10-22-2009, 08:17 AM
Got a call yesterday from our state vocational rehab. My oldest's son's college had asked that my son voluntarily resign from college. This happened just 2 days after his paperwork for disability benefits went into effect. Before that he'd only received ONE notice from a teacher about his behaviors.
He's autistic, a form called Asperger's Syndrome, academically he's off the charts. He was a 4.0 student, rated 1st in his class. He was studying Agricultural diesel mechanics, learning how to fix farm machinery. From day one he faced severe abuse from his fellow students that his teacher basically did nothing to stop. Sexual comments, horrible stuff, we went to the teacher and the lead teacher basically made excuses for the main student causing the problems. His car was vandalized twice, stupid stuff, still nothing was done. Went to the director of the program, still nothing was done. Went to the dean of students, he did call a meeting of the teachers, but they found NOTHING wrong, nothing.
My son is crushed, I'm crushed ( cried for nearly an hour yesterday about this), we're going today to have him withdraw from class. The college wanted him to do it over the internet.
The school states that they have a zero policy on abuse. It's not worth the paper it's written on. We're considering getting a lawyer and filing a case against the teachers, students and the college for the mental anguish my son was caused. If nothing else I'll file a complaint to the state. What I really want to do is file a sexual complaint against two of the students for their almost daily verbal sexual comments against my son. Some of the things he told me and my husband was just shocking, horrible comments. Zero tolerance.
I'm afraid that over the next day or so my son might have a nervous breakdown. It's happened twice before each time ending in needing medical intervention.
My brilliant son who has a IQ of over 160 can't find a job, now can't attend college. The problem, he has a social disorder not a physical one.
People are more accepting of a physical or retardation disability than a mental one. He can fix anything, literally anything. I don't know what we're going to do. He hates being on SSDI, he wants to work, he wants to go to college. The school says this won't go on his academic record unless he refuses to voluntarily resigns.
Pray for him, I just love him so much, Joshua is my cross to bear in this life. This was the young man who nearly died at birth, he was in NICU for nearly 3 weeks. He had menningitis at 18 months of age, it put him into a coma for 3 days, that's what caused the autism. It changed him socially, we noticed it almost right away but it left him brilliant. He was almost totally deaf until age 5 due to ear infections but when he entered school he was reading on a 5th grade level. He's battled pneumonias, lung infections, mono, asthma, mitral valve prolapse, one day he will have to have open heart surgery, sleep apnea. He spent nearly two years learning how to walk after his menningitis, to this day he still needs special shoes. Luckily our insurance now covers his shoes, they run about $600 a pair since he has size 14 feet. The state paid for his steel toed boots custom made for his college classes. Those shoes cost nearly $3000., no way I could of afforded that.
I don't know what we're going to do except continue to love and support our oldest son.
Thank you for letting me vent, it's been a long day. I just needed someone, to listen.
BB
He's autistic, a form called Asperger's Syndrome, academically he's off the charts. He was a 4.0 student, rated 1st in his class. He was studying Agricultural diesel mechanics, learning how to fix farm machinery. From day one he faced severe abuse from his fellow students that his teacher basically did nothing to stop. Sexual comments, horrible stuff, we went to the teacher and the lead teacher basically made excuses for the main student causing the problems. His car was vandalized twice, stupid stuff, still nothing was done. Went to the director of the program, still nothing was done. Went to the dean of students, he did call a meeting of the teachers, but they found NOTHING wrong, nothing.
My son is crushed, I'm crushed ( cried for nearly an hour yesterday about this), we're going today to have him withdraw from class. The college wanted him to do it over the internet.
The school states that they have a zero policy on abuse. It's not worth the paper it's written on. We're considering getting a lawyer and filing a case against the teachers, students and the college for the mental anguish my son was caused. If nothing else I'll file a complaint to the state. What I really want to do is file a sexual complaint against two of the students for their almost daily verbal sexual comments against my son. Some of the things he told me and my husband was just shocking, horrible comments. Zero tolerance.
I'm afraid that over the next day or so my son might have a nervous breakdown. It's happened twice before each time ending in needing medical intervention.
My brilliant son who has a IQ of over 160 can't find a job, now can't attend college. The problem, he has a social disorder not a physical one.
People are more accepting of a physical or retardation disability than a mental one. He can fix anything, literally anything. I don't know what we're going to do. He hates being on SSDI, he wants to work, he wants to go to college. The school says this won't go on his academic record unless he refuses to voluntarily resigns.
Pray for him, I just love him so much, Joshua is my cross to bear in this life. This was the young man who nearly died at birth, he was in NICU for nearly 3 weeks. He had menningitis at 18 months of age, it put him into a coma for 3 days, that's what caused the autism. It changed him socially, we noticed it almost right away but it left him brilliant. He was almost totally deaf until age 5 due to ear infections but when he entered school he was reading on a 5th grade level. He's battled pneumonias, lung infections, mono, asthma, mitral valve prolapse, one day he will have to have open heart surgery, sleep apnea. He spent nearly two years learning how to walk after his menningitis, to this day he still needs special shoes. Luckily our insurance now covers his shoes, they run about $600 a pair since he has size 14 feet. The state paid for his steel toed boots custom made for his college classes. Those shoes cost nearly $3000., no way I could of afforded that.
I don't know what we're going to do except continue to love and support our oldest son.
Thank you for letting me vent, it's been a long day. I just needed someone, to listen.
BB