As the number of autistic students in Montgomery County swells, the district has funneled some of them into programs where the most socially vulnerable students sit in desks alongside the most emotionally disturbed.
The situation at a program at Gaithersburg High School has proved dangerous enough for some parents to pull their children out of the school system and to seek legal counsel.
According to his mother, Alec Carlson, diagnosed with high-functioning autism, started to be bullied on his first day as a ninth-grader in Gaithersburg’s bridge program. It is one of two high school programs in the district offering education in a contained setting for 150 students diagnosed as autistic or emotionally disturbed. In 10 years, Montgomery County has seen its population of autistic students skyrocket from 68 to 1,100.
Since November, Susan Carlson has been trying to home school Alec while holding down a full-time job of her own. She’s working with a lawyer to seek a private school placement for her son as allowed by federal law.
Carlson said her son was punched in the face and shoved into a girls’ restroom in his second week at the school. She said his academics plummeted and his emotional meltdowns became more severe. The final straw came when a classmate chased him outside with a hedge clipper, cutting his hair and his arm.
“No one helped him,” she said. “And no one called me.”
Many parents of autistic students say that while their children are able to remain on par academically, they are unable to deal well with threats. Emotionally disturbed students, on the other hand, can include those with a history of violence. School officials say they avoid placing children with those kinds of problems in the program, but autistic parents are not convinced.
Becky and Jeff Pedneau removed their son Jeremy, also diagnosed with high-functioning autism, from Gaithersburg’s bridge program in 2007, and have taken their case to federal court. Jeremy had stopped learning and was picked on by fellow students and teachers, they claimed.
Though denied by school officials, testimony from teachers called as witnesses in the Pedneaus’ case reveals Gaithersburg’s program employs uncertified long-term substitutes, teachers not certified in special education, and instructors with no training in autism disorders.
