DAILY KOS: Our Autistic Son was Handcuffed and Arrested in School, We Were Not Notified

[hunter]

23. Um, do you know any teenagers? We're you ever one yourself?

I did stuff that would have horrified my parents. My kids were straight A honor students in high school, raised properly in every way, and there's still things I haven't yet heard properly explained, including severe damage to family automobiles.

It's a fact of life that teens are more influenced by their peers than by their parents. This kid did a dumbass teenage thing, worthy of some punishment, but not this. And yes, autism is an extenuating circumstance.

The most shameful behavior here is by the police.

We taught our own kids to stay away from drugs and alcohol for their own protection. We told them they could talk to us if they found themselves having problems with drugs or alcohol. Our kids were fully aware at an early age of people among our own friends and family who'd messed themselves up badly abusing drugs and alcohol. But it never occurred to me to tell my kids they ought to be fearful of secret police posing as friends in the hallways of their own school.