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Yet another student has landed in trouble for having something that represents a weapon, but isn’t actually anything like a real weapon. This time it’s an autistic middle school student in South Carolina who was suspended until further notice after he brought a cartoonish drawing of a bomb he drew to school, reports local NBC affiliate WYFF. The student, 13-year-old Rhett Parham, showed his drawing to some older students at Hill Crest Middle School in Greenville. They reported it to school officials. They boy said he got the idea to draw the bomb from a video game called Bomberman Hero....

Public school officials offered a California mother $86,000 to settle complaints about the previous treatment of her autistic, mute and diabetic son , to move him to a private school and to keep her from filing any further complaints about his care. Heather Houston alleges that her 21-year-old son, David Swanson, was force-fed and discriminated against at school. She previously filed a complaint with the office of civil rights and says she plans to sue,... The unsigned settlement offer letter, obtained by ABCNews.com and dated Aug. 27, offers Houston $86,000 in exchange for waiving David's right to attend public school,...

German software development giant SAP plans to hire hundreds of people with autism by 2020. The company hopes to benefit from their unusual skillset and says it's ready for any practical challenges. Advocates hope the program could set an example for others. The Berlin IT firm Auticon contracts people with autism to work as consultants, mainly in the software industry. Autism impairs social and emotional communication, but can also be associated with extraordinary talent for analysis. Quincke facilitates a way to both utilize these strengths and integrate the workers into a professional setting. Now, German software development giant SAP has...

BOULDER, Utah – A 28-year-old autistic man from Colorado was found emaciated but alive on Thursday after living off mainly frogs and roots while wandering for at least three weeks in the remote Escalante Desert of southern Utah, authorities said. William Martin LaFever of Colorado Springs, Colo., told rescuers that in addition to the bits of food he scavenged, he drank water from the Escalante River while attempting to walk from Boulder, Utah, to Page, Ariz., a distance of approximately 90 miles or more by the route he appeared to be taking. The Garfield County Sheriff's Department estimated he had...

This dad wired his Autistic son because he was told that he was violent. The teacher and aids abuse the child and even called him a "b@stard". It makes me sick. Union teacher has tenure, aide was fired.

Back in November, the Wall Street Journal featured a prominent article with the following headline: “The Hidden Toll of Traffic Jams; Scientists Increasingly Link Vehicle Exhaust With Brain-Cell Damage, Higher Rates of Autism”. It was careful to point out that current evidence is circumstantial; no one is certain about such a connection between traffic, exhaust, brain-cell damage and autism. After all, vehicles today put out far, far less pollution than those operating decades ago, when autism rates were far, far lower. It highlighted one study published in Environmental Health Perspectives which found that children born to mothers within 1,000...

Robots from around Europe are flocking to London this week - but, thankfully, we won't need to call Doctor Who to fend off this particular onslaught. More than 20 cutting-edge robots from around Europe will be on display at the Science Museum's Robotville exhibition this week - including a robot designed to help autistic children, and a robot that can (sometimes) catch a ball. Naturally, many of the robots look like slightly spooky human beings - but other fields of robotics will be represented instead, including 'swarm' robotics, where tiny robots work together, a relatively new idea being pioneered in...

HANOVER, VA (WWBT) - NBC12 has just learned that missing eight-year-old Robert Wood, Jr. has been found alive. Sources on the scene say Wood was discovered just west of the quarry. Wood has been taken to a local hospital, but we haven't confirmed which one at this time. This is a developing story. Keep refreshing this page for the latest information.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2010) — Dogs may not only be man's best friend, they may also have a special role in the lives of children with special needs. According to a new Université de Montreal study, specifically trained service dogs can help reduce the anxiety and enhance the socialization skills of children with Autism Syndrome Disorders (ASDs).

SHANGHAI (Hollywood Reporter) - Action hero Jet Li gives a respectable turn as a terminally ill father grooming his autistic son to survive on his own in "Ocean Heaven" -- a decent, if orthodox job by Xue Xiaolu. Film Xue off-sets some of the wholesome soppiness of this genre by keeping the tone light, the story simple and steered clear of grueling ordeals. Compared with another father-son story "Together," which she co-scripted and Chen Kaige directed, it is less melodramatic and artificial. Set mostly in a marine park in Qingtao province, its interpretation of autism owes less to "Rain Man"...

Clifford Grevemberg doesn't want to go to jail. On Friday night, the lanky 18-year-old was arrested by Tybee police on a disorderly conduct charge in front of the Rock House on 16th Street. He says he was Tased twice and thrown to the ground, breaking one of his front teeth and leaving scrapes on his face and knee. But Grevemberg, who suffers from a form of autism, still wants to know what he did wrong. "I just wanted to go to sleep," the 6-foot-9-inch tall, 170-pound teenager said Saturday. "I sat down on the curb and put my head in...

May 17, 2010 Mother Charged With Murdering Autistic Boy, 11, At Airport Hotel Judith Evans A mother was charged today with murdering her autistic 11-year-old son at an airport hotel in Wales. Yvonne Freaney, 48, of Penarth, was arrested after police found her with her dead son, holding his hand, at Glen at the Sky Plaza Hotel on Saturday. Glen had last been seen alive on Thursday. Police believe that Mrs Freaney had spent the interim in the hotel room with her son’s body. South Wales Police said that Glen’s friends and family had contacted them on Saturday, concerned about...

(May 14) -- A 14-year-old autistic boy in Georgia faces felony charges of making terroristic threats after he drew a stick-figure version of himself firing a gun at his teacher. After discovering the crudely rendered drawing that Shane Finn had made on his classwork, officials at Atlanta's Ridgeview Charter School suspended the eighth-grader and decided to pursue charges against him, Fox News in Atlanta reported.

As many of you know, I'm the mom of two autistic kids. While I've been blessed that they are high-functioning, it has been and continues to be something we struggle with. It can be exhausting. The last statistics I had read about the prevelance of autism spectrum disorders placed the number at 1 in every 100 kids. That's staggering. Could you imagine the outcry from the gay community if this was AIDS we were talking about? But yet the Washington DC voices remain silent.

Mystery 'pilot' cannot tell police his origin By Petra Krischok in Berlin Last Updated: 2:17am BST 12/07/2007 German police are trying to identify a man they believe to be British, who has a detailed knowledge of military planes but cannot tell them where he comes from. Karl has been named 'the pilot' The man, who calls himself Karl, has been cared for in a nursing home. He was found in a confused state in the city of Heidelberg three days ago. Echoing the case of the "piano man" in England, Karl is known as "the pilot" to staff because of...

HAWTHORNE - Hawthorne police have launched a misconduct investigation of an officer who used a 50,000-volt stun gun on a violent autistic 12-year-old boy at one of the city's middle schools, it was reported today. Such use of electroshock weapons by police on young students is rare, but high-profile incidents have sparked fierce debate around the country over when, if ever, Tasers should be used on children. A Hawthorne police spokesman told The Los Angeles Times that the department launched its investigation in response to a complaint by the boy's parents days after the Sept. 23 incident. He said department...

An American Eagle flight taxiing to a Raleigh-Durham Airport runway was turned around Monday, but not because of a terrorist threat. The crew was kicking an autistic Cary toddler and his mother off the plane. As the American Eagle flight headed down the taxiway, two-and-a-half-year-old Jarett Farrell wasn't a happy traveler. His mother says she was doing all she could to calm the autistic boy, but got no sympathy from the flight crew. "If they just would have been a little more understanding I think that none of this would have been a problem," Mother, Janice Farrell said. But it...

JAMES CITY - James City County police officers used a Taser gun on a 24-year-old autistic Williamsburg man Thursday after police said he became unruly with employees at Wilson's Leather at the Prime Outlets-Williamsburg shopping mall. Police responded to the store on Richmond Road around 2 p.m. after employees reported that the man had become argumentative during a dispute over a returned item, according to police spokesman Mike Spearman. The man, whom Spearman called "large in stature," became combative with police and refused to leave the store. Officers incapacitated him with a single shot from the Taser, placed him under...

The mother of a 13-year-old autistic boy who was banned by a court order from attending services at a Roman Catholic church in Bertha, Minn., woke up Sunday determined to take her son to mass. But Carol Race changed her mind when Todd County Sheriff Pete Mikkelson met her at the end of her driveway Sunday and told her she would be arrested if she brought her son, Adam, into the Church of St. Joseph. Instead, Race took Adam and her four other children to mass at Christ the King Church in nearby Browerville, Minn. "It occurred to me that...

See the amazing picture by an autistic artist who drew London from memory after a single helicopter trip  This picture depicting the London skyline in fine detail was drawn after just one flight over the city and purely from memory.  Stephen Wiltshire, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, memorised the appearance and position of hundreds of London's buildings in exact scale during a helicopter ride along the Thames.  Over the next five days, the 33-year-old drew the seven-square mile panorama, including landmarks such as the Swiss Re tower, and Canary Wharf, on a 13ft curving canvas....

A Brooksville, Kentucky, family vowed Tuesday to fight for the rights of children with autism after a criminal charge was dismissed Tuesday against their six-year old autistic son. "As for our plans we plan to seek the best possible outcome for our son's future," Cathy Darnell wrote in an e-mail to WCPO-TV on behalf of her son, Nathan. "Sadly, that probably means by civil action," Darnell said in her e-mail. "We understand that may bring a more political aspect to the matter." Nathan Darnell was charged September 11 with 4th degree assault, a minor misdemeanor, for allegedly knocking a kindergarten...

Children suffering from autism pay very little attention to faces, even those of people close to them. Indeed, this characteristic can become apparent as early as the age of one, and is often used as a developmental sign of the disease. The results of a new study provide additional insight into why autistic children avoid eye contact: they perceive faces as an uncomfortable threat, even if they are familiar. Kim M. Dalton of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her colleagues studied 27 autistic teenagers who looked at pictures of faces (see image) while a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine scanned...

"Our country was captivated by an amazing story on the basketball court," the president told reporters gathered on the tarmac, his arm draped around the 17-year-old senior, with Air Force One, the presidential jet, in the background. "It's the story of a young man who found his touch on the basketball court, which in turn touched the hearts of citizens all around the country." The president joked that if his aging body would let him return to the basketball court, he'd want a lesson from McElwain. Because of his autism, McElwain didn't begin talking until he was 5 and still...

Amazing, positive story about a young man

MOUNTAIN GATE, Calif. (AP) - An autistic teenager suffered a head injury and a broken elbow in a beating by three sheriff's deputies who mistook him for a prowler, authorities say. Pierre Cowell, a 17-year-old who does not speak, had wandered from his home early Friday. A neighbor, who did not recognize him, called 911 after seeing him outside her home about 2 a.m., Capt. Tom Bosenko said Monday. The woman became alarmed when she heard the doorknob jiggling, he said. As three deputies approached the house, Cowell ran toward them and bumped one of them, Bosenko said. When Cowell...

Somewhere, in the arms of a starry winter night, a little 9-year-old boy is resting. His mind is filled with the new and wonderful, led on to things he has always wanted to see, things that were always just beyond the fence. But behind him, just on the other side of the adventure, people are searching, praying, looking for him. For out in the wonderment, beneath the stars, Logan Mitcheltree is missing. The runners and the dreamers never understand what it is that makes us fear so for them; they only know that the world is a marvelous, moving...

The search for 9-year-old Logan Mitcheltree continued Sunday in South Williams, but as of 11:30 p.m. officials had found no signs of the boy, despite hundreds of volunteers having combed every inch of the borough since he went missing Saturday. Logan, of 1195 Main St., was last seen running east at Market Street and Southern Avenue at around 5 p.m. Saturday, borough Police Chief Rexford Lowmiller said. He was wearing a long-sleeved gray shirt, blue jeans and brown slippers. He is 4 feet tall, weighs 55 pounds, has short, reddish-blond hair and dark brown eyes. The youth is autistic and...

For education and discussion only. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children with autism have inflammation in their brains, although it is not yet clear whether the inflammation actually causes the condition, researchers said on Monday. Tests on the brain tissue of 11 patients with autism who had died and spinal fluid from six living children with autism showed the activation of immune system responses, the team at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and the University of Milan found. "These findings reinforce the theory that immune activation in the brain is involved in autism, although it is not yet clear...

BOOKS ON HEALTH "Through the Glass Wall: Journeys into the Closed-Off Worlds of the Autistic'' by Dr. Howard Buten. Bantam Books, $23.95. "Asperger Syndrome and Your Child: A Parent's Guide'' by Dr. Michael D. Powers with Janet Poland. Quill (Harper/Collins), $14.95. At on time or another, every child experiences sadness, anger and loneliness, and displays a range of odd mannerisms. When these normal feelings are overwhelming and interfere with their daily lives, the behavior has become a disorder. Autism and Asperger's syndrome are closely related pervasive developmental disorders. Asperger's is often less severe, but both are marked, among other characteristics,...

<p>Each morning, as a Quincy mother and her severely autistic 11-year-old son waited for a school van, a neighbor walked past with a barking dog, knowing it frightened the boy and made him shriek and wet his pants, according to the attorney general's office.</p>

'Baby Hair' Study Shows Autistic Children Have Altered Response to Mercury; Reduced Excretion of Toxic Metal May Explain Autism Link 8/25/03 1:36:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk, Health Reporter Contact: Mark Blaxill of Safe Minds, 617-492-3412 CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 25 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A study published this month in the International Journal of Toxicology, the official journal of the American College of Toxicology, provides the strongest clinical evidence to date supporting the theory that mercury exposure is tied to autism. The study, co-authored by Mark Blaxill, a director of Safe Minds, suggests a biological mechanism for the hypothesis first...

<p>The incident happened late Friday at Faith Temple, a six-family church in a strip mall in north Milwaukee, Pastor David Hemphill said.</p> <p>The boy, whom Hemphill identified as Terrance Cottrell, was at the church with his mother, he said. Hemphill's brother, Ray Hemphill, and two women from the church also were present, he said.</p>