United States News
See other United States News Articles
Title: Cops Called on Parents Whose Autistic 5-Year-Old Son's Hair Was Too Messy
Source:
Reason
URL Source: https://reason.com/blog/2018/02/12/ ... ed-on-parents-whose-autistic-5
Published: Feb 12, 2018
Author: Lenore Skenazy
Post Date: 2018-02-14 06:45:54 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 813
Comments: 8
This mom's story Sure, his hair was messy—his sensory issues render him distraught when he gets his hair brushed. And his pants were too short—but at least he'd actually chosen a pair to wear, rather than tearing them off. So all was as right as right can be when you have a kid with autism. But then, as the family was heading to the car, a pair of cops approached Cobb: "Can we talk to you a second," he asked, "about your son?" My husband called out over his shoulder, "He's autistic," and kept walking my son to the car. The officer's face burned with embarrassment. I assumed he was getting ready to inform me that rock-throwing wasn't allowed, but he said, "We got a call about your son. The people who called were worried that because of his hair, and because of his pants, that you weren't taking good care of him." Because strangers care so much more about kids than their own parents do. Now my faced burned with anger and my stomach was sick with shock. "He's autistic," I told them, "and because of his severe sensory issues, we have difficulty brushing and cutting his hair." Both officers nodded their heads in understanding. "You're talking about my grandson," my mother hissed. "Yes, there's clearly nothing going on here," the red-faced officer said. "I'm so glad you were called to investigate this instead of more serious crimes," I said, tears threatening to strangle my voice. "It's clearly just a case of bed-head," the same officer said by way of apology. "Sorry to have bothered you." We bid them goodbye and joined my husband and son and walked back to our car. They were worried you weren't taking good care of him. This happened in November but Cobb just wrote about it last week because it has taken that long for her to process the event with a modicum of serenity. As she ticks off all the other times her family probably looked strange to outsiders, she is grateful for the many people who did not call the cops. But the fact remains that "the police were called on us because my son was having a bad hair day. What does this say about our society?" It says that we are increasingly convinced that it is up to every onlooker to assume abuse rather than to give parents the benefit of the doubt when anything, even a child's hair, seems amiss—that this is good citizenship. This presumes that the authorities are going to make things better, and that an outsider can really tell what's going on. "I have to praise the common sense of the police here," Diane Redleaf, a longtime family civil rights lawyer and director of the Redleaf Family Advocacy Institute at the National Center for Housing and Child Welfare, told me. "The family had the good fortune not to have child protective services called against them. Others have not been as lucky." She recalled one case presented to the federal court: Dupuy v. McDonald, a class action challenge to policies that banished parents from their homes when they were victims of child abuse calls. In that case, Chicago high school science teacher James Redlin had been the target of an anonymous tip to state child protection authorities after a commuter thought he'd fondled his mildly autistic 6-year-old son on the subway. Redlin explained that he'd been tickling his boy, as therapists had encouraged. Without verifying any of the context, authorities threatened to take his son into foster care unless Redlin's wife, who uses a wheelchair, provided 24-hour supervision of any contact between her husband and their son. The case dragged on all summer, with the authorities finally determining the charges to be "unfounded." "The parents of special needs children are especially vulnerable to state intervention," said Redleaf. "And as for anonymous calls to the authorities, this practice needs to end. It is far too easy to disrupt or even destroy a family with one quick call from a cell phone." My friend Linda Gasten, mom of a young man with autism, has this advice for onlookers: if you see kids "making unusual noises," consider that they may have a disability, and that it's likely the parents are doing the best they can. It's abundantly less likely that they are monstrous abusers who are taking their victims out for a day of fun, in public, at the park. Photo Credit: Noblige / DreamstimeAmazingly, cops do not "fear for their lives" and shoot the child
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
#2. To: Deckard GrandIsland, All (#0)
(Edited)
Nah, anyone will feel like kicking her in the ass after you learn the reason she wrote the story. May Cobb, the mother of the autistic child, is a novelist and freelance writer living in Austin and exploited the circumstances of a simple welfare check to call nationwide attention to herself for the sole purpose of promoting her first book Big Woods by writing an explosive and heart wrenching story in the Washington Post to gain fame and promote her new book. She is an opportunist and took advantage to “capitalize” on a routine welfare check. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a welfare check. They can be made to “seem” wrong when people use the results of a welfare check to self-promote for the purpose of making money or taking the opportunistic license to bash cops. We can only imagine the continued abhorrence in the following story about another autistic child had not someone also called for a welfare check. Child Abuse Arrest Made After Police Discover Naked Boy Eating Feces MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Police were called to a home on Cypress Drive in Murfreesboro last week, but what they found would shock any parent: an autistic child, naked, covered in feces. Police said the child was even eating some of it. They said the boy's mother, Sharon Robinson, was hiding inside a closet in the home. Robinson told police she hadn't had water in the home for a month, which prevented her from cleaning the home, which was covered in dog and human feces, including the child's bed. Robinson told police because of the conditions at the house, the child hadn't been going to school for over a month. She blamed all of it on meth. Police arrested her and another man, Bradley Hill, for Child Neglect and Abuse. If there's a child you know that you suspect may be getting abused, call the Tennessee Department of Children's Services at 877-237-0004. Don’t pay any attention to Deckard’s posted yellow journalism bullshit article. Call Children’s Protective Services anytime you think there is a child being abused.
You have concluded this woman wrote up this account out of some financial interest in promoting her own book, and so condemned her, siding with CPS. You should know that CPS often has a financial interest in taking kids away from parents as the number of children in their system justifies or enhances their budgets. So it you want to make a financial accusations, be balanced about that too. I'm sure any call to the cops about this kid's hair and clothing would need to be in their in their reports for the day, so the matter could be proven one way or the other. But she surely does have an autistic son as if she did not, her career a writer would ensure the lie would be too easily exposed. But maybe she did exploit her son's condition in a fraudulent way for financial gain. Who knows? But whether fake or not, she at least did not malign the police officers in her account, and nor did FTP, so this is not a cop hating account. But it certainly is reasonable that parents would be anguished if/when people call the police on them because they have an autistic kid. Do you have any autistic children? Edit: It occurs to me that this note of yours: certainly does conflict with your accusation that the woman fabricated an account of someone doing exactly that.
#7. To: Pinguinite, Deckard, GrandIsland, All (#6)
(Edited)
This novelist and freelance artist alleges to have had a severely traumatic and heartbreakingly painful encounter with the police last year. The occurrence was such a terrible and extremely nerve racking experience that it made her “face burn with anger and her stomach sick with shock.” (Yep, she is indeed a novelist). And because the event was so emotionally disturbing to her, it “has taken until now (a few week before the release of her first novel) for her to process the event with a modicum of serenity” before she was able to collect herself enough to write an explosive and heart wrenching story filled with novelistic melodrama in the Washington Post. I have concluded that this completely unsupported histrionic story is filled with such passionately theatrical bullshit that is is unbelievable to me and the timing of the story, a couple of week before her new book is release, in no coincidence....but a cool and calmly planned move. There ...
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest This mom's story in The Washington Post will kick anyone in the gut.
#6. To: Gatlin (#2)
(Edited)
Call Children’s Protective Services anytime you think there is a child being abused.
Call Children’s Protective Services anytime you think there is a child being abused.
Replies to Comment # 6. You have concluded this woman ...
End Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]