Aspies For Freedom

Allways problems with the ground-crew...

GODFATHER.

from what I read it sounded like he liked going to church?

(strange boy! )

j/k

anyways

although this is bad from others have said it seems this was a last resort I mean if he is urinating and spitting and attacking people that really isn't appropriate so to be honest I think the church possibly did the right thing

if it was straight out with one incident then I would agree that its unfair

tricky arguement :S

I'm not much of a fan of religion, AKA the Opium of the people, according to my friend, Karl Marx.  That's just my reaction to the boy getting banned.  I pretty much expected it to happen.

really?!

thats just asking for trouble

complete idiots urgh...

is he severe or asperger's the article wasn't so specific!

lemmeguess, they think that prayer and penance will bring "salvation" to their "poor and possessed little snowflake"?

*** morons.

my sentimence exactly

seriously if your kid was severely autistic would you tie him up?!?!

I'm glad the mum took the action she did.  She did often use the cry room, apparently, but thought that being permanently in the basement of the church wasn't her idea of God loving us all.   I do still agree that no way should anyone be in physical danger, but even if her own child's behaviour needed better management somehow (which clearly it did), the point she's made about how little help there is for families to access church is a very, very good one.  Most people with children on the autistic spectrum find going to church to be really difficult, and there's no real alternative for them. Most adults with autism currently find church difficult too.

Nor do the churches always think to offer support to them.  They're just seen as bad parents who can't control their kids, and the kids are seen as a nuisance that interferes with Proper Church Business.  Yet if someone sings off key and too loudly all the way through, that's fine.  If someone stands up and dances, that's fine.  If someone starts clapping, that's fine.  If someone waves their arms in the air and shouts "hallelujah!", that's fine.  It's just not fine if children with disabilities make a noise, you see. (!) I'd call it prejudice in a fair number of cases.

I think at least 90% of 13-year-olds sitting in church are being coerced into being there one way or another. With this kid it is more overt. Personally, I had difficulty understanding why they would want to attend a church that chose to use courts to resolve the issue. This is obviously a church that has lost its way.

There has to be a limit somewhere.

Now I see a bunch of net articles saying that "Autism campaigners around the world" are asking the Pope to make a policy statement regarding autism, due to that restraining order story.

They don’t say who the “campaigners” are but it seems to be several of the parents websites and mercury cubie sites.  

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7234

Wish I knew where to write.

There is a dearth of information on the internet, and what is there general states that the church declined to be interviewed. Regardless, using the court system is not in accordance with biblical teachings. It is what it is. I mean, think about it -- sort of hard to imagine Jesus saying, "Keep that big, scary autistic kid away from me."  What exactly is the message?  The eternal love and compassion of the almighty, but within limits?

All-righty-O.

A link with more meat than broth (I think) has brought me to the position that the Race family is being unreasonable. The mother seems to have no problem with everyone else accommodating her son's needs while making few, if any, suggestions about how her family can accommodate the needs of those around them.  

I was glad to see that appropriate mediation has begun.

http://www.wadenapj.com/articles/index.cfm?id=10336

I had thought it was a matter of parent being pushy like a "soccer mom".  But I'm now beginning to suspect that she isn't firing on all thrusters.

I think that link no longer works.  Here is the article content, in case anyone is having trouble getting to it:
---------------------------------------------------------
Not guilty plea entered on citation
Sara Hacking Wadena Pioneer Journal
Published Thursday, June 05, 2008

Carol Race pleaded not guilty in Todd County District Court Monday to a citation she received after allegedly taking her severely autistic 13-year-old son to St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Bertha on Mother’s Day in violation of a restraining order. She continues to insist her son does not present a danger to the congregation. A pretrial settlement hearing is scheduled for July 14.

Adam Race was barred from attending the church after the Rev. Daniel Walz filed a petition for a restraining order describing the behavior of the more than 225-pound boy as increasingly “disruptive” and “dangerous.” Walz said Adam has struck a child, urinated in church and nearly knocked people over when he bolts from church. The restraining order was issued May 9 and is effective until May 9, 2010.

Carol disagrees with Walz’s descriptions of her son’s behaviors. Adam’s behaviors have improved dramatically in the past two months, according to Carol. He has been standing, sitting, kneeling, folding his hands and making the sign of the cross in church, she said. The Races attended Christ the King Church in Browerville on Sunday and everything went well, she said. There was an incident at Christ the King May 25 when Adam bolted after getting confused on his way back from communion.

St. Joseph’s said it has offered the Race family numerous accommodations, while Carol said they were only offered the option of having Adam watch Mass on closed circuit TV in the church basement, an option she finds to have dubious theological validity along with being impractical for her son.

Jane Marrin, a spokesperson for the church, said two of the other major accommodations offered by the church are setting up the church cry room for the Races or having Walz celebrate Mass in the family’s home once a week.

During an interview last Thursday Race said she does not have a problem with celebrating Mass at home. She added that it may be a problem at the diocesan level because the church frowns on priests conducting multiple Masses per day. “By the time you’ve said the same thing four or five times I would imagine it would become more of a performance,” she said. “They want it to be meaningful and spiritual for him as well.”

Marrin said she did not think a private Mass would have been suggested without an understanding that it would be approved.

Carol said another possible option is to have a special Mass either Saturday or Sunday night at the parish. Both options would have to be open to the public, she said.

Carol suggested some other accommodations that she believes would allow Adam to go to church while keeping others safe.

People who are physically vulnerable should not sit in the pew in front of their regular back row pew or in the small pew located against the wall, she said.  “It’s not that Adam is dangerous in the sense that he is going to go out and attack somebody but just in the sense that, yeah, he is bigger and if you physically can’t move you’re liable to get bumped,” she said.

Small children shouldn’t be in the entryway or on the steps of the church during Mass, Carol said.

People need to move aside to give the family three or four feet of working space in case Adam needs to be restrained.

For those who are distracted by Adam’s noises, she suggested having FM headphones available for them to wear that would transmit what is being said into the microphone.

If this doesn’t work people can choose to attend another parish, she said.

“We have to be somewhere and it’s best that we be in the same place,” Carol said.In a phone interview on Tuesday Carol added it’s important that disabled people are not excluded or marginalized to the extent that they are not in the community. There’s no permanent solution for Adam’s situation, she said.

As he grows older and his symptoms change they will need to work with that. Right now, she believes he is able to be in a pew, she said.

Mediation between representatives from St. Joseph’s and the Races began on Wednesday. The mediation was arranged through the diocese’s due process office. The mediator is a neutral person who is not employed by the diocese. When asked whether Mass at home would be on the table during mediation Carol said she did not want to speculate publicly about what would be discussed.  Marrin said the church hopes the mediation will allow for a “mutually acceptable reasonable accommodation.”

Photo of Carol Race: http://www.wadenapj.com/gfx/photos/stori...ycarol.jpg

have to admit that did make me laugh XD

exactly!

*** off