back more than 40 years of hard-fought-for civil rights of people with disabilities. This brief directly conflicts with CVS’s long-time commitment to the inclusion of people with disabilities.[1] The disability and HIV communities cannot accept this wholesale assault on our civil rights and demand an immediate meeting with the company’s Board of Directors board to explain our deeply held concerns. CVS cannot position itself without consequence as the corporate entity that sought to turn back the clock for disability rights.

In CVS v. Doe, CVS’ lawyers seek to remove established “disparate impact” protections from Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. These safeguards are at the heart of disability rights laws which recognize that disability exclusion, segregation, and provision of inferior services are most often the result of thoughtlessness and neglect, not animus.

Disparate impact discrimination means discrimination that occurs not because of an intent to discriminate against disabled people but because of facially neutral policies that operate to disadvantage people with disabilities. If disability laws only addressed intentional acts of discrimination, disabled people would not be able to participate and contribute to society the core goal of Section 504, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and all federal and state laws that are intended to bring disabled people into the mainstream of American life.[2]

Common examples of this kind of discrimination include:
the failure to provide accessible spaces with ramps and elevators;
the use of trains or buses in public transit that are not wheelchair accessible;
the failure to provide sign language interpreters or alternative formats such as Braille;
the launch of websites and mobile apps that are unusable by blind people and others with disabilities; and
policies that seem neutral but that actually function to exclude people with disabilities such as sending critical Social Security Administration benefit notices to blind people in standard print,[3] disallowing motorized vehicles in federal parks,[4] zoning rules that deter or prohibit group residences for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities,[5] or a health care rationing policy for COVID-19 that gives a lower priority for scarce life-saving resources to individuals based on “life years” or “quality of life,” putting disabled people at the back of the line.[6]

Disabled people are faced with these barriers day in and day out. Before Section 504 people with disabilities had no recourse in American civil rights laws to challenge these practices. That is why the disability community galvanized to ensure that the Section 504 regulations reflect Congress’s intent to protect disabled people from policies that perpetuate inequality, whether by design or effect. The regulations and the events that led to them including the longest sit-in of a federal building in history were featured in the Oscar-nominated 2020 movie Crip Camp viewed by millions.[7] The original Section 504 regulations[8] were made final in 1977 after years of serious negotiation and discussion among government representatives, affected parties, and the disability community.

The Honorable Dr. Judith Heumann,[9] a leader of the movement which brought about these regulations, recounted to Congress during the hearings for the ADA her many experiences with discrimination based on paternalism, discriminatory criteria, and stereotypes that were couched in neutral terms:


When I was 5 my mother proudly pushed my wheelchair to our local public school, where I was promptly refused admission because the principal ruled that I was a fire hazard. I was forced to go into home instruction, receiving one hour of education trice a week for 3 years. …

When I was 19, the house mother of my college dormitory refused me admission into the dorm because I was in a wheelchair and needed assistance.[10]

Since 1977, Section 504’s implementing regulations promulgated by dozens of federal agencies have included explicit protections against disparate impact discrimination. The ADA incorporates these regulations.[11] Discrimination in federally conducted programs, like Veterans Administration programs and Social Security Administration benefits, are based on these regulations.[12] All federal and state disability laws across the country use the basic, accepted tenet of disability protections established in these regulations which CVS seeks to invalidate that equal opportunity for people with disability requires the removal of architectural, communication and policy barriers regardless of an intent to discriminate.

CVS has long demonstrated its support for the disability community, including through its commitment to disability inclusion in employment. You have a 100% rating from the Disability Equality Index, and received the Excellence in Disability Inclusion award from the U.S. Department of Labor in 2020.[13] CVS Health’s Workforce Initiatives team has worked for decades to develop relationships with vocational rehabilitation agencies, non-profit organizations, and schools to provide job coaching, mentoring, training and follow-up support through the Abilities in Abundance program.[14] The company was one of the first alliances established by the US Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy to increase the employment of people with disabilities.[15] But these achievements and commitments are hollow given the attack on disability rights by CVS’s lawyers in CVS v. Doe.

If CVS’s bid to eliminate disparate impact discrimination protections is successful, core disability rights protections will be eviscerated, with particularly dire effects in several key areas, including nondiscrimination in federal government programs and health care. The disability and HIV rights communities are united in our upset and outrage that CVS is seeking to eliminate these core rights.

We understand that CVS has an interest in defending its business operations and programs. If CVS pulls the case from the Supreme Court, it can return to the trial court and defend its interests under existing disability rights principles, including the balanced “meaningful access” test articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Alexander v. Choate, 469 U.S. 287 (1985). It can argue and present evidence that the plaintiffs should lose their case (as did the plaintiffs in Choate) without asking the Supreme Court to gut decades of disability law.

Again, we urge you to rescind your request that the Supreme Court eliminate foundational portions of the Rehabilitation Act, and we look forward to discussing these concerns with you in more detail at the earliest possible opportunity.

Please contact Maria Town at 985-507-6805, mtown@aapd.com, to schedule a meeting.

Sincerely yours,

The Honorable Dr. Judith Heumann
Former Special Advisor for International Disability Rights, U.S. State Department
Former Assistant Secretary of Education for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education

Maria Town, President and CEO
American Association of People with Disabilities

Jeff Crowley, Program Director, Infectious Disease Initiatives,
O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown Law
Former Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy and Senior Advisor on Disability Policy, The White House

The Honorable Tony Coelho, Former Member of Congress and Founder
Coelho Center for Disability, Law, Policy and Innovation at Loyola Law School

Heather Ansley, Associate Executive Director, Government Relations
Paralyzed Veterans of America

Julia Bascom, Executive Director
Autistic Self Advocacy Network

Peter Berns, Chief Executive Officer
The Arc of the United States

Lydia Brown, Director of Policy, Advocacy, & External Affairs
Autistic Women & Non-Binary Network

Diane Coleman, President and CEO
Not Dead Yet

Armando Contreras, President and CEO
United Cerebral Palsy

Connie Garner, Executive Director
Allies for Independence

Andraa LaVant, Founder and President
LaVant Consulting, Inc.
Consultant and Impact Producer, Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution

Reyma McCoy-McDeid, Executive Director
National Council on Independent Living

Jesse Milan, Jr., JD, President & CEO
AIDS United

Kishani C. Moreno, MA, Interim CEO and COO
GMHC

Vincenzo Piscopo, President and CEO
United Spinal Association

Clark Rachfal, Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs,
American Council of the Blind

Kevin Rogers, Interim CEO
San Francisco AIDS Foundation

Howard Rosenblum, CEO
National Association of the Deaf

Brad Sears, Associate Dean of Public Interest Law
Founding Executive Director
The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law

Craig E. Thompson, CEO
APLA Health

Laura Thrall, President and CEO
Epilepsy Foundation

Alice Wong, Founder

Disability Visibility Project

 

Center for Neurodiversity at Aurora University

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the growing number of college students on the spectrum. 

From Aurora University in Illinois:

Aurora University today announced the new Betty Parke Tucker Center for Neurodiversity to support students on the autism spectrum as they earn their college degrees and take their first steps toward launching their careers. The center will house AU’s Pathways Program for college-capable students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and include a first-of-its-kind, newly constructed residence hall with sensory supportive features designed specifically for college students with ASD. The residence hall will house both neurodiverse and neurotypical students as part of the university’s effort to integrate students with autism into campus life.

AU will welcome its first class of college freshmen and transfer students on the autism spectrum into the Pathways Collegiate Program for the 2022-2023 academic year, and applications are already underway.

“We are thrilled to be one of the first universities in the nation to welcome college-capable students on the spectrum to a fully immersive campus experience that will help them reach their potential in their studies and their careers,” said AU President Rebecca L. Sherrick. “These young people have so much to share and contribute. We know that when provided with the right support, the right environment, the right encouragement, college-capable students on the spectrum will earn their degrees and take meaningful roles in society and productive roles in the workplace.”

The Betty Parke Tucker Center for Neurodiversity was made possible by a $1.3 million gift from alumnus Don Tucker ’51 in memory of his late wife Betty Parke Tucker ’52. A graduate of Aurora College, Betty Parke Tucker devoted more than 40 years to the education community as an elementary teacher, guidance counselor, and school psychologist. She had a heart for students who didn’t adjust easily and made it her life’s work to help lift them up. The lead gift in her honor establishes a fund to support AU students with ASD and exemplifies her lifelong commitment to education and her belief that students facing challenges have the capacity to excel — provided educators create the right structure and support.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of ASD diagnosis in the U.S. is one in 54 children, more than double the rate of 1 in 110 a decade earlier – making ASD the fastest-growing developmental disability in the U.S. An estimated 44 percent of individuals with ASD have IQs of average to above-average, and a portion of these students are capable of succeeding at a university, if only they have the right support.

Yet, services for teenagers with ASD come to a virtual halt after high school, just as families need them most. Researchers describe this support deficit as a “services cliff,” because parents often feel as if their children are about to fall off a cliff, with little help in sight.

AU is stepping into the gap with its Pathways Program. The broad-based program provides a bridge for students with ASD and their families, helping them to make the transition from high school to college and from college to career.

Distinctive Elements of the AU Collegiate Experience for Students on the Autism Spectrum

• First-Of-Its-Kind Residence Hall: Building on Aurora University’s 100-plus year history of opening doors to higher education for diverse students from all walks of life, AU is building a new, state-of-the-art residence hall with sensory supportive spaces designed specifically for students on the autism spectrum. The spaces are designed with the goal of alleviating anxiety so that students can focus their energy and emotions on a positive college experience. The five-story, integrated residence hall is slated to open in late 2022 to both neurodiverse and neurotypical students.
• Weekly Advisor Meetings and Peer Mentors: Students will work with an expert team to develop an individualized plan to address executive, social and emotional functioning, and independent living skills and then will meet weekly with their assigned advisor to ensure they have the support they need to succeed. Each student is also paired with an AU student mentor trained in supporting individuals on the spectrum.
• Career Exploration Experience: An increasing number of companies are creating inclusive environments with resources to support neurodiverse talent. During their junior and senior years, students will be paired with a community mentor in their field of interest who will teach them valuable career skills and provide shadowing opportunities to practice professional social skills and more.

AU also provides high school and transfer students on the autism spectrum an opportunity to get a preview of college life through AU’s Pathways Summer Camps and Pathways College Connections programming.

“Society has an increasingly important stake in not only supporting individuals with autism, but welcoming them into our communities,” said Brianne Jonathan, ’11, MA ’15, director of AU’s autism initiative and Pathways Program. “While many of these students have the cognitive ability and desire to succeed in college, communication and social impairments can stand in the way. At AU, we can support them with the right educational structure that makes it possible for them to thrive.”

More Antivax Propaganda on the Way

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.

Anti-vaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.  

Brandy Zadrozny at NBC:

[D]octors, public health experts and misinformation researchers are anticipating a flood of anti-vaccine propaganda featuring younger children following last week’s vote by a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee to authorize Pfizer-BioNTech’s lower-dose Covid vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices unanimously recommended the Covid vaccines for 5 to 11-year-olds on Tuesday. CDC director Rochelle Walensky signed off on the approval later in the evening, opening the door for more than 28 million children to start receiving vaccinations on Wednesday morning.

...

“Anti-vaccine groups often distort mainstream news coverage and official statistics about adverse events like unexplained deaths and side effects caused from receiving the vaccine, omitting important context and reframing isolated incidents as evidence of widespread harm,” the Virality Project reported in March. “Unverifiable personal stories of adverse reactions will proliferate; these stories have been leveraged for years in childhood vaccine misinformation, and have strong emotional appeal.”

...

“This is going to look a lot like the mid-2000s autism vaccine wars,” said Karen Ernst, executive director of Voices for Vaccines, a national nonprofit group that advocates for vaccination.

“It was framed as a good versus evil battle,” she said, recalling the outcry from parents like Jenny McCarthy, who, misled by now-discredited research by Andrew Wakefield, believed that the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccines caused autism. “On one side were the mama bears, the warrior moms, who would fight for their children. They were fighting against ‘the evils of Big Pharma who were clearly trying to damage and destroy their children with autism.’ We’re seeing the same moral battle play out that there are forces trying to harm children with a Covid shot now.”

“There are zero social media platforms,” she added, “that are prepared for what’s about to happen.”

Senate Letter on Shock Devices

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

For those who remain at larger residential institutions, the horrors of yesteryear have generally ended. In 2012, however, a ten-year-old video surfaced, showing disturbing image of an electric shock device at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton Massachusetts. Staffers tied one student to a restraint board and shocked him 31 times over seven hours, ignoring his screamed pleas to stop. The Rotenberg Center is the only one in the nation that admits to using electric shocks on people with developmental disabilities, including autism. Center officials said that they had stopped using restraint boards but insisted that shocks were necessary in extreme cases to prevent officials insist the shock program is a last resort that prevents people with severe disorders from hurting themselves or others.

Earlier this year, a federal appeals court overturned an FDA ban on the use of electric shock devices to correct aggressive or self-harming behavior. The Center said it will continue using them.

A release from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT):

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) led 5 senators in urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) to continue fighting for a ban on the use of dangerous electrical stimulation devices (ESDs), also known as electric shock devices, on children and adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. This summer, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned the FDA’s ban on ESDs. The agency with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has since filed an appeal. In a letter to Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock, the senators expressed support for the appeal and urged the agency to continue prioritizing the protection of those with disabilities.

“We are writing to thank the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for acting to protect some of our most vulnerable citizens. We are disappointed with the recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn the FDA’s ban on the use of electrical stimulation devices (ESDs), also known as electric shock devices, on people with intellectual or developmental disabilities,” the senators wrote. “We appreciate your defense of the rule and ask that you continue to prioritize the protection of people with disabilities by ending this dangerous practice.”

The senators continued: “It is clear after hearing from individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, their families, and their advocates that ESDs meet those criteria. The FDA’s final rule last year also acknowledged that the medical literature shows there are psychological and physical risks associated with the use of these devices, including worsening of underlying symptoms, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, pain, burns and tissue damage.”

“For these reasons, we encourage the FDA, along with the DOJ, to continue to take every step necessary to protect children and adults with disabilities,” the senators concluded.

U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) also signed the letter.

Last year, Murphy released a statement supporting the FDA’s final rule to ban the uses of ESDs on children and adults with disabilities.

Full text of the letter can be found here and below.

Dear Acting Commissioner Woodcock,

We are writing to thank the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for acting to protect some of our most vulnerable citizens. We are disappointed with the recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn the FDA’s ban on the use of electrical stimulation devices (ESDs), also known as electric shock devices, on people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. We understand the agency, along with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), has filed an appeal seeking a rehearing en banc.  We appreciate your defense of the rule and ask that you continue to prioritize the protection of people with disabilities by ending this dangerous practice.

As you know, FDA has the authority to ban devices if it finds that the device presents substantial deception or an unreasonable and substantial risk of illness or injury. It is clear after hearing from individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, their families, and their advocates that ESDs meet those criteria. The FDA’s final rule last year also acknowledged that the medical literature shows there are psychological and physical risks associated with the use of these devices, including worsening of underlying symptoms, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, pain, burns and tissue damage.

In addition, when issuing the final rule, FDA noted that of the 1,500 comments received, the overwhelming majority of comments supported this ban.[1] For these reasons, we encourage the FDA, along with the DOJ, to continue to take every step necessary to protect children and adults with disabilities.

Thank you for your consideration.

Antivaxxers Threaten Violence

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.

Anti-vaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.  

Jaclyn Peiser at WP:

Hundreds of Staten Island residents holding anti-vaccine signs and waving American flags gathered on Sunday across the street from where New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) was scheduled to speak at a campaign event for local Democrats. The crowd was angry about New York City’s vaccine mandate for municipal workers, which takes full effect on Monday.

But one attendee had another worry — that the city, like the state of California, will force children to get the coronavirus vaccine. So he offered an unnerving warning.

“If they’re going to push this on the kids … I can guarantee you one thing: Town halls and schools will be f---ing burned to the ground,” the man said in a video posted by freelance journalist Oliya Scootercaster.

The crowd clapped, cheered, banged on drums and raised their American flags.

The protest on Sunday comes as conflicts over mask and vaccine mandates grow more violent across the United States. School board meetings have devolved into vitriol and chaos, while teachers, medical workers and flight attendants have been assaulted and harassed for enforcing state and federal guidelines.

The atmosphere in New York has been no exception. On Friday, six firefighters demonstrated outside the Brooklyn office of state Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D). The group told Myrie’s staffers that they will have “blood on their hands” if the mandate goes into effect. Over the past week, more than 2,000 New York City firefighters took sick days as an act of protest