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Autistic Children: When Rankism Kills

Posted By Elisa On 8th February 2006 @ 12:27 In rankism in education, rankism and disability | 3 Comments

Doctors and teachers occupy positions of high respect in our society: their pronouncements serve as stamps of approval in almost every area of endeavor. The aura of their rank also serves to blind people to abusive activities. Professional conferences and peer-reviewed journals, intended to foster standards of objectivity, may even validate and spread the abuse. For instance, journals popularize new diagnoses and aggrandize theories of discipline and contol. Abusers cite these authoritative sources when they promise parents relief from burdens associated with caring for children with special needs.

Thanks to the courage of parents who see their children as fellow human beings rather than problems, the pervasive abuse of autistic children in the name of teaching them “compliance” is now coming to light. Recent news articles have described [1] beatings, [2] suffocation, and [3] deadly restraint. Many cases can be found [4] here.

Jean Bowden spearheaded the fight to protect autistic children from the abusive use of restraints in the state of Massachussetts. After a video tape revealed the [5] violence of the restraint methods teachers had used on her autistic daughter Abbie, Bowden confronted a solid wall of patronizing school officials, doctors, and bureaucrats, who all saw it in their professional interest to close ranks to defend an indefensible practice as a “behavior modification technique”. One of Abbie’s own doctors even offered to sell his opinion as an “expert witness”! Bowden persisted in her fight to protect her traumatized daughter, became a dedicated activist, and in 2001 Massachussetts passed a law that requires parental consent and mandatory documentation for the use of restraints.

Nothing is more rankist than posing inconvenient people as “problems” to justify dehumanization and physical violence as a scientific solution.

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3 Comments To "Autistic Children: When Rankism Kills"

#1 Comment By Bronwyn G On 11th February 2006 @ 15:49

Thank you for writing this great story about people with Autism Spectrum Disorders. How you put it about compliance I think describes the situation very well. I fear what you cover here is only the tip of the iceberg, and I hope there are more stories coming out.

#2 Comment By elisa On 12th February 2006 @ 16:23

Hi, Bronwyn - thanks for your kind comment. I'd like to do a series on this, so I'm trying to do some research now. One of the scariest things I've found is the notion of "Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)", which seems mainly to serve to justify the restraint and psychological abuse of children. This generates fees for the medical community that diagnoses it, but it undermines the production of citizens to carry our culture into future times. I found a wonderful parody of Oppositional Defiant Disorder as Compliance Acquiescent Disorder (CAD) here: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/17_04/defi174.shtml

#3 Comment By Robert P On 19th June 2006 @ 05:58

I saw your comment over at DailyKos on Dissent's latest diary. There always seems to be a treatment that is justified by a new diagnosis. Great stuff you have here.

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URLs in this post:
[1] beatings: http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/2275776.html
[2] suffocation: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=3883707
[3] deadly restraint: http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MG
Article&cid=1137833815664&path=!news&s=1045855934842
[4] here: http://community.livejournal.com/autistic_abuse/
[5] violence of the restraint methods: http://www.aspergersexpress.com/Cape_Cod_Times_Bowden_Article.htm
[6] Image: http://co.mments.com/track?url=http://www.breakingranks.net/weblog/archives/6&title=Autistic+Chi
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