In the Province of Ontario for the last couple of decades there has been a legislature that chooses to cut taxes on the backs of society's vulnerable on one hand and parents of autistic children on the other. Parents and groups representing autistic kids & their families are doing their best to lobby government and the voting public to put more money into supports for their kids to allow respite care as needed, in-home support workers as needed, school support workers as needed, specialized schooling as needed, parental education as needed, and research to establish best practices for all that stuff (and probably more). Those efforts have effectively got nowhere--I recall hearing stats in the last few months indicating that only a small percentage of families with autistic kids get even a modicum of support.

If memory serves me, within the past year or less a parent (or parents) felt so desperate as to drop off their child somewhere--maybe social services, I don't recall those particulars--and walked away. She/they and family had endured physical harm and could not cope with their post-pubescent son's strength, nor was there any place for him to go. I don't recall if the problem was long waiting lists or simply no such facility. (All but a very few residential services for several needful populations were shut down in favour of "community placement." But the cost savings were not put into community care.

I suppose it's possible that the letter under discussion was written by
..an angry, unfiltered neighbour (as indicated by the letter), or
..an angry, desperate yet strategically-thinking parent whose many logical, fact-backed pleas for supports have long gone unanswered, or
..one or more people connected to the autism community whose many logical, fact-backed pleas for supports have long gone unanswered.

I do not hope that the writer is publicly identified. If the author is the first case, I think the probability of physical and/or stalking/harassing types of injury is pretty high. Much as I think her attitude is abominable, I don't wish her children to suffer; I expect they are already living with some dysfunction given this parent willing to write AND DELIVER so extreme a letter. If the writer is connected to the autism community, budget-slashing politicos will try to spin it to mean the autism community is somehow not deserving of sufficient funds.

I'm not an expert, I'm just sharing my sense of what has been in the news over twenty-ish years. Let me also mention that I have no good solution to propose--the number of kids on the autism spectrum is high and growing even if one subtracts those who can manage with relatively minor adaptations to available rearing and teaching methods and easily manageable behaviour issues. Multiply the rest by however much it would cost to provide decent supports (never mind research to establish best practices!) and the cost is astronomical. Just for the heck of it, why not also tally up the cost of meeting similar needs of families managing every other deeply challenging childhood affliction.

To provide the funding support needed by autistic families to keep some sanity and family function will be, I believe, crazy-expensive, making the problem extremely difficult to solve. The one great thing coming from the very foul letter is that issue is front and centre in general public conversation, and public awareness has grown by leaps and bounds.

For the record there is no one autistic in my family nor have I any children whether on the spectrum or so-called "normal".