I was watching the Los Angeles mid afternoon news yesterday when the anchor stated the next story had to do with a 20 year old autistic man. It turns out this guy was befriended by gang members who had known him for years in his Tustin, California neighborhood into letting them borrow his vehicle.
This vehicle was used as the getaway car during their robberies over a period of time. The guy was promised to be introduced to girls, several of them. They were not specific in what exactly this entailed, but I liked how the anchor, Dave Lopez of channel 9 KCAL first described autism to the viewer.
He explained that it is common for those with high functioning autism to get rewarded for doing things. So this was not unusual for this guy to want to do something where the reward was meeting some women. Also since those with autism are not very social this would be a way to meet members of the opposite sex.
The young man was not identified, but four of the five gang members were with two being brothers. One of these gang members is only 15 so his identity was being protected due to juvenile laws and they chose not to reveal the identity of the autistic man, which I found refreshing for a news source to do.
The reporter also mentioned how it was not uncommon for someone high functioning on the spectrum to get a license but then also be duped by people as they have problems understanding body language and social cues.
I did a google search to see if I could find this online and MSNBC picked it up with more details than the newscast presented. What they did say was that the young man stopped a police officer and explained about the times out in his vehicle with the gang members. This process took two weeks to get the whole story out and get search warrants where the stolen property was seized.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15155397/
This is frightening to me as the parent to a high functioning son who will be starting middle school in another year. I have plans to get us both cellphones. We have yet to own one so will learn together on how to use them.
I have printed out a map of the school and the lunch menus along with the breakdown of class schedules so we can prepare. I am worried because here in Los Angeles there is always activity on school campuses with african american students and latino students breaking into fights and gang members visiting campuses. I am not sure if it starts at the middle school level, but it makes me nervous to send my child to school and now to wonder about how people use and abuse those who are on the Autism Spectrum.
This is something else we as parents and professionals who work within the autism community need to teach our children. Social skills is a big aspect in teaching and role playing what types of things can happen outside the home.
Social stories by Carol Gray are good resources as well. Here is an article I wrote on social skill assessment and training:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art35498.asp
Here is a overview of a book called Incorporating social skills in the classroom:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art45634.asp
Feel free to share your thoughts on this newstory or your experiences with teaching social skills.
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Comments: 14
This sort of thing was one of my mom's biggest fears about my brother. He doesn't function enough to drive, but since he has speech problems, she thought he would have a hard time defending himself. That is why before he reached his teens, she stopped letting him play with other kids in the neighborhood. He's 25 now, he has a high school diploma, and he's a big James Bond fan.
As for the concerns about middle school, I think you're taking all the right steps to ensure his safety. However, as an African American, my experience with school violence is that class has more to do with how children behave than race. The econonically disadvantaged tend to feel a sense of hopelessness and despair, so they are more likely to act out. When I was in high school, which was 99% black, most of the kids were from well-to-do families, so even though there was still drinking, smoking, etc., violence was uncommon. Fourteen years later, things have changed some since many of those families have moved to the suburbs and a lot of the houses in that area have become rental property who can't afford to purchase a house.
I hope things go well with your son. I'm sure he'll be fine. :-)
My son would like to live in San Diego since Sea World is there, but it is so close to the border and worse than here. I do not like San Francisco, so maybe something in between.
He wants to go to the LA Zoo high school magnet though so we have to stay within the city limits to get into that.
i know. i had this problem. when i was in high school, i was "friends" with the local drug dealers, the class nerds, and the freethinkers. acquaintainces with everyone but the jocks/cheerleaders. i just didn't understand stuff. my family was understandably surprised by the people that i knew. the criminal element served more as my protection than anything else.
i didn't get into any trouble by it. and i think my friendship helped some of the people caught up in problems. no one ever asked me to aid and abet them and they all kept me separate from the bad stuff they were doing.
in this case, these people didn't do that with the aspie person. i'm glad that someone got caught without harming that aspie guy. hopefully the aspie can learn from this, at least to distinguish between the social taboo of criminal behavior and social norms.
in his image and likeness for those who truly believe. I believe your son is fully
protected. I know one thing and that is that your son has a wonderful protector
you.