UK - 11 year old Austitic Boy wins landmark legal battle

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Hi Everyone,

Just saw this news article and I thought I share it with everyone on here so please read by clickong on the link below:

Daily Mail - Autistic boy, 11, banned from Boy Scout wins landmark legal battle

Regards

Data001

This is wonderful news. Hopefully others can look at this, recognise the vile stigma, and rationalise it away, to finally understand that we're not a pack of violent people.

I wish I wouldn't have read the comments on the story, and I sure hope Boy Scouts of America wouldn't tolerate this.

As a general rule, Boy Scouts of America has been an excellent organization for ASD kids. My son was incredibly drawn to the structure of it and the clearly defined steps towards success, plus being in the woods has always been his calm place. He loves the BSA and the BSA loves him back; I couldn't be happier about the experience he has had. He is an Eagle Scout, a member of the Order of the Arrow (an type of honor society), has traveled to the scout reservation in New Mexico and spent a week horse camping, attended National Jamboree (he didn't go the first year he was eligible because of worry about the sensory issues - it is a super crowded event - but he did go to the most recent one at age 16 and just after getting his Eagle), works as a teacher at cub camp in the summer, and more. He really comes alive around his scouting friends, and has made really useful contacts.

While some local units do differ (they are all run by volunteers, after all), the organization in the US has, overall, really embraced the ASD population and many unit leaders go to great lengths to know how to deal with the issues related to autism. If a child joins a troop that does not know how to make a place for them, I would say keep looking; it shouldn't be too difficult to find a different troop that would be great for the child.

That is my impression of our little corner of the country, anyway.

PS - our recent group of new 11 year olds did include one child who seems to really lack the skills needed for the volunteer leaders to feel safe managing him. I have no idea if he is special needs; it wouldn't be my place to ask. BUT the troop has found an effective and simple solution: they asked his father to go with him to summer camp. I volunteered one day with the boy and his father and there is no doubt the father knew the child was a handful, but the rest of us working that day spent a lot of time making sure the child was able to have a meaningful experience, and telling the father to stop apologizing to us about it; different kids have different skills and mature at different levels. You want to embrace all the kids. Scouting can help them so much. It is just a shame that some volunteers don't know how to do it.

To be fair, the title of the article is misleading. Reading down, it seems that was the decision of one troop. The boy was accepted in a different troop, although I couldn't tell how all the timing played out. Not to say I agree with the decision of the one troop - I do not - but it doesn't seem like the child was actually banned.

I will add that these decisions are more complicated than they may seem to someone not involved in scouts. These young boys take on a LOT of responsibility, handling knives, fires, cooking, shooting, overnights in areas with bears, and more. When my son teaches at cub camp, they sometimes have kids who will just wander off into the woods, where they could easily get lost - or fall over a cliff. The program is designed to be very ordered and rule oriented but boy led. Those enforcing it all are usually just volunteers - or, in the case of cub camp, paid teenagers with limited training in handling kids. It actually always scared me to death to think of the experiences my son was having, knowing how irresponsible he could be at home. And kids in his troop have done many dumb and scary things. The philosophy is to let them try things and learn from the attempt. How my son can have successfully confronted and warded off a bear when he was still in a phase where he could barely remember what he was supposed to do each day is something I will never understand. I am glad the leaders can handle it because there is no way I could.

Good for him!

I wouldn't say it's misleading, those are more or less the same thing. They both fall under the umbrella of discrimination based on unsubstantiated vile stigmas. Not allowed to go because of stigma, still discrimination. Allowed to go, but then banned later on because of stigma, still discrimination. You could also take it as being in the cubs for years without a problem, then being banned from continuing into the scouts. The headline itself also needs to be short, discrimination is quite long, so is disbarred, but ban or banned is pretty good, and easily understood.

Same. Some of those comments are disgusting.

But "banned" implies a thorough and researched action by the Boy Scout organization, as a whole, not the decision of a few volunteers. There is a large difference between the thoughts and decisions of a few volunteers, and the thoughts and decisions of an entire national organization. The national organization did not create or condom the discrimination, from what I can tell.

Do you mean "condemn" or "condone"? lol

Ah, the old, one-bad-apple thing.

I know that the scouts in the Americas are notorious for their discrimination when it comes to peoples religiosity and orientation. The UK, it appears he was following safety guide lines, but with bigotry and stigmas of course. These vile stigmas, it's something that reaches beyond just the scouts. Many are fearful of AS people doing something violent to "normal people" when out in public for example.