I recently came across someone I know who was just diagnosed with Aspergers, a form of autism. I'm going to keep this person anonymous, so I'll say it's a young woman named Sue.
Sue wanted to let everyone know that it was this disorder that made her act a certain way and it wasn't her fault she did "those" things. It seemed like she finally had some answers to why she felt awkward and behaved in ways she couldn't help. I thought she was very brave and it was thoughtful of her to come forward and explain this very personal part about herself.
She also told me she was upset/mad that she got this disorder and didn't quite understand that it doesn't get passed like a cold or a flu, that it's just something you're born with. Sue also told me stories of kids at
school, even teachers mistreated her and if they knew she had Aspergers that maybe they would have been nicer. She even remembers her kindergarten teacher losing her temper on her. I thought that was very telling that she could remember being handled like this by an adult all those years ago and still becoming upset about it.
Sue called her old teachers and classmates she still had the numbers to and informed them of what her issue at school was. She said to them that she wished they could have been nicer and more understanding at the time. Some teachers responded with "I thought something was up. I'm sorry and good luck."
The responses from the teachers bothered me to no end! If you think a child could have any type of condition then it needs to be reported. My guess is that they were lazy and didn't want to do extra paper work or make an extra curriculum for one student. Or perhaps, it was the school system not wanting to dish out any extra money to invest in her individual education plan. I commend almost all teachers on their work, but someone dropped the ball here. Sue should have been diagnosed and got the help she needed in school, not years later when she's out of it and too old to receive school funding...
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