Emily HollingsheadCaution: Retards in Area
I caught a disturbing article in the SLTrib and on KSL yesterday. The gist of it goes like this. Autistic boy lives in neighborhood. Same autistic boy is 13 years old but has the mental capacity of a 4 year old. Very same autistic boy tends to wander around the neighborhood and allegedly enters neighbors’ homes without permission. Autistic boy’s family is aware of this, mom says that she does what she can. Neighbors have mixed emotions about the kid, some say it goes on all the time and is a real problem. Others have no idea that there was a problem.
But some other neighbors decided to put up a sign in their yard that read “Caution. Retards in Area.”
When I first heard about this situation, I couldn’t quite sit through it. I read some comments on the KSL message board and the armchair quarter-backin that is going on over there has made me squirm some more.
However, the whole thing made me very sad, almost to the point of tears. I can see both sides of the story. It must be difficult to raise a child with such a difficult disability. I also understand frustration of the neighbors when it feels like nothing is being done by law enforcement or the family. But I just think posting a sign like this was crossing the line. I was glad that in the end the couple who put up the sign did take it down when asked to do so by the police. That was the right thing to do.
July 24th, 2006 at 2:59 am
As a father of an autistic son (he is high functioning), I understand many of the problems that the family of this boy is going through.
Now, some questions:
1) Why does his family let him wander out alone? I wouldn’t let a normal 4 year old wander out alone.
2) Did the people who put up the sign make complaints to the police when they had problems with him? That is the proper route to take - make sure there is a paper trail.
3) Did the people who put up the sign ever try talking to the family of the autistic boy?
My son can be described as an angel. He is caring, loving, and compassionate. He can also be manipulative, vindictive, and outright mean. “Special needs” people show many of the same traits as “normal” people - good and bad.
July 24th, 2006 at 9:12 am
the person who put up that sign probably caught a glimps in the mirror
July 24th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
I was responsible for an autistic boy that was in the general population of a high school. He was bigger than me, 13, and apart from physical force unmanagable, which is why only guys could watch him. He still had the motivations of a normal 13 year old without the social constraints. Use your imagination.
I quit doing it, as I had no training, yet was still hired by the HS district Stuperindentdant. I asked him how it was possible that he had no “pros” handling him, or why he was in school anyway. He was very low function. It’s the law, they can go to school.
Grabbing him by the ear was about all I could do to make him stop molesting people. It was crazy. Our country is crazy. Look, just look objectively at what is allowed. Civilization is defined by what people won’t allow as much as what they will tolerate.
July 25th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
I guess the couple who did put up the sign do not know the difference between a retarded person with Downs, or an autisitic child.
It would also seem that the autistic boy inherited his traits from a family, who does not respect their neighbors, or their childs safety, and may well by autistic, or at least dysfunctional at a pretty severe level.
Hasn’t anyone called family services yet? How about a neighborhood meeting? Before something bad happens. The sign placers may have used the wrong terminology and had low sensitivity, but the sign does point out, to the safety of everyone involved, that something is amiss.
July 25th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
It seems to me the only “retard” in the area is the guy who put up the sign. What he did is inexcusable but I am not letting the parents of the mentally challenged boy off the hook. The boy is 100% innocent no matter what he does but his parents are responsible to keep an eye on him so he does not hurt himself or others. The man who put up the sign should have confronted the parents rather than taken his anger out on the boy.
August 2nd, 2006 at 9:52 pm
I am the mother of a severely autistic 14 year old boy. I can speak from experience when I say that I highly doubt the mother is letting him wander. My child used to escape - he would sneak out after figuring out how to unlock doors and disable alarms - thank God he doesn’t do it anymore! It is very difficult to be a parent of a severely autistic child, and unfortunately, all the feel good media coverage of high functioning autistics does not help. Most people think that the disorder is not very bad at all - Services are very limited for the severely challenged - it makes it very difficult for the family.
To put a sign up like that is just ridiculous - what did it accomplish?
The family of the child should have reached out to the neighbors when they first moved in to explain his disorder and what may happen - we had good luck with that in the past - but I never came across anyone as dispicable as this man - I don’t know how he sleeps at night.
Understanding and tolerance goes a long way - It is a shame that our society has come to this.
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