Aspies For Freedom

Everyone, get out your email programs, load the address of the relevant authorities, and remind them. Do it twice, in fact.

Very depressing.

I believe we probably learn how to 'blend' more into NT society as we get older.  It's taken me 40 years to work out a sort of "road map" in my head as to how to deal with various NT situations.  I still get it wrong sometimes, misreading signals, being too literal, etc, but not as often.  

Bit of a sweeping statement: "she'd never have grandchildren"!  What's the odds of her child having them if he/she was NT?  

Also, I was appalled at the fact that a child care "profesional" can slip through the security net and get her hands on a defenceless child like that.  What on earth did this woman DO to the kiddie that caused those sorts of injuries? I also find it unusual that she treated the child at her home, rather than at her place of work.  

Alison

This is all very sad and I hope this woman never gets her hands on any other children.

Terribly sad. I honestly can't understand why that woman would treat him like that. Why would she hurt someone she was proclaiming to help? And, if she indeed did, how many other of her patients have she injured?

extract from CAMERON'S MOTHER SPEAKS Dec 7, 2005


"She is claiming that this was all an accident. You've been talking to the doctors. You saw your son. Is this something that you believe - that it was an accident?"

Heather Fast, Cameron's mother: "No. No, i don't. He had two black eyes. There was a bruise on his nose. There was a bruise in both ears and behind his ears. The doctors have pretty much said that it was a blunt trauma injury. So it's very, very hard for me to believe. I mean, yes, he fell a lot, but what kind of fall could have caused that?"

Source: http://www.kpvi.com/index.cfm?page=nbcst...fm&ID=2634

Yes, I'm certain she would claim that. Just horrible.

Toddler's autopsy report is finished:
Results may impact case against woman

Idaho State Journal
28th January 2006

POCATELLO - Bannock County Prosecutor Mark Heideman said he received autopsy results for Cameron Hamilton, but a decision about any additional charges in the case could be one to two weeks away.
“The report is quite lengthy and complicated,” Heideman said. “It's going to take me a while to go through it and understand the meaning of it all with all the injuries.”

Hamilton died at a Utah hospital on Dec. 5, about a week after he was returned to a day care facility in Chubbuck unresponsive and lethargic. Doctors said Hamilton received severe head trauma.

Michelle Bott-Graham was charged on Dec. 2 with felony injury to a child. She took Hamilton, who was diagnosed as autistic, from Achieving a Better Life day care to treat him at her home, where Pocatello police belief the abuse occurred.

Heideman said in December he is considering filing murder charges against Bott-Graham for Hamilton's death, but wanted to wait for autopsy results before doing so.

Bott-Graham hearing on the felony injury to a child was scheduled in December and later postponed to Jan. 11 to wait for the autopsy results. It was again postponed to Feb. 24 as Heideman's office was still awaiting the autopsy results.

Source:
http://www.journalnet.com/articles/2006/...news03.txt

Prosecutor seeks expert help with toddler's autopsy results

January 31, 2006 12:11 PM
The Associated Press

POCATELLO, Idaho Bannock County Prosecutor Mark Hiedeman says he'll ask a pathologist for help understanding an autopsy report on a 2-year-old before deciding whether to file a murder charge.

Cameron Hamilton died in December after he was allegedly injured by Michelle Bott-Graham, an unlicensed health care worker who is charged with felony injury to a child.

Police allege that Bott-Graham hurt Cameron when she was treating him for autism at her home in Pocatello on November 29th.

Hiedeman says he will decide in the next several weeks whether to file more serious charges against Bott-Graham.

Source: http://www.kbcitv.com/x51828.xml?URL=htt...eHeadlines

Clinic owners face penalties:
Investigation shows depth of problems

By Casey Santee
Idaho State Journal
1st Feb 2006


CHUBBUCK - Below Achieving a Better Life's business sign that advertised the now defunct center as a one-stop-shop for child care and mental health services is a pair of ReMax signs that read “for sale.”

State Health and Welfare officials say their investigation has turned up evidence of fraud and serious safety violations at the clinic that resulted in harm to its clients. However, they stopped short of mentioning 2-year-old Cameron Hamilton by name.
  
Hamilton, who suffered severe head trauma allegedly inflicted by his unlicensed counselor and Achieving a Better Life employee Michelle Bott-Graham, died Dec. 5 at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

Health and Welfare filed a written motion Jan. 23 to terminate ABL's enrollment as a Medicaid provider and exclude its owners, Vickey Stauffer and Randie Wilhelm, from any involvement with the program for the next 10 years. Health and Welfare suspended ABL's Medicaid enrollment Nov. 30.

“Safety for our participants is our main concern,” Health and Welfare spokesman Tom Shanahan said. “From what we learned through our initial investigation, our participants were put in danger and harm did result. We have enough evidence to say that. But we are still investigating.”

Stauffer and Wilhelm have 28 days to appeal Health and Welfare's motion to terminate their Medicaid enrollment.

Shanahan also said officials want to know more about Bott-Graham's relationship with Stauffer and Wilhelm and her employment at ABL. He added that if fraud is substantiated, the department will make it a priority to recover taxpayer money obtained illegally by the clinic. If criminal charges are filed, the U.S. Attorney's Office would prosecute the case.

The care center was shut down Nov. 30 by Chubbuck officials for day care ordinance violations, including ABL's failure to perform a background check that would have revealed a 2003 felony drug conviction that cost Bott-Graham, 39, of Pocatello, her counseling license.

Bott-Graham returned an unresponsive Hamilton to ABL Nov. 29 after treating him for autism at her Pocatello home. Hamilton was taken to Portneuf Medical Center and then Salt Lake City, where he later died.

Last week Bannock County Prosecutor Mark Hiedeman received the toddler's autopsy results from Utah, where the procedure was performed. Hiedeman said it will be another week or two before he decides if he will increase the charge against Bott-Graham from felony injury to a child, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, to either manslaughter or murder, which could carry up to a life sentence. Her preliminary hearing on the injury charge has been postponed three times and is now scheduled for Feb. 24.  


Since the tragedy occurred, the Idaho State Journal has been able to contact ABL's co-owners only once on Nov. 30. During that call, Stauffer denied Bott-Graham was an employee. Chubbuck officials said they verified that Bott-Graham was working for ABL at the time.

ReMax agents said the asking price for the ABL property, 265 E. Chubbuck Road, which includes two buildings on 1.8 acres, is $595,000. The buildings have previously been occupied by a beauty salon, a restaurant, a cabinet shop and a massage therapy center. Achieving a Better Life was there for less than six months.

Stauffer's husband answered their home phone Tuesday and said she was unavailable for comment. Wilhelm couldn't be reached.  

Source:  http://www.journalnet.com/articles/2006/...news01.txt

ABA therapist charged with first-degree murder

February 23, 2006
The Associated Press

POCATELLO, Idaho First-degree murder charges have been filed against a Michelle Bott-Graham, accused of killing an autistic 2-year-old in November.

She was charged yesterday under a provision in Idaho law that allows a first-degree murder charge when aggravated battery against a child under age 12 results in death.

Police allege that Bott-Graham hurt Cameron Hamilton when she was treating him at her Pocatello home in November.

Police say Bott-Graham returned Cameron to the day care in an unresponsive state.

Cameron died in December of severe head trauma at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

(Idaho State Journal)

I'm trying to think of the gentlest way to put how I'm feeling after reading through this discussion thread. You see, I just, out of pure curiosity, "googled" my name, and to my horror found a discussion half a world away in which I'm being targeted for feeling a sense of mourning as a young mother. While I'm sure that anything I say will not change what you think, you should at least be aware of how hurtful it was to read some of the comments. One would think other parents like myself would have more empathy.

While I agree that there is controversy in the ABA approach, I disagree strongly that any of the feelings I experienced when I found out my daughters were autistic had anything to do with anyone who practiced it. If you want to blame anyone, blame the half dozen movies I had seen that stereotyped autism; blame the neurologist who diagnosed my girls and told me to get sterilized so I wouldn't have any more autistic children; or blame the fact that I was only 24. But don't put me down for feeling a momentary sense of sadness. I certainly didn't wallow in it or carry it around like some bitter chip on my shoulder.

As for my understanding of autism, I work now with adults with asperger's and autism spectrum disorders. I do not practice ABA. I do understand that every person with these disorders is different. Some may indeed mellow out in time, and many others do not.

What I understand is that there is need for better communication and education between those of us who live with autism and those who don't so that other young mothers feel, not a sense of loss as I did, but a sense of "ok, this will be hard, but not impossible."

If you weren't 5000 miles from here, you might understand that the point of me participating in that article was to do just exactly that...give hope. Ms. Graham's crime has caused dramatic upheaval in our community. State officials, thanks to one-sided reporting in our local media, have faced great pressure from uneducated, ill-informed citizenry to stop the "wasteful" spending of tax money to give therapeutic services to children with autism, as if our children were a waste of money. A previous story had quoted a city official as saying it was just that, and that parents who use this system are just getting free child care at tax payer expense. My hope in contacting the reporter was to let the public know that these programs actually do make a difference, and that not all providers of therapy are potential child murderers!

Had the reporter published more of what I actually said, he would have said how horrified I am now to think that I trusted this woman with my children. He would have pointed out that I no longer feel that loss, but instead a sense of hope and joy in both my girls. And much of that hope has come from the education that I gained by having my girls in therapy! Now I try to do the same for other parents.

Please don't co-opt our local tragedy to support your cause because they are not connected. If you had more than just this one newspaper as a source, you might understand this. All I know is that I'm feeling ill to have read what was written about me by individuals who have never met me. And I can assure you what I or my daughter expected to read about ourselves tonight. Thank you.

Janet Boyce, Idaho, USA

While I agree that there is controversy in the ABA approach, I disagree strongly that any of the feelings I experienced when I found out my daughters were autistic had anything to do with anyone who practiced it. If you want to blame anyone, blame the half dozen movies I had seen that stereotyped autism; blame the neurologist who diagnosed my girls and told me to get sterilized so I wouldn't have any more autistic children; or blame the fact that I was only 24. But don't put me down for feeling a momentary sense of sadness. I certainly didn't wallow in it or carry it around like some bitter chip on my shoulder

I think that " theyll never be able to marry etc etc" was more the thoughts she had at the time they were diagnosed rather than anything else. sure it may be misinformed but we don't know what's happened in between, after that. It's natural for parents to feel that way initially but thats not a crime, unless they dwell on it. what's more important is that they rise above it.

When I posted on this thread last year, I honestly doubted I would ever return to this website. However, I must admit curiosity got the better of me tonight. I want to thank Cant_think_of_a_user_name for understanding what I was trying to say.

I'm disappointed that another member clearly did not understand.
"Murder of an autistic is not your town's dirty little secret to hide away, it is OUR business too, when so many of us have been treated badly in various ways, and we have to see it continue every day to child autistics.
Do you expect us to standby and say nothing? You want empathy for yourself but expect us to feel nothing for a child that was like us when we were young? "

Amy, once again, I think emotions are getting in the way of reason. None of what you said was even implied in my post.

Heaven's no I don't expect you stand by and say nothing! But certainly I would have expected not to be attacked in such a manner. I had a right to be disturbed by what was being said by complete strangers who only had a small portion of the information from which to judge. When I asked for empathy, I asked that you not attack me, insult me or my intelligence, or in any way degrade me or my family. Such attacks are counterproductive and hurtful. I am sorry if you have been mistreated in the past, but no difference will be made for others by being so antagonistic.

Further, I never implied that this murder was our town's dirty little secret!! I was as horrified as any parent by what happened, which I believe I explicitly stated in my previous post.

Cameron's death was a tragedy. However, it should not be used as soap box against ABA, which is what it appeared was happening in the discussion thread. Cameron was killed because his therapist was using heroin at the time, period. ABA was not the reason (see the article in the Idaho State Journal this week regarding her).

Of course I hope others care about his death. Understand that caring about his death is one thing, but taking ownership of it as evidence of your point of view is something different entirely, especially when you clearly only took from the stories what you chose to.

If you want to actually see what I am about NOW, go to myspacetv.com. Type "living with autism" in the search window. You will be directed to a video produced by a friend of mine about my family. I do this with some modicum of belief that at least some of you on this site will not attack me there as well.

The empathy I ask for myself was that you understand that the emotions I described were indeed in ignorance 13 years ago, but were also understanding. Few first time parents just know what autism really means. That knowledge is acquired. Now, reveling as I watch my eldest daughter enter adulthood, seeing the woman she has become, I am a different person. Thirteen years later, I have hope -- hope given me by a therapist who was not on drugs who helped me see that no doors were really closed to my children.

Fortunately, my daughters have never known the mistreatment you obviously have received. They have received ABA therapy, but never have been abused. My daughters are my heros. I stand in awe of them every day. They humble me, inspire me, and bring me love. One could ask, how dare you assume I am so cold or so ignorant?

And no, I neither their father nor I are on the spectrum. Genetics isn't always that straight forward.

We should band together, not insult each other. We should be supporters of each other, not ranters and ravers against each other differing points of view. How do we expect others to listen to what we have to say if we can't even be nice to each other?

Janet Boyce, Idaho, USA

I guess I just wanted to add, please ask my daughter if she is unhappy with her life now? She is 18. She is about to be awarded her brown belt in Judo. She has a job. We don't see her as disabled. I was wrong, it wasn't 13 years ago. It was 16. I was young, ill-educated. But that doesn't make my emotions at the time wrong. They were natural and understandable. The person who posted before me was right, it wasn't a crime. My girls have a future because we came to understand that autism doesn't have to be who or what they are. It doesn't have to be a disability or a disease.

Disability is a social construction imposed by a culturally based idea of what "normal" is. It isn't real. It's just a definition. My girls don't see themselves as "auties." They are just young women.

Your front page states "We aim to strengthen autism rights, oppose all forms of discrimination against aspies and auties, and work to bring the community together both online and offline." I challenge you to do this by being kinder to people who don't have your experience.

And yes Amy, I do see the irony in asking for empathy from an asperger's website and not getting it.

Janet