With Liberty And Justice For All: "Will Chuck Forget?"

..."With Liberty And Justice For All" hopes to be a guest blogger series by Autistic teen voices against catastrophic violence to their neurodivergent peers that happens when preventable bullying events are ignored and escalate. Autistic Teen Activist Henry Frost leads with this moving post. A version of this article was previously published in Ollibean. kç

Will Chuck Forget?

Chuck is terrified to go to school. He has stuttering. Others laugh when he says something.
 He has a breakdown at school.

Some boys do feel bad but have no courage to tell and stand up for him. The teacher pretends nothing is wrong.

Chuck went missing.

Questions:

Who is responsible?
What can his friends do if he is found?
What does it mean to watch and look the other way?
Will his teachers take initiative and how?
What can his family do?
Will Chuck forget?

End of  the story.

I wrote this story when I was in Austin with Soma in October 2013. It is part of a book of  stories for discussions.  Two Houses is one of the stories. There is another in Halo’s Voice.

"If you are bullied, tell someone. It is not you who should feel shame. "

--------------------------



Henry Frost

In 2012 Henry faced disability based discrimination when he was denied entry to the middle school across the street from his home. Then 12 year old Henry started “I STAND WITH HENRY” to take action against the segregation and low expectations he encountered and to empower others to stand together and demand full access to equal education in their neighborhoods. Henry’s international social media campaign garnered tens of thousands of supporters and he was allowed entry into his neighborhood school after months of negotiation. Henry went on to excel not only in General Education but it Advanced Honors and Gifted classes.He was the 2013 Recipient of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network's Award for Service to the Self-Advocacy Movement. You can find Henry @istandwithhenry on Facebook and Twitter.

Dear John (Elder Robison)

Dear John,

Remember during the efforts for the freedom of Reginald Neli Latson when I said that I was for the first time, doing something I thought I would never do; and then, I posted something you wrote and shared it on social media? When you asked what drove me to make such a statement I wrote back that our writing is entirely different as I write about the marginalized populations within the autism conversation?

I need to also say I avoid reading some of what you write because I wish to not respond emotionally to it and be hurt by your words. I occasionally forget my vows to avoid your content and read something you write. I then regret doing so. Not because it isn’t well written, but because I view the world so entirely differently from you that when you make a statement from that large platform you have, and that statement has the potential to harm people like my son by influencing the way people view him and his peers, I get angry.

Here is an example, from a blog post for Psychology Today titled “April is Autism Awareness / Acceptance Month.”  You write, “We may have gifts too, but disability remains the basis for diagnosis. Some autistic people are rendered non-speaking by their condition, and I can’t imagine who would celebrate that. Others live with significant medical complications like epilepsy. I’ve yet to meet anyone who celebrates that either.”

Crohn's patient Bethamy Townsend Celebrating her honeymoon
and  rocking a Bikini with colostomy bags credit HuffPost UK

Let’s just pause for a brief statement on living with significant medical complications. I live with Crohn’s disease and other health issues. I have survived a great deal. I celebrate being here, as does my family each day I outlast expiration dates, because I was told I would neither have children nor live to age 30.

When you write about nonspeaking autistic people, people like my son, your writing perpetuates the same ableism that people who are not autistic (and have no concept of what the experience of autism is for nonspeaking individuals) does. Have you asked a nonspeaking autistic person if they wish to celebrate? Not being able to use one’s vocal chords to produce speech does not mean not being able to think or communicate. Over and over again, human beings demonstrate neurological competence in the face of medical diagnoses that negate competence. We have examples like Jean-Dominique Bauby, who produced an entire book after waking from a coma and while being paralyzed such that only one eye functioned.  Your statement discounts the research of British neuroscientist Adrian Owen, who, to quote an article on brain activity:

“ …described a patient who showed all the clinical signs of a vegetative state but whose brain activity suggested a considerable degree of consciousness. Horrifyingly, the report implied the existence of patients in a state worse than the usual locked-in syndrome: conscious but without any means of expressing it to the outside world, not even through the batting of an eyelid. While demolishing established clinical rules, this research also carried a message of hope: brain imaging was now sensitive enough to detect the presence of a conscious mind and even to reconnect it with the outside world.“

This news is cause to celebrate. What it means is that some measure of neurological competence can now be detected by brain imaging. That means a greater population of nonspeaking people have the potential to be understood whether they speak or not. Evidence like this urges us to presume competence exists in nonspeaking people and respect them accordingly.

Martin Pistorius and wife, Joanna credit NPR

This statement you wrote ignores what autistics like Carly Fleischmann, Emma Zurcher-Long, Henry Frost, Amy Sequenzia, and nonspeaking disabled adults like Martin Pistorius stand for, and what they
say when asked about being a nonspeaking person prior to finding a means to communicate. All say that they are presumed incompetent, maltreated, and were entirely dismissed prior to being able to let the world know that their brains understood what was being said about them and what was being done to them. We have seen a brain command an exoskeleton encasing a paralyzed body to kick a soccer ball. We have heard people who learned to type and use AAC to communicate tell us that being in what medical professionals define as a vegetative state, or being a nonspeaking person, does not mean you don’t think, feel, and understand, and yet you still see no cause for people like my son to celebrate?

My son’s very survival is a miracle. He doesn’t have to prove his competence by demonstration of savant talent. Pity is not wanted or required. You don’t know him. I do. He NEVER gives up. He overcomes his fears daily and takes great personal risks to reach out and communicate with us. Nearly everyone in society doesn't feel his life is worth celebrating. That includes some autistic adults who use verbal speech. But our family feels the way our son lives his life, and his repeated demonstrations of personhood in a world that denies him competence, make him a heroic person. He is a stronger person than anyone I’ve met. I’m over 50 and have travelled extensively, so when I say anyone I mean anyone in a very large pool of human beings. I know I am not alone in being a witness to the greatness of a human spirit as it overcomes so many obstacles and shouts with all means available to be heard. I am so sorry you do not feel that is worth celebrating.

It is neither my intention nor my wish to deconstruct your entire piece. I only hope to demonstrate one of the reasons there is this canyon divide between how you and I view autistic people like my son. He doesn’t just exist. He lives in bright, live, movements and gestures that communicate his joys, sorrows, struggles and victories.

Each April we remember all we were told he could not and would not do that he has already done. We celebrate his right to personhood not qualified by a savant skill to justify it. I will continue to do so. Because he, like so many others I’ve met who are out there demonstrating their competence everyday, are worth it.

I don’t call the month of April Autism Awareness or Acceptance Month anymore. I call April the month of Mustafa and his neurotribe. I call it the month of possibility. The month of pride in obstacles overcome, and the month of the idea that autistic can be an identity without qualifiers or conditions, deserving of respect and worth celebrating.

Of course the public needs to be educated about what autism is, but that is because what we call autism continues to change and at each evolution the definition of what diverges and what that means changes with it. Of course we need help. I don’t think anyone including my son would deny that he needs accommodation and supports to access our community. He knows I am aging, I tire, and families need help too. But that doesn't mean that who he or his peers are should be denigrated or thought of as unworthy of celebration because it diverges from those autistic people who are less distinguishable from typical peers.

I will try, going forward, to read more of your words. Honestly this is the only way in which I can understand what you wish to communicate fully. In exchange, I ask that you try reading the words of nonspeaking neurodivergent people who communicate by other means. Reach out to them and use your platform and your words to help rather than expressing you see no cause to celebrate the idea that they are nonspeaking.

I think this would help us both understand one another better.  Happy Autism month, John.

Sincerely,

Kerima

Neurodivergence and Representation: Magic Maps, Musings, Farewells 1

The magical Leah Kelley blogger, speaker
educator, awesome parent of H

Leah Kelley, who blogs at 30 days of Autism, created an amazing people map for her son, H, who shows every indication of becoming a great voice for the next generation of autistic adults. She writes about it in her post Gathering At TASH and the Magic People Map. Leah has been kind enough to let me use her people map to feature some of those voices who found creative and out of the box resources to help afford the trip to Washington D.C., speak out, and participate for those they represent. Read about them while I try to gather my thoughts on various points regarding divergence in neurology and representation. I'm going on a hiatus, a sabbatical if you will, and narrowing my focus. I'm not quite sure how it will all work out. Hopefully placing this beautiful map of people cards throughout the post will help outline a path for my thoughts on where I am now and how to move on from here.

Leah's deep love and respect for her son H, her strong background and experience as a special education teacher, along with a keen understanding of what supports divergent people need to navigate public spaces, shine in the concept of these cards and made her latest great idea very much worth sharing. It is the definition of what autism parenting with love and acceptance entails.

30 Days of Autism  also hosted an excellent quick assessment of  the TASH 2014 conference from Cara, who blogs at That Crazy Crippled Chick, and you can read about that here. I actually recognized Cara from the I Am Norm Campaign's first Youth Summit! She has gone on to graduate school and outstanding activism.

My son Mu. My living example that nonspeaking
autistics deserve the same respect that the rest of
 the spectrum is fighting for

The Bad: I do want to be clear about my frustration at my  failure to bring about what was to be the most important contribution I could have made at TASH. I wrote about that on the I∩tersected blog, which you can read here and I may expand on it when I hurt about it less. My main job as a parent activist who works to be an ally is to use my parental privilege to create opportunities for disabled disability rights activists representing marginalized groups to be able to take the podium and speak on what matters to those they represent. My being there, or me being able to speak for or in place of two great activists who were Black and disabled was never the goal or the point. Had I wished to address people alone I would never have asked them to join me.
I was unable to garner the support to succeed in helping two important disabled activists afford the cost for the accommodations and supports they needed to have their voices heard at TASH 2014 in the moment when harm to disabled people of color needed to be spoken about the most. It was the latest in a series of events that marked my decision to withdraw from everything except blogging. I am now simply a blogging autism parent.

I realize now that the organizational aspects of disability rights activism as they are currently structured, are constrained by the same institutionalization of privilege, hierarchal discrimination based upon degree of disability, layers of intersecting factors which are othered by organizations lacking equal neurodivergent representation, and the racial discrimination that is polarizing our country in general. The voices of marginalized groups within disabled populations are already muted  (as defined in muted group theory by E. Ardener,  S. Ardener, C. Kramarae, and M. Orbe). Institutionalized disparities in representation and support for marginalized subgroups in disability advocacy made my task as an independent activist seeking grant funding for direct support of disabled activists who advocate for said groups impossible.

Me, retired activist, glasses perched on
on the end of the nose I inherited from
my ancestors, proud mom to
neurodivergent Mu.

These recent events, combined with what I have experienced over the past few years when trying to seek help for our son or other intersected neurodivergent individuals in need, have brought me to the point where I feel the need to step back from activism and try to work out fresh approaches to how intersected people of color can be fairly represented beyond tokenism and appropriation of content and ideas. I  also see sharp differences between how individuals in the dominant religion and those who speak for populations with high incidence disability are responded to when they reach out to our community to request assistance for themselves or others and when activists for marginalized groups request the same help and support. I therefore don't see any point in pushing against this wall of discrimination alone when such effort is unnecessary for those who fit a more acceptable intersected constellation. That privilege of limited intersectionality achieves whatever outcome they wish. I'll expand on this later as well.

I truly believe that with the exception of neurodivergent families of diverse races who conform to the dominant culture in every other way, the autism conversation will continue to be dominated by white privileged parents with the financial means to provide ample supports for the 'therapy' and education of their children. We will continue discussing what those children need and policy will be dictated by that group rather than by neurodivergent adults whose needs are underserved or heavily intersected populations who are both underserved and overshadowed by the dominant group. This is true across organizations. If someone of color is in a decision making position, that person must be from a class position that disassociates itself from those in poverty and silently allows the dominant voices to dictate autism policy, because when they have reached a place of power, they tend to forget that their true purpose is to serve their people. Instead they stay silent and do as they are told and think of their own gain. They justify this by the old myth that somehow they must accept the role of token in order to make history so that others can follow.

The Good: A chance to meet and have lunch with the next generation autistic disability rights voices was a great gift

H, son of Leah Kelley, autistic activist,
speaker, student and incredibly cool dude.

during the brief moments I was at TASH.  Henry Frost was unable to attend, but his example and presence were felt. Renee (see magic people card after Emma's  and Henry's below) invited me to lunch with her wonderful kids and H.  As we were having lunch with these amazing young people,  a great deal of self doubt and self loathing, the self directed ableism that haunted previous generations of autistics, was not there. Both speakers and typers were at peace in their own diagnoses, and this more than anything made me feel the online community may be having a direct positive influence on the new generation of tween and teen neurodivergent youth. This confidence and comfort with who they were, the relaxed way in which conversation flowed from neurology to gaming, from there to interests of the moment was uplifting and almost made my bitter disappointment with the underrepresentation of diverse voicesat the conference itself dissipate.  While we were having lunch I realized that a group of African American disabled activists were having a working lunch and discussing strategy for what was clearly their panel which would be occurring after lunch. Roughly 10 to 12 activists sat, ignoring everyone else in the retaurant. An opportunity was there to gain community involvement in their panel and simply network. It was heartbreakingly sad that their self imposed isolation was happening when we were all there, smiling and more than willing to listen had they reached out to us. But that is the state of activism now. We, activists of color, are burnt out and tired of a great deal.

Emma Zurcher-Long,  Autistic Activist,
Performer, student, advocate for non-
speaking autists who type to communicate

I recently ran across a trailer to an upcoming documentary on autism that begins at a short conversation with Temple Grandin. Because we have not reached a moment where our community has true representation in it, documentaries about autism will always have Temple Grandin in them, and will in many cases mention the movie "Rain Man" when discussing level of visible divergence. So Dr. Grandin states she is concerned about what she terms "too many smart kids, on the real fully verbal end of the spectrum, all they want to do is talk about their autism." Apparently, they spend more time discussing their autism than they do discussing their intense interests. I would say that it is a good thing that autistic youth discuss autism since their autism is part of who they are. It is quite impressive to me that young people know themselves well enough to discuss their support and accommodation needs, how their diagnoses give them advantages and challenges, and feel comfortable doing so. In fact Dr. Grandin has made a serious amount of money and gained great fame talking about her autism and writing her opinions about autism, when autism is not her area of academic specialization but is in fact part of who she is. So I was a bit surprised at her statement of great concern. If autistics start directly discussing their neurologies at such young ages, they will be able to advocate for themselves and others without self doubt or shame. That self advocacy is the goal, and a giant step towards having them direct the autism conversation and by doing so, direct their own futures. Reaching such a goal would give voice to hundreds of individuals across neurology,  rather than the present narrow field of voices limited to well intentioned autistic 67  year old Ph.D. s of animal science speaking in such a way as to obliterate the voices of those who type to communicate.

Henry Frost - Autistic Activist,
student, advocate for full inclusion, public
speaker and activist for non speaking autistics

Meeting some very confident young people at TASH left me hopeful despite my sadness for my own people. I would think Dr. Grandin would be proud of young people who self advocate about their own neurologies. Her statement also excludes very young activists who type like Henry Frost and Emma Zurcher-Long, able to communicate eloquently at such young ages with AAC support. Her insistence in seeing the future of our community only in kids on the spectrum with verbal speech when such powerhouse young typing activists are making names for themselves is not just sad. It is a very good example of hierarchy of disability by presumption of competence based upon what is visible rather than what is possible. Independent young typing activists leading their own generation are the role models for nonverbal autistic presumption of competence. Dr. Grandin speaks as if there was never a groundbreaking documentary called Wretches and Jabbers that changed the global conversation about communication and nonspeaking autism, and as if Naoki Higashida never wrote "The Reason I Jump". The reason Emma Zurcher-Long is a public speaker (note the word speaker meaning communicator - she types through most of her presentations that is her primary communication method) is because of the impact of these nonspeaking people.  Probably one of the strongest voices in our community is Amy Sequenzia who also communicates by typing. Dr. Grandin is a privileged

Amy Sequenzia, Autistic Activist and
Poet, advocate for nonspeaking autistics
users of AAC to communicate

voice in our community and she sets up an ableist hierarchy of disability, immediately feeling the need to insure that the listeners understand that she's excluding nonspeaking children when she discusses "the really smart kids". If she has this ableism, and she is speaking to audiences filled with parents hoping to learn something to help their children, what is she teaching them about my son and his peers? I have no soapbox that will equalize the reach of my voice and allow me to counter such ingrained prejudice. Her fame has given her a large platform but she is using it to segregate autistics who type or need supports to communicate from those who appear to have verbal speech and may not require supports in the classroom or have less visible expression of divergence in neurology.  I've tried to counter this attitude, with little success. I now need to step back and think of new ways to approach these kinds of tremendous obstacles within our community in addition to continuing my son's homeschooling and fighting the wars we must fight for representation of our loved ones outside it.

Renee orchestrated lunch with young autistics
as a conductor would a concert. 

I am also sprinkling this small gift to you of magic cards of people as I write, because the people in them are so dear to the autism wars for driving representation beyond acceptance and the incorrectly used "awareness" term. They give hope to our community because they lift others up rather than simply promoting their own careers in disability rights advocacy or activism. They act with the community in mind. They are refreshing voices in a sea of self serving organizations crushing those they are pledged to serve underfoot while wondering why the very members they harmed are not building community or volunteering for them any longer. I'm doing this so that should someone happen upon this post while I'm gathering thoughts and on my hiatus, they can google and find their way to the words and works of said folk, and learn from them. I want them to share my joy and marvel at strong voices in the very young and the not so young. I would like to see tweens and teens of diverse constellations on similar cards next year. The internet has strong neurodivergent poets, artists, graphic artists, singers, and authors, who are incredibly young. Others were around when Ari Ne'eman was too young to know what his future would hold. Please learn about these people, learn from them and tell them your stories so we can hear your voices and learn from one another. I hope the cards give everyone heart, make their burden's light and guide them towards the understanding that whether my voice is here or gone,  the potential for a powerful community in the neurotribes is strong,  can be united, and if united could overcome any obstacle.

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In case you missed the link in the first paragraph 30 Days of Autism can be read at (http://30daysofautism.wordpress.com/)

This is  the end of part one of a ridiculously long post divided into three parts.  Part II is next

Dear Mustafa, We Are Brothers

 "Hi brother Mustafa we are brothers . I am here...."

-Henry Frost

I read that quote, part of an emailed message to my son, and did not notice for a good while that I was crying. I sat silently thinking, "Mu will want to frame this" then the tears impaired my vision. The respect, the understanding, the extension of the hand of friendship; it just overwhelmed us. I did not expect it. Help, even moral support, is not something we ever expect.

Four years ago, when I decided to homeschool Mustafa and search for as many adults like him as I could in an attempt to understand him and help him, I didn't foresee that such a young autistic person would think or worry about what was happening to my son. We were still being told that autistics and empathy didn't mix. We were assured other autistics wouldn't understand what my son was going through enough to type those words. I didn't realize how many autistics communicated the way my son is learning to communicate. I just wasn't given any expectation that I could even speak to autistic adults directly or that they would care enough about what might happen to my son to answer.

Mu has not been himself. The assessments have saddened him. The way they spoke of him while he was right there, no matter what we did to alert, warn,  and scold them or remove him from their voices, he heard it.  Hearing the litany of his presumed deficiencies and suffering the humiliation but not being able to defend against the ableism were breaking him down. The dislike of him as a person and a student who cannot simply be taught on a canned curriculum with the half-hearted effort sufficient for the average student was apparent and it was becoming unbearable. We tried to help him weather this privately. Then suddenly, Henry wrote.

Henry understood everything Mu was going through. It made me realize autistic kids should be writing one another. This was how this great movement toward community began for autistics a generation ago. Maybe it is time for an "autistic big brothers/big sisters" writing project now. Who better to let our older kids know it will be okay? They have gone through these terrible humiliating processes and survived to live another day.

No matter what hell I think I'm going through sitting alone in an adversarial environment with at least 7 other people all talking at the same time, sometimes gaslighting, sometimes skewing what was said, other times saving up parental sentences to serve their own purposes, Mu will always have it worse. He will be eternally underrated and forever measured by how compliant he is rather than his capacity to learn.

So I am wondering if all of the autistic adults and young adults out there can help Mustafa and the younger generation by starting a safe space and posting public letters to them. Build a kind of bulletin board for autistic kids to read letters of support, solidarity, and encouragement on all those topics that need someone just like them who cares. Let them know others went through it and there is a light at the end of the avalanche of others presuming their incompetence.

That light is understanding and friendship from their brothers and sisters in neurology.

Long live the neurodivergent society of friends.

Peace.