13-yo with Asperger's syndrome goes missing for 11 days, and spends all that time on a subway and hardly anyone notices or does anything?
Garcia said her son wore the same clothes for 11 days, slept in subway cars, used bathrooms in stations and spent most of his time over those days underground. He had $11 when he disappeared, she said, and he ate lollipops, potato chips and other food he bought in subway stations.
WTF?!
The New York City Police Department originally treated her son's case as that of a runaway, Garcia said. After five days, the police department's missing persons unit paid her a visit and gave her advice on where to look, she said.
Garcia, 38, a housekeeper who came to the United States from Mexico 16 years ago, said she became so frustrated that she turned to the Mexican consulate in New York for help, and she said the consulate again contacted police.
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was asked about police actions in the case on Tuesday, during a news conference on other, unrelated subjects. He said police "waited for a few days, because obviously (the missing persons unit) would be overwhelmed if we took every report of a young teenager not home."
And if this had been an elderly white person with Alzheimer's? Would we be having this conversation, or would the police have been actively looking?
Now, look at how Sky News covers it:
http://news.sky.com/...
He ran away with homemades sandwiches, after being in trouble at school. They're trying to make him sound like a normal kid, and not a kid with Asperger's. That's downright horrible.
Garcia wants to know how her son went unnoticed for so long despite surveillance cameras and a police search. He has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.
That's a really, really good question. If my 12-year old ran away from home, the police would have to search until she was found. Of course, my 12-year old wouldn't have been on the subway alone. I don't live in NYC, but I don't think that's a cultural difference that needs interpretation. When I have visited NYC, I didn't see many (if any) children on the subway without adult supervision of some kind.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
The boy did not see the signs and said that no-one spoke to him during the 11 days. Asked by the paper if he saw any larger meaning in that, he said: "Nobody really cares about the world and about people."
http://www.nytimes.com/...
http://www.mayoclinic.com/...
Should this child have been out on his own, unsupervised with Asperger's at 13 years of age? According to the experts, NO:
http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/...
However, they can be helped tremendously by treatment with social skills training, parental education and training, behavior modification and other psychosocial interventions. Because children with Asperger disorder can also have debilitating compulsions and anxiety related to social interactions, sometimes medications can be prescribed that will help with those aspects of the condition.
It's hard to say what parental education and training the parents have had, or what social skills training they engaged their son in, but it's easy to see where each side fell down on this one.
Children diagnosed with Asperger syndrome present a special challenge in the educational milieu. This article provides teachers with descriptions of seven defining characteristics of Asperger syndrome, in addition to suggestions and strategies for addressing these symptoms in the classroom. Behavioral and academic interventions based on the author's teaching experiences with children with Asperger syndrome are offered.
Does that include yelling at children who are unable to focus? Either the parent, or the teacher? And who was supervising this family, ensuring that they had the resources and recourses necessary to raise their son?
http://www.udel.edu/...
http://www.squidoo.com/...
Children suffering from Asperger's Syndrome lack the common sense their peers have gathered, and therefore consistent supervision is critical.
Consistent supervision is not letting the child leave and board a subway by himself, especially under circumstances that produce marked anxiety, such as issues of academic performance.
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/...
A 2003 review of epidemiological studies of children found prevalence rates ranging from 0.03 to 4.84 per 1,000, with the ratio of autism to Asperger syndrome ranging from 1.5:1 to 16:1;[83] combining the average ratio of 5:1 with a conservative prevalence estimate for autism of 1.3 per 1,000 suggests indirectly that the prevalence of AS might be around 0.26 per 1,000.[84]
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
http://stanford.wellsphere.com/...
Parents have a tough enough time as it is locating a good referral for either diagnosis or treatment of a spectrum disorder without having problems with insurance reimbursement. Personally, I've had plenty of problems just getting my insurer to pay for specialty medical treatments (Cigna was the worst, Harvard Pilgrim only slightly better) that should obviously be covered. I survived my Cigna nightmares and Harvard Pilgrim problems by ranting and raving (being nice doesn't help). And the same is true for Asperger's/Autism...when parents are in HMO's and they are only offered low level assistance by therapists who don't know AS/Autism, then it may be time to get tough. I say find out who in your area has experience or expertise in this area and demand that your insurer pay for that person (even if they are out of network).
This is what happens when you have a society based on 'Me' and not 'Us.' People cannot get the help they need, they cobble a plan together that's likely to fail and then rely on emergency services to bail them out.
When will we ever learn?