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School Putting Autistic Children in Fenced Enclosure
In an attempt to deal with autistic children who "have no sense of boundaries and do not respond to staff asking them to stop," a Sydney primary school has created pens which hold the disabled children during play time. As you might expect, parents have expressed outrage that their kids are forced to stand inside a fenced enclosure that has one tree, a bench and a dirt floor. The Department of Education said in a statement: "The school is located on a busy road. Without this area, the students may leave the school grounds and could potentially be injured. Some of these children have no sense of boundaries and do not respond to staff asking them to stop. Once the school is satisfied a student will listen to directions from staff members and is also aware of playground boundaries, the child can use the playground."
The article doesn't say how big the area is. Growing up as a kid, I went to several different schools and they all had fenced playgrounds. This doesn't really seem alarming unless the fenced areas are exremely small. I would like to find out the size of this "enclosure".
This is yellow journalism and blue-faced agitation at its worst. These are special needs kids who are prone to wandering, at a school near a busy road. The fence was installed at the request of their parents. The article clearly states this (as does the summary); the coalition is complaining about it merely because it's an opportunity to cause a pernicious backlash against the school board. Frankly, they should be ashamed of themselves - it's like arguing that installing ramps at a school it singles out people in wheelchairs.
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Parents complain about child's safety. Check.
School responds by putting up fence. Check.
Parents complain about putting children in fenced areas. Check.
And thus another ouroborous was born.
Keeping them indoors wouldn't be an option? Wire fencing them is a pragmatic solution, but besides sending a really, really wrong message to the other children (and the autistic kids themselves, if they are able to reflect upon their social standing towards other people, which might not be the case) it seems very boring.
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As an Asperger adult, I find this shameful. If there's something an autistic child needs, it's other persons support and friendship. Putting these childs in fences would only
make their "integration" harder. This is what makes the diferrence between a silent, isolated autist and a "normal" person who doesn't consider his condition as a limitation. Let the autist be part of society!
Isn't this a glaring sign that these children shouldn't be in that environment at all? I have a severely autistic (ie tantrumming pre-schooler in adult's body) brother. Growing up he attended a special needs school where the whole playground was well fenced, and where there were specialist teachers. This school was government-funded, and we were lucky that such facilities were available. Often they aren't, and due to shortage of money (usual story) these kids get shoe-horned in to regular schools where they don't get the care they need (teachers are usually already way too over-burdened as it is just dealing with the regular kids).
Obviously, autistic kids who are clearly going to gain from the social environment should go to a normal school. Clearly these fenced kids aren't able to fit in. It's a really sad situation. Their families should be withdrawing them, but maybe without this school they don't have adequate support to look after them (which is sad) or just don't give a shit and don't care where they get sent (also very sad).
I don't know how they do it in Oz, but where I'm from we call that "the ground." Were the parents expecting hardwood flooring or wall-to-wall carpeting on the playground?
After having read the original article and the comments made on it, I would like to share some comments about this, coming from a perspective which probably differs from what may be 74/75ths to perhaps 149/150ths of the rest of you who are Neurotypicals (NTs). You see, I have been diagnosed with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD... God... how I hate that last word), such as those who who are being put into the enclosure. However, in my case, my childhood occurred before ASDs were widely known by teachers and doctors, and for the most part, a bright but reclusive and awkward child. It was not until I was in my 40s that I was diagnosed, at which point, I could look back at my life and see where various events, behaviours and tendencies may very likely have been the result of my being on the spectrum.
1) Nowhere was the size of this area indicated, nor sufficient details about the surroundings. If it is of a significant size, OK. But even then, it has been pointed out by folks in the area that it lacked adequate shade and was in other ways lacking when compared with another playground at the school, which was apparently featured on a pamphlet of some sort.
2) When possible, kids with ASDs, whether they are low functioning and in need of 24/7 care, or so high functioning that they generally appear normal, should be treated as much the same as NTs, doing the same activities on the same playgrounds and as much as possible in the same classes. Yes, we **may** need a bit less distraction in the classroom (no covering the walls with unnecessary maps, posters, etc.), **may** have issues with bright lights, the buzzing from the lights, etc., and **may** get upset at changes such as a substitute. We **may** also be subject to being bullied. But at the same time, we **may** act up because we may be bored with what the NTs have taken days to understand while we got it in no time flat. (And grades are not a good indicator here...) The list goes on... But all this is necessary, because by doing so, we learn to socialize as best we can, and people have a chance to learn that AS vs. NT is no different than where we were born, the color of our hair, our race or anything else.
3) If you are going to fence off an area, take advantage of the fact and fence off an area for all the kids to use, not just those diagnosed with an ASD. I know of many schools where this was done for younger kids, who NT, Aspie or Autie are prone to go running off under the right conditions (such as chasing off after a ball). Indeed, the entire playground areas at schools I attended were big enough to play baseball in, if not larger.
4) As for the "dirt floor" comment... ours were a mix of asphalt, grass and dirt covered with sand, pea gravel or wood chips, to cut down on puddles and mud while allowing a chance for the kids to work off excess energy. More recently, there has been a move to use the rubber "asphalt" which is springy and more forgiving than either the hard ground or asphalt... fewer injuries from falls. And no, this is not a fancy rich area, but rather rural Appalachia, where 90% of us fed the livestock both before and after school, and were used to seeing garbage cans in the halls to capture water from leaks in the roof.
Don't get me wrong... I am not saying all children should be treated in 100% the same way. That is one of the problems with NCLB as implemented in many schools, and perhaps symptomatic of trying to teach 30+ children in a single classroom with one teacher. If a child has a speech impediment, such as saying "ch" vs. "st" but otherwise has a large vocabulary and reads and does math several grade levels higher than their peers, you should have a speech pathologist work with the impediment and give them instruction at their advanced levels when ever possible. If, however, they have problems reading or doing math, but are otherwise doing fine, give them the extra instruction they need in those areas, and otherwise they are just like any other child. Perhaps by doing so can we reclaim what once put us on the Moon, and go beyond that to possibly fix many of the ills which we are presently suffering.
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Most of you people have a total lack of reading comprehension. That or are just cold hearted. The problem here ISN'T that the playground is fenced off! No where does it say that. No where does it imply that. Not a single aspect of it. It's that the autistic children are fenced off from everyone else. Essentially telling the normal kids that the autistic children are animals, while telling the autistic children there is something wrong with them. Having worked with special needs children of all types for years, and a good portion of that time working specifically with autistic kids of all ranges, you are dead wrong if you thing they don't know whats going on around them. I have never met one who wasn't at least partially aware of their surroundings, and there's hardly any who wouldn't realize they are being mistreated by being thrown in a cage. And a cage with nothing to actually do in it for that matter (sitting on a bench doesn't count).
The people in charge of this school should be absolutely ashamed of themselves, and honestly don't deserve a job dealing with children. The fact that this is being defended is simply despicable and shows how poorly regarded disabled people are in this country.
Putting a dangerous kid in a pen isn't uncommon.
I've worked with high-function autistic, Asperger's, and ADHD students. In almost all the schools (all of them small), there's a "quiet room": a locked, padded room in case a student goes into a flailing tantrum. Ya, it happens. Ya, it's really quite dangerous for the other children and staff around the angry child. So, if they feel like that's the last resort, they go into the quiet room and chill out.
At first I was inclined to comment on my old elementary school, which had a huge (fenced-in) playground, and how after I paid the school a visit a few decades later, the playground had been reduced to a tenth (no joke!) of the size. The rest of the field left to grow out of control, and the jungle-gyms of yore long gone. However, one thing I think bears pointing out; We have almost eliminated all forms of natural selection in our world, and we're suffering from it, people. Sometimes you have to just let the problems solve themselves...
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Isn't it an issue anyway that the (unenclosed) school playground is next to a busy road?
Finally: some educators who have sound views upon how to educate our progeniture !
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