Colton Granito, 8, of Sumner County, TN was attending an alternative school for children with special needs when he had what his parents described as a “meltdown.”
The school had a crisis management plan in place for Colton because he was prone to such behavior as “hitting” and “kicking.” The plan called for him to be treated with caring gestures, redirected to another activity or taken to a safe place where his episode could play out.
Instead of following the plan, the school called the police when Colton struck a teacher. He was arrested, handcuffed, placed in a straightjacket and charged with assault.
This 8-year-old boy on the autistic spectrum who doesn’t understand how to deal with this type of situation is now traumatized, terrified of police and having nightmares.
Colton’s mother Brittany had no choice but to leave her job to help her son with the trauma. Colton has transferred to another school, but the nightmares persist and Brittany says he has to wear pull-ups “every single night.”
Colton’s parents are livid and suing both the school district and the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office to the tune of a half million dollars.
Colton isn’t unique when it comes to police dealing with children on the autistic spectrum. 10-year-old Ryan is shown in this photo handcuffed and laid out like a common criminal on the back of a police cruiser:
courtesy of the Free Thought Project
Last September, a 9-year-old was handcuffed and screaming while his father pleaded for him to be released, and a video of a 13-year-old being mistreated by police emerged on Facebook.
With one in eighty-eight children born in America being diagnosed with autism, it’s becoming painfully obvious that something needs to be done about training police how to deal with people with special needs. Clearly a different approach is necessary.
Watch the video below courtesy of WNEM TV5:
H/T: The Free Thought Project | Image: Screengrab from video
I often worry that my older autistic students will be facing the police and will not be understood. These guys don’t look disabled; the first indication that they are different would be when they try to communicate. I feel horrible for the families mentioned in this article. Hopefully autistic children won’t be killed before police training can be implemented.
This is one of the worst nightmares for anyone on the spectrum, and for those who love them. How can a school which SUPPOSEDLY knows how to deal with difficult behaviors act this way?!?!
I hope the parents win. BIG. And I hope it serves as a lesson for communities all over the world. There is still so little understanding of autism in the general public, and it is our kids who are paying the price for that.
My 9 year old son (Mild form of Asperger’s Syndrome Disorder), who attended a Behavioral support program in the Montgomery County TN School System was charged with assault and battery and disorderly conduct when he had a meltdown at school. They restrained him, which was not allowed by his IEP, and he had bruises all over his body from them performing it incorrectly. The court’s intake processing social worker told me if she had been the SRO she would have had him drugged and institutionalized and then called me. In second grade he was attacked by 2 OT’s in the Sullivan County TN School System, which left him with bruises, scratches and finger prints all over his body. I filed charges, they never did anything to these women and they are still allowed to work in the school system. Unfortunately. the state of TN is worthless when it comes to addressing the needs of children on the spectrum.
Our society is becoming way too complicated to be employing idiots to serve as police officers. We need to get these Barney Fifes off the force.
There’s a number of problems present here. Primarily, the school hasn’t funded adequate staffing to execute the Individual Education Plan. Calling Law Enforcement (who is trained to primarily deal with problems with tear gas, billy clubs, tasers, and automatic weapons) to deal with a developmentally disabled child is inappropriate if not downright stupid. For several years, the Department of Human Services here in Minnesota made it abundantly clear that folks working in group homes were not to call the police unless someones life was in danger. Special Ed funding was the only budget item not gutted in Pawlenty’s terms so schools continued to meet their obligations to developmentally delayed kids. Red state law enforcement providers need training for a special behavioral/psychiatric response team for schools, nursing homes, hospitals, and group homes that their officials won’t fund for staff but have billions for corporate welfare.