Parents: Student With Autism Punished For Leaving School Grounds

HUNTINGTON STATION, NY—The parents of Michael D., an eighth grader with autism who attends Elwood Middle School, said their son was recently disciplined after he left school grounds last week following an argument with an aide.

His parents said the school suspended Michael, who's 14 years old, for five days. As a result, Michael has already missed a handful of end-of-the-year activities, including graduation rehearsal, his class picnic and yearbook signings.

"This is not a boy who has trouble reading and writing," Keri, Michael's mother, said. "This is a boy who has trouble socializing. And so what you’ve done for him, is you’ve taken away everything that he’s worked for from kindergarten to eighth grade. It’s like saying to the blind girl, ‘Well you couldn’t read the chalkboard, so we’re suspending you for five days and we’re making you wear something on your ears so you can’t hear.’ They completely isolated my son, and no one deserves that."

Michael has an individualized education plan (IEP) and behavioral intervention plan due to his propensity to remove himself from any situation where he feels unsafe. Keri said that the relaxation room that was supposed to have been a resource for Michael to go when he felt unsafe had continually been co-habited by students who bully him. So when an incident happened last week that stirred up Michael's flight instinct, he went to the place he felt he'd be safest: home.

Michael and his friends had just finished lunch and decided to spend the second half of their free period in the library, where students are allowed to use their cellphones. The lunch aide who is normally in charge of the library was out that day, so another woman was placed in charge. The aide yelled at a girl for having her phone out, Michael said. When Michael's group tried to explain that they were allowed to use their phones, the aide yelled at them for raising their voices. After a heated argument, Michael left the school.

He walked home to a confused Keri, who thought finals had started. Part of his trip included crossing a two-lane double yellow-lined road without a crossing guard. When Michael told his mom that school was still going on, she returned him.

Overall, Michael had been missing from the school for an hour and missed a period and a half after arriving to his home around 1 p.m.

Keri said the school wasn't even aware Michael had been missing until she brought him back. She said the school didn't apologize for losing her child, but informed her of Michael's punishment.

Mike, Michael's father, said that the school knew about his son's tendency to remove himself from uncomfortable situations. Michael's vulnerability is known as elopement, which is when someone with cognitive challenges or special needs wanders, runs away from or leaves a caregiving facility or environment.

Elopement is addressed in Kevin and Avonte's Law, legislation passed in 2017 with part of the intention being to help protect children with developmental disabilities, such as autism. The law gets its name from the deaths of Kevin Curtis Wills and Avonte Oquendo, two boys with autism who drowned in rivers after wandering away from supervised settings.

Jennifer Bohr-Cuevas, a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in autism and serves as Michael's therapist, said Michael's elopement is a direct result of his autism. She referred to what Michael has as an "overactive fight-or-flight response." After Michael was engaged in a conflict with an adult he was unfamiliar with and who wasn't aware of his special needs, he got very anxious, causing him to bolt from the school.

"The school’s punishment was unreasonable and severe," Bohr-Cuevas said. "He was punished for the nuances of his style of autism. Michael did not purposefully violate the school’s code of conduct. The schools need to do better training on the nuances of what are violations of the code of conduct vs. what are the manifestations of a child’s disability. Michael’s situation is an example of how they are ill-trained in that very realm."

One aspect of Kevin and Avonte's Law provides DOJ grants to nonprofits. Schools can use the grant to develop training and emergency protocols for school officials to aid vulnerable students who go missing.

Mike said his son has tried to leave the school in the past, so he feels the school should have been more aware and prepared to deal with the type of situation they faced with Michael. He's further angered by the punishment that the school doled out to his son.

"I’m just bewildered about how callous the administration is," he said. "It’s written into [Michael's] IEP that his goals for the year are socialization. And then for the principal to disregard the IEP and take away his social opportunities is shocking and cruel. It’s treating people with autism like they’re bad kids or burdensome."

According to his parents, while Michael left through a door that doesn't have a camera on it, the door was feet away from the security desk.

Keri and Mike spent the week asking if their son could attend the picnic and yearbook signings if he served his full suspension, but they said the school responded with an ultimatum: Michael could have gone to the picnic on the condition that he apologized to Dr. Christina Sapienza, the school principal, for leaving. Michael said no.

"You might as well apologize for having autism," Bohr-Cuevas said.

Keri, who is an attorney, said she doesn't want to sue, because she doesn't feel doing so would benefit her son. She doesn't want any money out of this, she just wants her son to get a proper education.

Instead, Keri is aiming to make Michael's transition to high school next school year as smooth as possible. She would like for herself, Mike, Michael and Bohr-Cuevas to meet with the Elwood John H. Glenn High School administration and all of her son's future teachers sometime in September. There, she'd like to settle on an IEP that allows quarterly meetings where the group can sit down with all of her son's teachers.

Keri said she only came forward because the entire situation scared her. She said had the school taken a different approach, she wouldn't have publicized the issue.

"It scared me that they didn’t know where my son was," she said. "If I was met with, ‘Oh, Mrs. D, I’m so sorry this happened’ then I’d say, 'Okay then, we have to talk about what we’re going to do and how we’re going to keep this school safe.' But I was met with, 'Your son has a behavior problem,' and I wanted other families to know that. If I was sitting on my couch listening to this story, I’d be in a panic right now."

The Elwood Union Free School District would not directly comment on Michael's case due to student confidentiality laws, and as such, district employees are strictly prohibited from speaking about the incident, according to a letter from Superintendent of Schools Kenneth R. Bossert to parents and guardians.

"Some of you may have seen an item on local media that focused on an incident that took place last week at Elwood Middle School involving a singular student," Bossert's letter reads. "Please know that the safety, health and welfare of every student, faculty and staff member is of paramount importance. The administration and our security team will continue to review all systems and protocols in and around our school facilities."