3 charged with hate crime after video shows bullying of autistic teen

[Stuxnet]

I'm sure this is just a result of centuries of oppression and the poverty they live in. Not to mention gangs and drugs.

lolwhut?!

 

[lxskllr]

Aren't people with Asperger's highly functioning. It's more a social disorder than it is a cognitive one.

Yea. I imagine the way manifests itself varies widely. Some are just weird, and others are geniuses. Some are weird geniuses :^D

 

[SirStev0]

Aren't people with Asperger's highly functioning. It's more a social disorder than it is a cognitive one.

Your question is a hard one to answer.
Asperger's patients are pathologic in social situations. Imagine having the inability to distinguish any emotion in people you are interacting with and not being able to pick up on any of the subtleties of human language. Every person they interact with is like a blank slate that gives no feedback as to the acceptability of their actions and interactions. It causes anxiety and paranoia and makes connections absurdly difficult, especially with peers.
It is highly functioning in the sense that individuals are able to "overcome" it to work and function in very complex and respectable fields, however, it is usually with little social interactions or being a complete social pariah.

 

[Jaskalas]

"He could have gotten hit by a car and lost his life, and these boys they don't understand this," said Appel's mother, Teresa Appel.

Of course they understand it, they want undesirables removed from their sight. Some folks truly underestimate evil.

 

[Stuxnet]

Your question is a hard one to answer.
Asperger's patients are pathologic in social situations. Imagine having the inability to distinguish any emotion in people you are interacting with and not being able to pick up on any of the subtleties of human language. Every person they interact with is like a blank slate that gives no feedback as to the acceptability of their actions and interactions. It causes anxiety and paranoia and makes connections absurdly difficult, especially with peers.
It is highly functioning in the sense that individuals are able to "overcome" it to work and function in very complex and respectable fields, however, it is usually with little social interactions or being a complete social pariah.

My son, now 9, has Asperger Syndrome (has been evaluated/tested and diagnosed). He actually craves social interaction but has an incredibly difficult time discerning acceptance from rejection. Making matters worse, his IQ is off the charts so he thinks and expresses himself at a level that makes him look like an alien to his peers. He reads math books (he's learning Calculus on his own right now) and is engulfed in the probabilities of poker (math and money, his two favorite subjects). On one hand we just love sitting back and watching his mind work, but he can't relate to his peers and they can't relate to him. As he gets older, he's making fewer positive assumptions ("they probably like me...") and making more negative assumptions ("... except experience has shown they probably don't"), so he's growing lonely. It's gutwrenching at times.

 

[SirStev0]

Of course they understand it, they want undesirables removed from their sight. Some folks truly underestimate evil.

Come on now, that is a little much. This is clearly a case of dick head conduct personality disorder kids fucking with the wierdo. It is wrong and malicious but pure evil? a little hyperbole.

 

[highland145]

Our society feels, and I agree, that some of the reasons are worse than others. We see a difference between beating someone up because they flipped you off and called you a name vs. beating someone up because they have a disability.

This I agree with but they were charged with a hate crime because they called him a cracker while doing it.

Hell, just charge they with felony endangerment or similar.

 

[Broheim]

Aren't people with Asperger's highly functioning. It's more a social disorder than it is a cognitive one.

sort of... I study CS and about half my class has it (hyperbole, but seriously what is it with CS and people with asperberger's), they can do the work but they lack basic social skills, then again that describes 90% of the class... sigh, if I didn't like programming so much I would change major.

 

[lxskllr]

As he gets older, he's making fewer positive assumptions ("they probably like me...") and making more negative assumptions ("... except experience has shown they probably don't"), so he's growing lonely. It's gutwrenching at times.

Maybe you could direct him towards activities his peers would find cool. He might be weird, but if he can make video games, or hack hardware, they might try to get to know him better.

 

[highland145]

My son, now 9, has Asperger Syndrome (has been evaluated/tested and diagnosed). He actually craves social interaction but has an incredibly difficult time discerning acceptance from rejection. Making matters worse, his IQ is off the charts so he thinks and expresses himself at a level that makes him look like an alien to his peers. He reads math books (he's learning Calculus on his own right now) and is engulfed in the probabilities of poker (math and money, his two favorite subjects). On one hand we just love sitting back and watching his mind work, but he can't relate to his peers and they can't relate to him. As he gets older, he's making fewer positive assumptions ("they probably like me...") and making more negative assumptions ("... except experience has shown they probably don't"), so he's growing lonely. It's gutwrenching at times.

and in the same post.

Best of to you and yours.

 

[highland145]

Maybe you could direct him towards activities his peers would find cool. He might be weird, but if he can make video games, or hack hardware, they might try to get to know him better.

Take their $$ playing poker.....

sort of... I study CS and about half my class has it (hyperbole, but seriously what is it with CS and people with asperberger's), they can do the work but they lack basic social skills, then again that describes 90% of the class... sigh, if I didn't like programming so much I would change major.

Texting and social networking should push this to 100% soon.

 

[SirStev0]

My son, now 9, has Asperger Syndrome (has been evaluated/tested and diagnosed). He actually craves social interaction but has an incredibly difficult time discerning acceptance from rejection. Making matters worse, his IQ is off the charts so he thinks and expresses himself at a level that makes him look like an alien to his peers. He reads math books (he's learning Calculus on his own right now) and is engulfed in the probabilities of poker (math and money, his two favorite subjects). On one hand we just love sitting back and watching his mind work, but he can't relate to his peers and they can't relate to him. As he gets older, he's making fewer positive assumptions ("they probably like me...") and making more negative assumptions ("... except experience has shown they probably don't"), so he's growing lonely. It's gutwrenching at times.

It is a rough disorder. I wish you all the best of luck. There have been a lot of people that have accomplished great things on it. I read some article a few weeks or so ago that was postulating that based on the information we have on him, Lincoln might have been Asp.

Out of interest, have you been pursuing speech therapy with your son. My understanding that it has shown significant efficacy over any other treatment modality, especially at younger ages. A lot of it centers around facial recognition of moods and emotions. I have heard very good things.

 

[child of wonder]

My son, now 9, has Asperger Syndrome (has been evaluated/tested and diagnosed). He actually craves social interaction but has an incredibly difficult time discerning acceptance from rejection. Making matters worse, his IQ is off the charts so he thinks and expresses himself at a level that makes him look like an alien to his peers. He reads math books (he's learning Calculus on his own right now) and is engulfed in the probabilities of poker (math and money, his two favorite subjects). On one hand we just love sitting back and watching his mind work, but he can't relate to his peers and they can't relate to him. As he gets older, he's making fewer positive assumptions ("they probably like me...") and making more negative assumptions ("... except experience has shown they probably don't"), so he's growing lonely. It's gutwrenching at times.

Sounds like my son. He's also 9 and is diagnosed with ADHD. We've had an evaluation done that indicates he may fall somewhere on the Autism Spectrum but it's minor.

The kid wants SO badly to have friends at school and the faculty there go out of their way to help and guide him, but he simply can't relate to most of them. He gets frustrated with the other kids because they can't understand things as easily as he can and they get frustrated with him because he's so alien to them.

It really is gutwrenching to watch.

 

[child of wonder]

Source

I'm glad these three retards got charged with a hate crime. I don't support hate crime laws, but it's nice to see the law enforced here when so often the racial aspect of black on white crime is ignored while white on black crime it is immediately brought front and center.

Thankfully these dipshits will probably be killed slinging drugs when they're 17 or something.

 

[BoberFett]

Aren't people with Asperger's highly functioning. It's more a social disorder than it is a cognitive one.

This. Getting bullied sucks, but this isn't some helpless kid rocking in a corner drooling. People with Aspergers are mostly normal people who have some social issues.

Edit: As long as people are sharing, I swear a guy I know has it and just hasn't been diagnosed. His daughter almost definitely has it, if not full on high-functioning autism, she's even more socially awkward than her dad. This guy is brilliant, he's a musician and has been in some big name local bands, he's a phenomenal bass player. He's also a very talented artist, just a natural talent for drawing. Very intelligent, knows a lot about a wide variety of topics. But socially he's just out there. He's got some serious anger issues which seem to stem from the fact that as others have mentioned, he doesn't read others responses well at all. He takes every little thing personally. Has trouble expressing his thoughts and when people try to ask for clarification about what he's trying to say he goes ballistic about how they don't understand him.

 

[Stuxnet]

Out of interest, have you been pursuing speech therapy with your son. My understanding that it has shown significant efficacy over any other treatment modality, especially at younger ages. A lot of it centers around facial recognition of moods and emotions. I have heard very good things.

We've actually been focusing on trying to get him around others who are similar. People with Aspergers are usually VERY passionate about their interests, so when you get two of them in the same room together, it's amazing to watch.

Sounds like my son. He's also 9 and is diagnosed with ADHD. We've had an evaluation done that indicates he may fall somewhere on the Autism Spectrum but it's minor.

The kid wants SO badly to have friends at school and the faculty there go out of their way to help and guide him, but he simply can't relate to most of them. He gets frustrated with the other kids because they can't understand things as easily as he can and they get frustrated with him because he's so alien to them.

It really is gutwrenching to watch.

The good news is that these children often grow into amazing and interesting adults My heart aches at times for my son, but I can't wait to see what he's going to do when he's running his own life.

 

[Pia]

My son, now 9, has Asperger Syndrome (has been evaluated/tested and diagnosed). He actually craves social interaction but has an incredibly difficult time discerning acceptance from rejection. Making matters worse, his IQ is off the charts so he thinks and expresses himself at a level that makes him look like an alien to his peers.

Going by what you wrote above, people his age are *not* his peers. His peers are people far enough in intellectual development to communicate with him. He'd probably be happier if you can get him into a context (skipping a year in school and moving to a higher class? hobbies?) where he gets to deal with much older children and/or adults who are a match for him intellectually. Normal kids would care about "being the odd one out" and want to connect with other kids their age, but most with Asperger's do not particularly care - instead, they care about whether they get to communicate about something that matters. Plus I think there's a social dynamic at work where an older person does not expect as much in the way of social skills from a younger kid as they expect from their own age group, so they are more inclined to ignore weirdness or to nudge the younger kid towards acceptable/expected behavior, instead of getting judgmental. More positive social interactions, social rule learning and positive reinforcement ends up happening. Older kids also don't feel as much threatened/challenged by an intelligent younger kid, because they have an unshakable social status and physical advantage from their higher age - they can afford to let a younger kid "win" on something.

It's a potentially very damaging expectation to place on someone that they "should" associate with others based on age.

Speaking from personal experience here. Most of my positive social interactions while growing up were with people far older than myself.

 

[0roo0roo]

hate crime is being abused at this point

 

[SlitheryDee]

Your question is a hard one to answer.
Asperger's patients are pathologic in social situations. Imagine having the inability to distinguish any emotion in people you are interacting with and not being able to pick up on any of the subtleties of human language. Every person they interact with is like a blank slate that gives no feedback as to the acceptability of their actions and interactions. It causes anxiety and paranoia and makes connections absurdly difficult, especially with peers.
It is highly functioning in the sense that individuals are able to "overcome" it to work and function in very complex and respectable fields, however, it is usually with little social interactions or being a complete social pariah.

I think I must have aspergers.

 

[CurseTheSky]

My brother has Asperger's. This story infuriates me. Kids like this need to be thrown into a group and allowed to be the butt of everyone else's joke for a while (in a therapy sense), just to see how it feels.

Assholes.

 

[PokerGuy]

The concept of "hate crime" is pointless and stupid, glad these folks got caught though and I hope they spend some time in juvi or jail to gain some perspective.

 

[Stuxnet]

Going by what you wrote above, people his age are *not* his peers. His peers are people far enough in intellectual development to communicate with him. He'd probably be happier if you can get him into a context (skipping a year in school and moving to a higher class? hobbies?) where he gets to deal with much older children and/or adults who are a match for him intellectually.

Well, by peers I mean "other 9 year olds," but yes, you're absolutely correct. After scoring in the 99th percentile of math, science, and reading on the Terra Nova test (hell yeah I'm bragging!), the school suggested he take a test designed to stratify the 99th pct'ers. He took this test (can't remember the name of it right now - my wife knows) about 8 weeks ago and we're just waiting for the results. If he did well enough on it, he'll actually spend part of the day several days per week at the local university with specialized instruction.

I'm in the process of organizing a "club" for him and kids like him where we spend some time on math/science, have pizza, then play some laser tag (basically mix it up as much as possible). There's a laser tag place by us that is amazing, and they've said they'd sponsor the club and let us meet there and get discounted games in.

 

[Hugo Drax]

My son, now 9, has Asperger Syndrome (has been evaluated/tested and diagnosed). He actually craves social interaction but has an incredibly difficult time discerning acceptance from rejection. Making matters worse, his IQ is off the charts so he thinks and expresses himself at a level that makes him look like an alien to his peers. He reads math books (he's learning Calculus on his own right now) and is engulfed in the probabilities of poker (math and money, his two favorite subjects). On one hand we just love sitting back and watching his mind work, but he can't relate to his peers and they can't relate to him. As he gets older, he's making fewer positive assumptions ("they probably like me...") and making more negative assumptions ("... except experience has shown they probably don't"), so he's growing lonely. It's gutwrenching at times.

He can probably get a job at Optiver or Tibra then move on to Rentech and make a killing. Money rolling in fast, drug dealer fast

http://youtu.be/vT8OU5WtfkQ

Teach him how to use his powers to make big money, and of course with money comes everything else.

 

[amdhunter]

Assburgers?

 

[Sephire]

I'm sure this is just a result of centuries of oppression and the poverty they live in. Not to mention gangs and drugs.