"I am angry with myself for getting into this debate as I would rather stay out of anything involving Ms Cornish but I feel I have to have an imput."

Thank you for your kind words.



"Firstly, the idea that mainstream schools are a life or death experience full of anarchic children is an insult to a profession that,with a few unfortunate exceptions, aims to give every child the opportunities to develop their full potential."

OK, tell that to my daughter, who watched the sixth formers pouring hot drinks down on the first formers in Tavistock College, where the teachers have walkie talkies to communicate with each other, and march the children off to cooling down rooms.

Tell that to my daughter, who, being quiet and shy was always put next to the children who were angry and aggressive.

Tell that to my friend's daughter who was thrown against a wall and half strangled by a young lad with autism, and that poor lad was probably doing that because he was in a blind rage brought on by fear, through being in a place that may well have driven him half crazy with anxiety...but no-one ever thinks of it that way!

Tell that to my son, who had the same thing happen to him, leaving huge red marks on his neck.

Tell that to Ben, who, at 10 years old, as stated above, wanted to throw himself off his windowsill, because school was such a catalogue of utter horrors for him, with his autism, where he was bullied half senseless!

"Any child with a special learning need will be given support and intervention to enable them to access the curriculum and develop. Children at the lower end of the autistic SPECTRUM can and do cope very well in mainstream schools often with IEPs and additional support."

Crap!


Tell it to Kim, Ben's highly intelligent mother, who, after taking Ben out of the school that didn't give a shite about him, didn't understand him and just wanted to be rid of him and his 'problems', spent WEEKS visiting every other bloody school in the area, only to hear the same story over and again, that they didn't have the money, the staff, the help....etc..etc..but they would take him, as they had no other option but to do that, it was just that they really couldn't give her any hope that things would be any better at their school. She was left at her wits end, left all alone to 'get on with it'...

It ain't me who's living in Cloud Cuckoo land, lady, believe you me!

And I get so fucking angry with bloody know-it-alls who think that all children with autism are being so well cared for and understood, because THEY ARE NOT!   They are often just left to get on with things, and those 'things' involve other children NOT on the autism circle who haven't a clue about the condition and don't give a damn, as they are struggling to keep their own heads above water in a factory farm of THOUSANDS of children in one place.

I'm sorry, but I have personal knowledge of what goes on, and I'm afraid that exactly the opposite has happened, not just to me, but to my friends as well.

If Ben hadn't had a wealthy grandpa, he'd probably be on drugs by now, drinking and running with the other 'wild boys' the Lost Children that Society turns its back on, whilst protesting how much they do. They do pretty much bugger all actually, and families are more often that not left to bloody well get on with it...whilst society clucks its tongue saying how terrible these children are...

They don't have a bloody clue!

And I am not swearing because I have any 'condition' (before the normal ones start up) but because I'm so bloody angry that so many people STILL have their eyes wide shut, particularly within the education system itself as to how many parents are struggling, let alone how many children are struggling even more.


Mary, I'm so sorry about Hailey. I do fully appreciate that there are many children with autism who need 24/7 care, Rosie's daughter is the same, and like any child who needs constant attention, it is a huge stress for the parents.

There is a part of me that wishes that a fortune was able to be poured into trying to find the key to unlock so many of these children....but sometimes, just as you saw in the film of Amanda Baggs, so much is going on inside, in their own language...

I know that Helen Keller became locked away for a different reason, after possibly having menigitis as a very young child, I think...but Helen too was locked into a world that seemingly no-one could reach...yet someone did.

Amanda Baggs proves that the minds of many severely autistic people function as intelligently, often far MORE intelligently than many 'ordinary' people. She is happy with her life and we should respect that. Her life may not be what *we* would want, because we have known a different one, but Amanda's life belongs to her, and she has made a damn good job of it! And of course, she's been able to do that with the help of others on the autism circle, who have given us computers and brought about an entirely new way to communicate.

It is said that computers are doing for autistic people, what braille did for the blind, giving them a life, opening up the locked doors, not only to let them out, but to let us in!

We have to let go of wanting all autistic children to be 'cured' because no matter how bad they may appear to us, they are alive, living within their bodies, with their own form of happiness, right alongside the sadness too.

Watch this incredibly moving trailer about the true story of a Chinese family and their journey, not only to acceptance, but to loving the child they have been blessed with, despite the terrible, terrible days, months, years that they have had to endure.

Children of the Stars - Youtube

Children of the Stars - Website



And I believe that inside every single autistic child there is a wonderful intelligence which can be brought out with computers, a whole lotta love and hard work...and faith in the child themselves.