Easing His Way

In case you haven’t noticed, I do a lot of reading. I used to subscribe to newspapers and magazines. Life happened and I would get behind. Eventually the magazines would become a pile. Just looking at them made me feel guilty. I didn’t want to throw them away. I was paying for them. At some point I realized that if I am too crazy busy to read this month’s edition, how am I ever going to get to the two years worth in the pile. And are those stories even relevant at this point?

The newspapers at least got used. Each day when I make a fire in the woodstove.

At the same time I started thinking about all the paper being wasted. I’ve been working on minimizing my carbon footprint in this world. I have a ways to go mastering that goal, but hey, I do recycle. And I stopped subscribing.

Tracy gives me grief when he sees me on my phone. Again. I swear it’s not always social media. I’m reading news and magazine articles. I used to get People magazine. I know, I know. But it truly isn’t all about the entertainment world. This magazine does cover some news stories. (Although if you ever need someone on your trivia team to cover entertainment, I’m your gal.)

This past week I came upon a story on People.com about a 12 year old boy with autism that was facing felony charges for making violent statements at school. The following is the article in its entirety:

GA. Boy With Autism, 12, Gets Felony Charges for Threats at School, but Family Says He Was ‘Scripting’

"It boggles my mind," Jadon Ringland's mother tells PEOPLE

By Harriet SokmensuerAugust 06, 2021 12:48 PM

The family of a 12-year-old boy with autism who faces felony charges for repeating violent phrases from a video game says his actions are a diagnosed symptom of his disorder.

Jadon Ringland faces two felony charges of making terroristic threats after a January incident that occurred in his Hightower Trail Middle School classroom, which is for children with autism and intellectual disabilities and has one special education teacher and one paraprofessional.

According to an incident report filed by his teacher, Jadon began yelling during a science lesson, "I will burn all the teachers. I will burn this school down and all the students in this class. One by one, I will make bottles. It is easy. I will put in a glass bottle gas and a piece of cloth and burn them. I will burn you."

He was then taken to the sensory room for 20 minutes, where he allegedly told the teacher, "I sometimes like to get in trouble at school."

When asked why by the teacher, he responded, "So I get out and go home to play in my computer all day," the report states.

Jadon was initially placed on administrative suspension. It wasn't until February 5 that his family received a phone call from a court official informing them that their son was facing felony charges.

"It boggles my mind," Jadon's mother, Tovah Ringland, tells PEOPLE.

Ringland says her son was not intentionally threatening his classmates but only repeating scenes from his favorite video game, Red Dead Redemption. This behavior is a symptom of autism and is called "scripting," or echolalia.

Jadon and his 15-year-old brother play the Western adventure game together to bond. One of the weapons available to players is a "fire bottle," which the main character makes in the game.

According to Ringland, her son has a behavior intervention plan that has two primary behaviors.

"Behavior number two is exactly what he did," she says. "There's a protocol of what [his teachers] are supposed to do if that happened and they didn't follow it. Instead they called the officer."

The plan, which was shared with PEOPLE, states that the 12-year-old may cause verbal disruption in class, which includes: "loudly scripting" and "making verbal threats to kill or harm others."

"[His teachers] then have a list of what they should do and then they have an exact script of what they were supposed to say and none of that happened," Ringland says. "When I asked my son if what he said was 'real or pretend,' he said 'pretend, video game.'" 

Since the incident, Ringland has addressed the Cobb County Board of Education regarding issues with the education system.

"I'm concerned that there needs to be a measure in place to cross-check the behavior intervention plan and discipline referrals to help teachers who are struggling to follow the plan," she told the board during a July 15 meeting.

Ringland knows her family isn't the only family facing similar issues.

"Not all families have the education and resources to deal with this," she says. "We're lucky to have that — and to know the law."

Now, Jadon and his family are awaiting a competency hearing Monday that will determine the future of his case. Ringland hopes that by sharing her son's story, more training happens and the system sees change.

"This is a national issue where we're criminalizing behavior of people with intellectual disabilities. My son has intellectual disabilities and we're criminalizing his behavior," Ringland says. "That's terrifying."

In a statement to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for the Cobb County School District said: "District staff and Cobb School Police are familiar with the matter, and District policy and administrative process was followed. Further details about the student's discipline record is not publicly available. Questions about criminal charges should be directed to the Cobb County DA's office."

The district attorney's office did not immediately return PEOPLE's request for comment.

This story makes me so very sad. It could be about Travis. I remember his first grade teacher telling me that Travis said he wanted to blow up the school. Travis didn’t play violent video games when he was seven. But he did have a Crash Bandicoot PlayStation game, I think it was called Crash Team Racing. We would race with him and his character would come out of some hiding spot and blow us up from behind.

I’m sure he wasn’t thinking about actually blowing up the school.

Travis was in middle school when he would get suspended for things he said or behaviors. He also had a behavior plan as part of his IEP. I described this part of our lives in detail in earlier blogs that I wrote about going through due process with our school district. They didn’t follow the behavior plan and suspended him for behaviors that were a manifestation of his diagnosis. Schools can’t use typical discipline practices with children that don’t understand their own behaviors or the consequences of their behaviors.

I am a member of a couple of different Facebook groups for parents with children with high functioning autism. I am pleased when I hear some of the success stories parents share about programs that school districts have put into place to meet the needs of their children. I get excited about how far some school districts have come.

Then I read a story like this one.

The story was updated today. The felony charges were dismissed. The Judge and the County Assistant District Attorney signed off on the dismissal. The mom shared that the “entire process was extremely stressful and a huge waste of taxpayer money”.

I can attest to the fact that raising a child with an intellectual/developmental disability is already stressful enough. Putting this family through this process is unforgiveable.

The mom was right when she said that not all families know how to handle this type of issue with a school district, let alone have the resources. When we filed for due process, our attorney charged $250 per hour. Let me tell you, it adds up fast.

Travis doesn’t ‘script’. He doesn’t say lines from movies or video games over and over. He does, however, continue to say totally inappropriate and sometimes violent things when he gets frustrated. Which is pretty much daily.

I pray every day that he doesn’t say the wrong thing to the wrong person and get himself into some type of trouble.

The mom also said in the updated story that her son was completely unaware of his felony case.

There have been instances where I did the same thing as this mom. Protected my son from some painful incident. Especially the ones that Travis would just not understand and were out of his control.

The writer, Anne Lamott, says, “You want to protect your child from pain, and what you get instead is life, and grace; and though theologians insist that grace is freely given, the truth is that sometime you pay for it through the nose. And you can’t pay your child’s way.”

I can’t pay Travis’s way. But I can certainly ease it.

“I may look quiet and reserved. And yes, I do operate from a strong spiritual foundation. However, if you mess with my kids, I will show you 50 shades of crazy, then pray about it later.” - Author Unknown